Akhenaten, the first monotheist?

I am wondering,can we consider Akhenaten to be the first monotheist? It's sth i have heard off quite  a lot of times and i would like your opinion.

Sparten, the Sumerians were a polytheisitc religion.

I believe that Akhenaten is certainly one of the first montheistic traditions, but there is a certain religious category of gods, where although a pantheon does exist, multiple gods represent a single God as I have read in some theories on Hinduism. Fur further information, see this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_views_on_monotheism.

I am not sure though if Zoroastianism arose before Akhenaten's worship of Aten. Anyone know?

Strictly speaking many religions were monotheist and the various go.ds were merely attributes.

The thing about early religions was many gods but only the one heaven. In one way the place of paradise became more important than the gods themselves. Even in Roman times a common understanding was of the cosmos consisting of seven heavens. The higher you were on earth the higher up you got in this celestial order when you expired. The one communal heaven to which all could aspire had its roots in late Greek philosophical teachings and became the key feature of the Christian religion.

 

The idea of Heaven and Hell actually started in Persia under Zoroaster and proved to be an all time winner in the continuing religious battle for hearts and minds. "If God don't getcha then the devil must" has been a cry that has warned people about the error of their ways ever since. In Zoroaster's earliest version of Hell a person could redeem themselves and eventually go to heaven after suffering punishment by the Lord of Evil and his evil demons, much like the modern day version of purgatory.

 

Akhenaten is considered to be the first monotheist, simply because we have full records about him and his vain attempts to reform the Egyptian priest ridden way of life. Monotheism had been used before but never on a national scale and most of the records of those that tried it as a social experiment to control public morals are lost in time.

 

Originally posted by QueenCleopatra There has been some suggestions however that  Mycenaean and Minoan religions may have worshipped one single female diety but in may guises.

 

Many early �religions� did revere the Great Mother, but to say the Mother of Life was a �deity� is going counter the higher and more sublime understanding of a mother force as the basis for existance. For instance modern science tells about �the birth of the universe�. It is inconceivable and somewhat silly to even try to talk about a male god giving birth. The Mother took many names as part of her overall persona as the principal cause of all life. The closest we could come to their personal understanding is to say �Mother Nature� and that includes the many forces and powers of nature no matter if we consider them as good or bad.