A degree of something is not its own opposite…

I am looking forward to more about what you don’t by about dualism!

Yes, there are many explanations for why childbirth is painful…most polytheistic pagan mythologies have one or more (not necessarily congruent ones). But, just as the pantheons and mythologies differ, so do the explanations and attitudes.

I agree with you: the ‘divine attitudes’ you describe would much better correspond to reality than monotheism would.

In addition, most monotheisms introduces the concept of dualism – something that really, really annoys me…. Either I am missing something really basic about the whole dualist mystique, or I really do understand the premise and am having a hard time understanding how come so many people are buying into it…

However, it is important to stress that the goal of Epicurus’ questions was not to contrast the idea of monotheism versus polytheism: he was an unabashed disbeliever in all ‘supernatural’. This included all forms of deities, any notion of an immortal soul, and so on. And while he could accept polytheism as (modern terms) expression of archetypes, his body of teaching leaves little doubt that he did not interpret religion literally.