2. THE CONCEPT OF MONOTHEISM

~ 26 ~ The reason that human beings have often erred in forming a true concept of God is simply that they have tried to comprehend God through analogies based on the facts of the universe as understood by them. Human beings, for instance, have sons and daughters. They, therefore, presumed God in like manner to have offspring. In this way, they proceeded to invent a whole divine family for God. Earthly kings have courtiers and intermediaries, and so God was also presumed to have attorneys to consult and delegate His powers to. In this way the whole gamut of an imaginary divine elite was invented. The many splendid and powerful objects – the sun, the stars, the rivers etc. observed to exist in the universe, were all presumed to be associates of God and to be ‘running’ the ‘empire’ jointly with Him. God’s administration of the world was thus reduced to a sort of ‘corporate business.’ It was this tendency to be influenced by outward manifestations that led to the formulation and acceptance of pantheistic philosophies. The way they were arrived at was