Again this isn't a universal movement of polytheism followed by monotheism. Buddhism came out of a polytheistic society, it preached an agnostic doctrine,
seems it skipped the monotheistic stage. The Jains are an atheistic belief system, seems they too skipped the monotheistic stage.
Some polytheistic faiths have lasted & thrived into the modern societies.
It's a
tendency.
Again, this proves no inherent superiority.
I mean the fact you have a god that lives on some rock not holy places. I didn't say there aren't leftovers like in Islam there are djinn, angels etc.
Again, no proof of intellectual superiority there, as I said superstitions are not at all eliminated, just concentrated in One God. So the One God Allah sends Jibreel to dictate a book to Muhammad in a cave, Muhammad receives Revelations for 23 years, amongst them, Quran 033.053 says that guests shouldn't linger too long at Muhammad's house & not barge into his house either.
So the stories of monotheism become boring, but superstitions & absurdities remain, just concentrated in One God & His Prophets!
I disagree. Islamic tawheed is remarkably free from superstition. You need to understand that at that time there's not the means in terms of knowledge to negate god and some other beliefs. Anyone sensible would have accepted the existence of god hundreds of years ago. On the other hand ancient atheism is really pantheism - a primitive phenomenon.
Not at all, the idea that the One God of the Universe will dictate a book to a man in a Cave, which says that a woman should get half her brother's inheritance or that Jews & Christians should be taxed, the Prophet getting intermittent Revelations from the God & swooning & sweating are the heights of superstition!
No wonder majority of the Meccan pagans & Jews refused to take Muhammad seriously, first he threatened that Allah'll burn them in Hell, when that didn't work he actually smashed their idols, killed a tribe of Jews' & forcefully cleansed Saudi of other faiths, a legacy which endures to this day as no other place of worship is allowed in Saudi.
It's not at all fair to lagging state of muslim countries negate the historically progressive role of Islam and its achievements.
True, & its not fair to negate the historically regressive role of Islam on other faiths & countries either. For instance the destruction of Nalanda University, a great Centre of Buddhist learning, where students from China, Korea & other places of South East Asia came to study. It was smashed by Muslim conquerors who enquired whether it had a Quran before smashing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda_UniversityBTW, other polytheistic civilizations too have comparable, if not better achievements, the zero was invented in India, China gave the world paper, gunpowder & compass, why even Ancient Egypt gave the world calendars!
Topic: If Monotheism's an improvement over polytheism, then Atheism's the best!