@dgar Right, but a little deep reading into the original texts underlying the Abrahamic faiths makes it abundantly clear that the idea of monotheism was cultivated over a long period, rather than emerged whole cloth. Many original texts underlying Judaism make it abundantly clear that "the God" originated as an amalgam of local Gods, and then "a God" that was first in a pantheon. There was a lot of politicking involved. A good book on the subject is The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. Organized religion either runs away from, or rationalizes away, these texts, but historians with an interest in religion do not.