Mythology to Monotheism: From Many Gods to One God: The Origins of Religion

Long before cathedrals and temples rose to the skies, humanity looked to the stars, seas, and earth to understand its place in the cosmos. What we now call religion began as mythology, stories carved into stone, whispered through generations, and born in cities like Eridu, among the first on Earth.

The Sumerians honored Nammu, the primordial sea goddess, around 2600 BCE. She was the cosmic womb, the undivided waters from which all life sprang, mother of the gods and initiator of creation. From her waters came An (Anu), the Sky Father, a distant figure of cosmic order recorded in the Fara God Lists and the Sumerian King List.

His descendants shaped the heavens. Inanna (Ishtar), goddess of love, war, and paradox, emerged around 2500 BCE, her Descent into the Underworld exploring death, rebirth, and divine vulnerability. Enlil, storm god and wielder of destiny, divided heaven and earth, bringing structure to creation. Enki (Ea), god of wisdom and water, shaped humans from clay and established civilization, his temple at Eridu marking him as architect of cosmic and human order.

As societies evolved, so did their gods. In Egypt (2400-2300 BCE), the Pyramid Texts speak of Ra, the solar bringer of light and order, and Atum, the self-created origin of all. Temples and obelisks aligned with the sun embodied divine harmony.

In the Levant, the sky father El appears in Ugaritic texts (1400-1300 BCE) as patriarch and moral ruler. Later, Baal, storm god of fertility and renewal, dominated the pantheon before Hebrew traditions recast him as a rival deity, reflecting the shift toward monotheism.

Around 1350 BCE, Egypt witnessed a bold experiment: Aten, the radiant sun disk, became the sole divine force under Akhenaten. Hymns and temples at Amarna reflect this unprecedented vision of an invisible, singular god.

In Persia, Ahura Mazda (1000-600 BCE) emerged as the embodiment of truth and light, opposed by Angra Mainyu, the spirit of chaos, introducing a moral dualism that would influence Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

By 840-800 BCE, Yahweh appears in inscriptions like the Mesha Stele as a regional deity, later exalted as the one God, lawgiver and moral judge, demanding exclusive worship and ethical life.

In India, the Upanishads (700-500 BCE) articulated Brahman, the infinite reality beneath all existence. This marked a turn inward, seeking truth through reflection rather than ritual, exploring the unity of self and cosmos.

In Roman Judea (50-70 CE), Jesus (the Christ) redefined the divine as both transcendent and personal: Abba, the compassionate Father, and Logos, the Word made flesh. His teachings of love and redemption bridged humanity and the eternal.

In 610 CE, Muhammad received the Qur’an, proclaiming Allah as the one, merciful, all-knowing God. Islamic art and calligraphy, from the Dome of the Rock to the written word itself, expressed this unity beyond form or image.

From Nammu’s sea to Allah’s light, humanity’s gods evolved from nature’s forces to moral and universal consciousness. This was not merely a religious progression, it was an evolution of awareness.

Religion sought to explain nature, yet it was nature that created us. DNA, evolution, and cosmic history reveal a different, but no less sacred, origin: we are children of stardust, molded by the Earth, guided by memory, and inspired by myth, a living bridge between the cosmos and the stories we tell.

In seeking God, we were seeking ourselves. The question “Where do we come from?” echoes not only in temples and scriptures but in our very cells. The atoms of our bodies were forged in ancient stars; life’s chemistry arose from the Earth; consciousness turned back toward the heavens that birthed it.