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Originally Posted by ratbastid
One god. Three persons. It's not polytheism. See?
I know. It's one of the tetchiest bits of Christian theology, and it requires some hand-waving.
You want to get REAL suspicious about the Christian claim of monotheism, look at the Catholic practice of venerating the saints! You can pray to them... But they're not gods. But they're there listening to and answering prayers... And they're in charge of different things... But they're not gods....
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The saints are one of those hold overs from Roman/Greek polytheism. When monotheism took hold in Rome, they simply turned their many gods into saints, under monotheism. Its as simple as that. Most of the saints arent actually people, they are Roman Gods, who were Greek Gods before that. Most Catholics I dont think realize they pray to a Roman god when they pray to a saint. I wonder if it would make them feel dirty if most knew?
One of the more puzzling aspects of Christianity. We know the whole saint hierarchy is actually Roman polytheism and nothing more, yet they keep it? Very strange.
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Originally Posted by genuinegirly
Perhaps it's a bit easier to understand if you look at the view in comparison with others...
For instance, Catholics view LDS (Mormons) as polythiestic. While it appears on the surface that they're about the same, since both use the phrase father, son, and holy spirit (ghost).
But here we see a difference...
Catholics believe they're the same being, 3 different essential roles. Some all-mighty One.
Whereas LDS you see 3 separate beings, 3 separate roles. A Father (an implied Mother), Demi-god Christ, and spiritual being Holy Ghost. 3 distinct individuals, therefore polytheistic. There's also some stuff about men/women being capable of rising to the level of godhood, which is seen by many Christian groups as blasphemous.
An aside, because of this polytheistic stance, my Mormon baptism was not valid in the eyes of the Roman Catholic leaders, which is why I had to be baptized Catholic this past Easter.
Dunno if this really helps with the debate, but it sure clarified the godhead in my mind.
Oh- about that saints thing...
You don't pray to them. You pray with them. Since they're closer to God, passed on from this world, perfect, and in heaven, they have a bit more pull with God than us sinners. So you ask them to pray with you, they make things happen. It's kind of like asking a buddy in congress to help pass the bill you wrote.
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Also, LDS gets a lot weirder... Each male gets a planet after they die, and essentially becomes God of that planet. The God of earth supposedly came about this way, so in a sense they are polytheistic but AFIAK only pay tribute to the earth god. They believe one day they will be a god. Well... females are out of luck, but the men become gods.