Monotheism as a foundation for ethics

This article defends monotheism, understood as divine harmony, by contrasting the ethical implications with the divine conflict of many polytheisms and the atheist alternative. In divine conflict polytheism, humanity is characteristically threatened. Communities depend on a class of experts to appease the gods. This legitimates hierarchical, unequal societies. Divine harmony denies these threats and posits a supreme moral authority to whom the oppressed can appeal. Atheism excludes gods from public affairs, leaving the ruling classes as arbiters of public ethics. This recreates some of the unfortunate features of divine conflict polytheism.