h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well Hinduism is sort of polytheistic, except it isn't. There's one god but its sort of split up. Possibly. I think.

Anything pagan is polytheistic I believe, although none of those are really what you'd call organised religion.

Paganism isn`t a defined belief system. It`s a term basically meaning "one of them primitive religions". So it means any religion besides the mayor ones. Except for new religions cos then they are called sects.

In polytheistic religions you will often find gods representing the same things. One god for fertility, one for wars, one for making bad things happen. There are certain things which are powerful forces in every humans life, which is why you would find them in so many places. And also because some religions might be related.

But if you look at different religions, and do more than a cursory glance you will se they are very different in what they tell you to do and not do. Which is something you wouldn`t expect if they were all different names for the same god.

Hey, an echo!

I think the "different names for the same god" thing comes mainly from the way that they all seem to borrow off of each other. Like the amount of virgins that gave birth to gods and all that.

'But if you look at different religions, and do more than a cursory glance you will se they are very different in what they tell you to do and not do. Which is something you wouldn`t expect if they were all different names for the same god.'

What you do to worship, or how you are expected to behave is a different aspect of religions from the character of the deity being worshipped. Humans create their own ideas of how to please their God. It seems to me that there is more similarity between the nature of deities than there is between the way religions are practised.