Are the gods are more or less immortal? Are they so much vaster than we can conceive? Or are the gods a reflection of the culture and people who worship them? Are they in some way dependent on us, or are we dependent upon them? So do they shape us or do we shape them?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard it said that when belief in a god dies, the god dies. It\u2019s something to think about. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My answer is below.<\/p>\n
Priests, philosophers, and theologians around the world have contemplated this question and others like it and have come up with countless answers, none of which can be proved right or wrong. All I can say with any certainty is what I\u2019ve experienced.<\/p>\n
I have experienced ancient gods whose formal worship ended millennia ago, and they were certainly not dead. I wouldn\u2019t say they\u2019re weaker than they were, or at least, what I experienced was far from weak. But since they have comparatively few worshippers, perhaps their influence is much less than it was during their Golden Ages.<\/p>\n
Are we dependent on the gods? Strictly speaking, humans aren\u2019t dependent on other humans, but I know few people who want to live in isolation. Likewise, much of contemporary Western society \u2013 including many who are nominally religious \u2013 live without gods. But my life is much richer with them. And it stands to reason that the reverse is also true: the gods don\u2019t need us, but their lives are fuller (and certainly more interesting) with us in them.<\/p>\n
Beyond this is speculation. Reasonable speculation, perhaps, but still more guesswork than observation or deduction. Are the gods immortal? Are they vaster than we can conceive? Are they an aspect of Ultimate Reality?<\/p>\n
Yes, and so are we. The gods just understand this better than we do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today\u2019s question on the Ethical Witches list asks about the nature of the gods. In particular: Are the gods are more or less immortal? Are they so much vaster than we can conceive? Or are the gods a reflection of the culture and people who worship them? Are they in some way dependent on us, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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