Monotheism, or the belief in one God, has been an aspect of world religions as far back as recorded history tells. There is several possibilities for how Monotheism arose in ancient culture. One way would be to raise one of the gods of a polytheistic society so high above the rest that the others are eventually forgotten. Another would be that maybe a culture had started out as monotheistic. However monotheism started, it has made a major impact on society, but where did this idea arise.
From a Christian perspective, the best source of information on origin of monotheism is the Hebrew culture. As we know, the Hebrew culture wasn"t always consistent in there observance of worship to one God, but they were supposed to be. The Hebrews had a problem with always wanting to worship the gods of there neighbors. It is important to remember that, although the Hebrew culture may have only worshiped one God, the possibility exists that they still believed in many. In that time, the belief was that when two countries went to war, the gods of the country fought each other, and whoever had the best gods won. Well, the Hebrews may have simply believed that they just had the best one, not necessarily the only one.
Many religions over history have worshiped the sky-god. This may be the beginnings of some monotheistic ideas. The sky-god would be different from other gods, because it is one that can be seen more prominent than other types of gods. In most cultures throughout the world, sky-gods of some kind where worshiped. Some cultures even eventually stopped worshiping all the other gods, and only worshiped the sky-god. But is that truly a possible beginning of Monotheism.
In his book, Prehistoric Religion, E.O. James writes, "Under prehistoric conditions there are no indications that at any time or place, or in any cultural level, one single all supreme Deity was believed to have existed to the exclusion of all other divine beings.
