Posted: Aug 17, 2014 1:31 pm
Blood wrote:"Monotheism" is a word invented in the 16th century CE, I think. It's overused. Judaism is not monotheistic; according to the original text of Deuteronomy YHWH was one of the 70 sons of El-Elyon, the idea being that El-Elyon created a god for every nation.
Where does the "original text of Deuteronomy" state anything like that? Just nowhere. You're adding bits to the text that are not there. That's not a very rational approach to evidence-based reasoning, is it?
(Also, fun how you use a rather peculiar semantic fallacy - just because the original version of Judaism sometime back in the mist of times - and in this case, an original version you seem to have made up out of thin air* - wasn't monotheistic, doesn't mean Judaism as we know it isn't monotheistic either.)
* Do get me right here - I think monotheistic Judaism did develop out of the polytheistic Israelite religion, and the transition probably is slightly after the first exile, with remants hanging around until the end of the second temple even - however, I do think we should take care that we don't make scenarios up out of thin air.