ABSTRACT
As culture became more cosmopolitan, a wider view developed: the diverse deities were increasingly seen as subjects of a supreme ruler or high god. Eventually, advanced thinkers rejected the regional gods (who had begun to appear unreliable, irrelevant, or immoral-and for whom there was, after all, no good evidence) in favor of one supreme, wise and benevolent God, the creator and law-giver of the universe.
