Yeah, this one's a day late. At least it's here.
Anyway, back to referencing Magic the Gathering. We talked in class a fair bit about the pros and cons of a monotheistic culture. The advantage is that it gives everyone a shared purpose and background, as well as giving the society a unifying force that can be used to direct a collective will, effectively making a more focused and driven culture. This is one of the more positive incarnations of White mana from Magic, which focuses on protection and order, and lives for an orderly society where everything is in accordance with the traditions and rules. Of course, you can also get the same problems that monotheism can bring: xenophobia to those who aren't of your god/culture, an easily moblized-to-war society, and a lack of new ideas for fear of upsetting the way things are.
Also, another good thing that monotheism brings to a society, other than unification, is a lower cost of temple-building: since you only have one deity to worship, you don't need the perhaps dozen or so from polytheism, so you can spend less resources on temples, and more on feeding your people.
The point about temples is a decent one, although there's also the fact that some polytheistic traditions might include gods that are more low-maintenance -- consider Professor Silliman's anecdote about the Hindu shrine consisting of an orage rock with two twigs stuck in the ground on either side.
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