Polytheism and Monotheism

“People err in thinking that polytheism and monotheism are two species within the genus religion, variants of the same thing. That is not so at all. The gods of polytheism, in all their buzzing, boisterous confusion, were within the universe. They were subject to nature. They did not create it. They may have been stronger than human beings. They were certainly longer lived; they were immortal. But they were within the universe, and therefore in principle they could not give meaning to the universe.”

The Great Partnership, Chapter 1, 29