Monotheism / Polytheism

What does a monocle have to do with studying religion?!

Last week we learned the words monotheism and polytheism.

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Theism is the belief in the existence of god or gods. There is more than one type of theism:

• Monotheism is the specific belief in one god.
• Polytheism is the specific belief in many gods.

Some religions are monotheistic, whereas other religions are polytheistic.

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The prefixes "mono" (one) and "poly" (many) are part of various words. Some of these words can help us remember the definitions of monotheism and polytheism:

• Monocle (a single eyeglass)
• Monopoly (a single person or business that controls an entire industry)
• Monotonous (a single toned style of speech (often considered boring))
• Polygon (a many-sided shape)
• Polyglot (a person who speaks more than one language)

The famous civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome (which you may have studied in earlier grades) followed polytheistic belief systems. This year, we will study both polytheistic and monotheistic religions.