I may be missing something here as my theology is poor however, monotheism was a forced introduction to faith by the Roman Catholics whose grasp for power swept the globe. The Jewish faith did not believe in only one God until they were pressured by the oppressive church. 'Jehova' is two names in one, one being male figure, the other female. The Star of David originally two triangles. Male's pointing up, the female's pointing down.

The success of the Catholic Church was their actions of keeping earthly God's and Goddesses by changing the stories. Some of them becoming evil(Pan) and some becoming Saints.

Losing any religion or particular spirituality is not the end of the world. Losing all but one would be mortifying.

@west

What the hell all the stuff about D&D? Damn weird.

"It may seem absurd to the modern mind to indulge in the metaphysics of the godhead". Not "may", it is absurd.

Mr Sellick, it is depressing just how historically contingent your entire belief system appears to be, or at least, the belief system you wish to have "preached".

Rather than take on your "theology", perhaps you could deal with this thought experiment:

Suppose, for the sake of argument, at some future date *all* knowledge is lost, all historical, all religious, all political, all cultural, all scientific knowledge.

In this future, it is as if humanity must start again from scratch.

Given this, how do you suppose human beings might reason their way to a belief in your God-Head, that it might be possible to preach in favour of the "father, son, and holy spirit"? And if you conclude (quite reasonably!) that indeed these humans cannot reason themselves to such a position, what does that mean for this belief system you wish to have preached?

I keep wondering whch, of the twenty thousand or so gods humans have worshipped over the last 40,000 years, you are referring to. Have you really discounted 39,999 other gods? if so, we are of like mind, I simply disvelieve in one more god than you.

An interesting article, Peter, but it does raise some questions in my mind.

Are you saying that there is no spirit world? What about the angels referred to in the Bible, or the references to the legion of evil spirits cast out by Jesus? Are these things no longer to be considered ‘gospel truth’? Because if that is your position, I must say that undermining the authority of the Bible seems an odd strategy for a Christian.

You state that if Arius had his way, natural science would have been crippled. Isn’t that pure speculation? We can’t know this unless we are privy to some alternative universe where it did in fact happen. Still, maybe you’re correct and an Arian led church would have sanctioned all sorts of superstitions; like maybe a belief in the healing power of saintly body parts, or a belief that witches use evil spirits to work mischief. It’s lucky that Trinitarian theology closed the door on such nonsense!

One more thing. You refer to the modern “persecutors” of the church. I haven’t actually noticed any Christians being thrown to the lions or turned into Nero-style human torches lately. Surely it’s a trifle overstated to equate criticism and debate with persecution?

Who cares? The only spirit I believe in is rectified spirit.