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My world has basic main religions.

  • a monotheistic religion similar to current religions (christianity etc.)
  • a polytheistic religion similar to ancient greek/nordic religions
  • a nature goddess religion
  • a small minority of atheists

My world also features magic. There are 3 basic types of magic:

Wizardry: The user makes use of his "spiritual energy" to make temporary changes to reality.

Divine Magic: The user makes permanent changes to reality. This type of magic only works if the goal is in line with the creator, and therefore cannot be used selfishly. It also does not consume spiritual energy.

Nature Magic: The user makes permanent changes to reality. This type of magic consumes mana, a resource produced by nature spirits which they distribute evenly in nature. The effect is limited to the amount of mana in the area, and once the mana in the area is fully used up it has to be replenished by the nature spirits.

There are 6 different races living in my world:

Humans: Humans make up most of the population of my world. They're the race made in the image of the creator, which is why humans and their offshoot species are the only non-spiritual beings who can practice magic.

Elves: An offshoot species created by breeding humans with nature spirits.

Dwarves: Dwarves are a race that resulted from mutated humans.

Trolls: Much like the dwarves, Trolls are also a race that resulted due to mutations in the human race.

Nature spirits: The race of the nature spirits is divided into different types like pixies, dryads, nyads, and so on. They are spiritual beings, tied to the physical nature. They are rarely seen & interact very little with humans. Occasionally they interact with elves.

Angels: Angels are humans, brought back from death to serve the creator as messengers. Apart from glowing wings they also have the ability to look into the future, and have - as the only beings - access to divine magic. These gifts were given them in order to "show off" the power of the creator. Their purpose is to serve as transmitter between the creator and the other races, and they form a type of priesthood.

** seeing as the angels are more powerful then the other creatures and they are the only ones who can see into possible futures. How do I explain why monotheism hasn't completely taken over as the main religion in this world, given how powerful the angels are?**

Unlike my earlier question which does have many different types of spirits including Angels visiting Earth these Angels actively preach about their God and there have no rival spiritual creatures preaching other religions.

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  • $\begingroup$ how are angles different than nature spirits or powerful wizards. To a layman they would all look the same. Maybe they think angles are just wizard zealots. Then you have the question of why the angels god is more deserving of worship than the nature goddess, both can produce miracles. Or the old standby maybe angles are just judgemental SOB's and no one likes them. $\endgroup$ – John Dec 23 '16 at 7:20
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    $\begingroup$ I'm not sure how this differs from your previous question: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/44366/… $\endgroup$ – Separatrix Dec 23 '16 at 8:04
  • $\begingroup$ Despite the bad form in adding such a comment here, i suspect that some might take information from it — and that's all that matters. Look at the word Antitheism. Some users of the Yliakum MMO (planeshift.it) apply this to those who refuse to abide or worship any of the gods in that world, but do not necessarily outright deny or refute their existence. $\endgroup$ – can-ned_food Feb 24 '17 at 11:39
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Simple. The angels are not gods. They "claim" that they were given their power by God. So, knowing of the angels existence doesn't intrinsically mandate a belief in God.

So, if atheists distrust the angels (and they would, since angels are preaching monotheism that is antithetical to their atheism) they would just argue that the angels are spreading a lie in order to manipulate the masses. There "must" be a rational explanation for the angels' powers that don't involve the Creator (even if the atheists don't know what that is, they'll believe it is so).

Polytheists is easy, too. They will confuse the angels with gods themselves. They will think that the Creator the angels speak of is just another god, albeit the King of the Gods (like Zeus or Odin). They could even make up myths in order to insert their previous gods into the story of the angels, making the pagan gods and angels as equals.

This could be facilitated if a corrupt angel (let's call him, I dunno, Lúcifer) would abandon the angel priesthood and start spreading rumors that God doesn't exist, or using his own powers in order to be worshiped as a god himself.

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You are looking for Flat Earth Atheist (TVTropes warning). Simply said, these kind of "atheist" accept existence of this "god", but they don't accept his claim of "divinity". This means the atheists think that it is just another, albeit extremely powerful, being.

Simple argument is that if this "god" claims he created everything, then how did HE came to be?

Also, there is simply no way to prove, beyond doubt, that he is neither time-traveler, nor sufficiently powerful alien. There is always a possibility that his existence came as natural process, meaning he is not a creator, or that he is not the only powerful being in the universe, in which case he cannot say he is only god.

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Is the Creator well known being or does he only exist in the tales of angels? If the latter they atheism is easy. The angels are not angels. Or to answer this existing dilemma: We know superman is not an angel because we (the readers) know that he's an alien. What would stop people from believing he's gods messenger?

Atheists would use logics and known laws of physics to exclude magic and the only logical outcome would be advanced civilizations from outer space.

And that also work for polytheists: If there is one god how can be sure there is only one? There is THIS one we know about. So anything that could be explained by "god of.." will be explained by this argument. Angels have ability of flight from this one? So birds have from other one. Seasons change? Must be god of seasons.

And so on and so on ad finitum.

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