Comment #410165 by TheVirginian

Hinduism is a loose word that spans a number of beliefs across the eons. But I do think you are correct the shift from polytheism to monotheism was for the worse - and not just in elegance of explanation. Some Vedic texts estimated the age of the universe in billions of years. They posit a cycling rhythm to the universe, growing and collapsing. They dally with ideas of Maya, that reality may be much more spooky than the illusion that meets the eye. And that gods may exist only in the dreams of men. Likewise some of the beliefs in ancient Egypt were not correct but exhibited a remarkably supple imagination. In terms of ethics, the Egyptian book of the Dead is way more sophisticated than the puerile Ten Commandments. Christianity was backward even for its time. But it had an effective meme: blood and gore. It promised the slaves salvation (though not from slavery). Among the trodden this primitive faith festered, and like a disease, a pandemic gathered steam as Rome collapsed into economic and intellectual decline. The infestation was fully set in with burning of the pagan works at the library of Alexandria.

Interesting then where our judeochristian nation gets its values. One influence on Thomas Jefferson were the heretics of the enlightenment. But possibly even more important were the works of Cicero and Tacitus. Without a doubt it is an appreciation of these polytheistic pagans that compelled him to famously remark that it neither picks his pocket nor breaks his leg if someone believes in one god, twenty gods, or no god.