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APPENDIX A Until recently, anthropologists have theorized that religion evolved from polytheism into monotheism. That fits in with the humanistic philosophy that man evolved from lower forms of life. Since theoretically man had no inherent knowledge of God, he invented gods incidental with his observation of nature. The prehistoric savage saw lightening strike a tree, attributed it to the gods and began to worship the lightning god. As time went on, he selected and added various gods to his religious experience. But as he grew more sophisticated, he traded in his packet of gods for a more manageable monotheistic God. The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that man was originally monotheistic. From the very first day of creation, Adam knew there was but one Creator God. The Bible says that from original monotheism, man devolved into polytheism, which the Bible consistently views as deleterious. Recent scientific evidence supports the idea of original monotheism. Anthropologists are reluctantly replacing the model of an evolving monotheism with the concept of "High God." Researchers are finding that the most primitive tribes are not polytheistic at all, but exhibit a "belief in some kind of & transcendent being in whom the nature of divinity& is unified" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1981, Vol. V, pp. 35-36; Vol. 14, p. 1042). |