During the era of the great civilizations of antiquity, the polytheistic religions considered it their sacred duty to maintain justice, order and equilibrium for all that was living: man, the animals and the plants, without which life was not possible. By contrast, with the coming of the monotheistic religions it is the worship and adoration of the unique deity and the faith in the dogmas purported to him that have an importance above all other considerations. As each monotheism believes that it is only their deity who is unique and that it is only he who is the source of all truth, the risk of conflict between those who hold a contrary view is ever present. The multiplicity of gods and the absence of dogmas had assured that religion was not a reason for conflict at the time of the polytheistic civilizations of antiquity.