Greetings once again
The concept of a singular Diety did make a brief appearance in Egypt
when the mutliple Diety workship was replaced with venerating a
singular entitiy, The Aten. When the Pharaoh that instigated that
practice died, the religious order was quickly replaced with the old
belief system.

Judiasm is the root of both Christianity and Islam. At times,
Judiasm did venerate multiple minor Gods (fertility spirits), but
they could not be venerated in the Temple in front of The God in the
main temple area. Judiasm does not have roots in the worship of The
Aten. The single Diety workship of both religions is coincidental.
The discovery of The Aten "cult" was a recent event during the 20th
Century and it is believed the Egyptians made a concerted effort to
wipe it from history.

Islam, Christianity, and Judiasm are all Monothiestic religions in
that not that they workship a single diety, but rather they believe
their religion is the only "true" path to divinity. Whether or not
the belief system venerates a single or multiple Dieties is
irrelevent. A Monothiestic religion can "tolerate" the existance of
other religions, but it is more like "I'll be nice to you, but you
know you are going to Hell in the long run".

A Polythiestic religion believes there are multiple paths to The
Divine and places equal credence on each one. A Polythiestic relgion
places equal importance to the other religious traditions as its own
and not only "plays nice" but speaks well of the others too.

While being monothiestic, I feel that both Judiasm and Islam are
both tolerant to other religions while Christianity has shown more
intolerance and a need to assimilate through conversion.

Paganism is a practice of religion that harkens back to a belief of
Earth-based spirituality that our ancestors practiced. All living
things are part of The Divine spirit. Among the current
practicioners of Pagan religions are the tribes of Africa, Central
and Southern America, and the Indigenous Americans. There are many
other religions, such as Hinduism, that are non-Christian and not
Pagan. Buddism is not a religion, but rather a disipline to come
closer in contact to The Divine.

People who are Satan worshippers are not Pagans, but rather
something else. Most people I have spoken with see Satanists as a
adverse reaction to a bed Christian dogma experience. Most Pagans do
not beleive in an all-powerful, tempting, and controlling evil
entity.

Blessings
Hal
aka ThunderChildga

--- In growinglongbeards@yahoogroups.com, "Jeremy L. Castle" <castle-
hivcns@t...> wrote:
>
> I know this is terribly off topic, but...
>
> I was under the impression that Islam, Christianity and Judaism
all share
> the same root religion.
> The 'One God' of ancient Egypt - personified "Ahten Ahken" (Sorry
for my
> poor spelling)
> They also share many fundamental concepts, for example : their
respect of
> human life.
> Although I believe - overall - the Muslim religion has
historically been
> more tolerant of other cultures and religions that Christianity,
> assimilating rather than converting.
>
> Personally, I follow a much older and more down to earth religion.
>
> BTW - Pagan ( in the western world ) is technically anything which
is not
> Christian.