There were very extended periods of time when the Gods were the heavenly bodies who directly ruled over mankind in very obvious physical ways and they still do just not as derectly as they once did at a later time they were amalgamated into one big guy. Some of the originalsthem really did rain down fire and brimstone on the sinners as well as draging the tides over thier heads during numerous floods.
I think I would have had no hesitation in praying to them nor sacrificing a goat or two just in case. It has gotten kind of silly though these days.
That's what the idolaters worshiped.
Not all people in the past were idolaters; many of them worshiped God the Creator, the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
So it is only your assertion, while in fact
God is the Eternal Creator, but many idolaters had and have misguidance, so that
some people set with God their idols or their religious men; i.e. they equalize God with some of His creatures.
But we celebrate Jesus Christus.
Here is your enthusiasm; in fact, we respect and obey Jesus Christ as he conveyed the message of God That sent him. Not more or less. In other words, we respect Jesus Christ, as do we respect the rest of prophets and messengers (apostles) of God.
Today, I spoke to people of different sects:
One has the enthusiasm about Hussein:
I said to him: Why do we love and respect Hussein?
He answered some ambiguous answer, but he wanted to know, so I said:
We love Hussein because he believed in God and obeyed Him, so if Hussein did not obey God, we would not love him.
He agreed.
Then I said to him: So the essential thing is that we love God, therefore our love to God should be more than our love to Hussein.
The young man agreed.
I said: Don't you see what enthusiasm some ignorant people are doing, so that they equalize Hussein with God.
The young man agreed.
Then I left them and greeted also the man sitting behind us who also heard and agreed.
Afterwards,
I saw a sunni young man (about 30 years of age) and I told him about the monotheism, and gave him our link:
quran-ayat.com and he wrote the name of the interpreter on the palm of his hand (he had no paper at the time.)
So I was glad and optimistic that there will be, if God please, the convincing and belief among the general public, and all that is only by God's favor.