Monotheism and polytheism are two different religions. Monotheism is the belief in one god. Polytheism is the belief in multiple gods. Morality plays a role in all religions. The idea behind morality can and does exist within both these belief systems. Without the idea of morality, the world could plunge into chaos and no ethics would exist. However, polytheistic religions tend to fall behind in the morality to monotheistic religions. Morality within polytheism is somewhat inconsistent, whereas in monotheism, morality is more likely to be followed through with.
Morality and ethics are extremely related. Ethics is the study on the questions behind morality. Morality is the philosophy of what is right and wrong. Different cultures create different moral barriers for themselves. Being that monotheism and polytheism are two completely different ideologies, it only makes sense for them to have different ideas about morality.
Monotheism is the belief in one god. If a mass group of people believe in something singular, it’s more likely for all of them to have similar morality and ethic beliefs. This can make the entire society lean together toward to better morals. Monotheistic believers believe that the one god they believe in is to judge them so they all stay in place.
Polytheism is the belief in multiple gods. This form of religion creates more variety of ideas and beliefs. People can lean toward different ideologies and believe in different morals. Because of the variety of gods in polytheism and different ideas of morals and ethics, it can lead to an inconsistent idea of morality. Believers create their own form of rules to live by.
Early Hebrews believed in multiple gods but then turned monotheistic. They started focusing in on the God ‘Yahweh’. Yahweh demands ethical behavior from his followers according. Pg 53. This led the Hebrews to change morally for their god.