What is at issue here is the existence of belief, not whether one believes or does not believe in god. It is the holding of beliefs that causes problems. One god, many gods, no god: all beliefs create strife. All believers are prone to violence. Including the believers in the shibboleths of modernity: such as equality, liberty, fraternity.
At another level, so far as the pantheism/ monotheism debate is concerned, the Abrahamic view is clearly that one god is better than many. It is also a fact that it is the one god believers who have brought this world to such a parlous pass. On the other hand, the many god believers display a far greater sense of harmony with their enviromnment. I think the reason for this is that the switch to a belief in one god is accompanied by the simultaneous introduction of a belief in the absolute supremacy of human beings; i.e. people start believing that this "one" all powerful, god has "created" the "world" for human beings. (Even many god-ders believe in the "superiority" of the human "yoni" but it seems to me there is a qualitative difference between the two - respective - notions of superiority.) It is as if in the process of alienating themselves from the millions of gods people that they used to believe in people also sever their connections with the millions of other life forms, animate and inanimate, that go to make up this world. In other words, from being a part of "creation" people become the (ultimate) object of creation. God (with a capital g) becomes exclusively devoted to the welfare of human beings. Human life becomes invested with "special meaning. Naturally, the rest of the world immediately recedes into the background; becomes "resource" to be "exploited" for the "good" of humanity. The result is the unprecedented devastation that threatens to destroy human life on earth. I think there is something seriously perverted in this world view, which a belief in one god seems very prone to engendering. I should not be misunderstood (or misinterpreted) as suggesting that the many gods world is/ was Ram Rajya and the one god world is Kali Yog. No such thing. As I mentioned earlier on, the point here is only that the 'one god' view seems to generate an imbalance, making world views very human centric. Human nature remains what it is irrespective of one. god. many gods, no god. Ashok Agrwaal
