You gods

The last train wreck brought up some interesting questions for me. Is there anyone here who has a god(s) that aren't perfect and you still admire them and can learn from them? Does a god have to be perfect to be a god or a role model?

I don't think anything created by man is perfect. Well, except babies, but dammit, they grow up.

The lore if full of stories of the gods and goddesses being misled, and making mistakes. Imagine how boring it would be if they didn't?

all

I don't think that man (or me) created my gods, or the gods - I don't know if some gods are manmade. Out of my ken. My gods however are not perfect, do not insist they are and they don't have a problem with that. I don't either.

The whole god thing...it's like a tree in the forest...If no one is around to worship them do they exist? Humans assigned names, jobs, etc.

tmarie64 wrote:The whole god thing...it's like a tree in the forest...If no one is around to worship them do they exist? Humans assigned names, jobs, etc.

And we were likely wrong about their jobs, often enough.

I don't think it takes us for them to exist, and it sure doesn't take us for them to do things.

I guess I should point out that my gods aren't anthropocentric either. They have their own things to do.

all

That's something else I love, All. That so many people think that God (capitalized because Xtians are guilty of this) just waits for them all day...
Come ON, he's GOD!!! Surely he has something to do.

That isn't quite the way it is for those of us have a personal relationship with our gods, or maybe I had better just speak for myself. There are stories about my gods which can be a recounting of another persons experience with that god or another god that was misnamed. I feel the stories are interesting and add depth and teach lessons, all important things. The most important thing to me though is our interactions. It is like reading about a person as opposed to having a deep personal relationship with that person. You can't really know a person or a god until you have that deep relationship, one that might span years. When you have that, the stories about them that come from other people are less important than your intimate knowledge. Speaking for myself.

tmarie64 wrote:That's something else I love, All. That so many people think that God (capitalized because Xtians are guilty of this) just waits for them all day...
Come ON, he's GOD!!! Surely he has something to do.

If nothing else, we're boring. Seriously, what would make someone want to watch us do boring human stuff all the time. I don't even want to watch us do boring human stuff all the time.

gillyflower wrote:That isn't quite the way it is for those of us have a personal relationship with our gods, or maybe I had better just speak for myself. There are stories about my gods which can be a recounting of another persons experience with that god or another god that was misnamed. I feel the stories are interesting and add depth and teach lessons, all important things. The most important thing to me though is our interactions. It is like reading about a person as opposed to having a deep personal relationship with that person. You can't really know a person or a god until you have that deep relationship, one that might span years. When you have that, the stories about them that come from other people are less important than your intimate knowledge. Speaking for myself.

The concept I'm trying to vocalize is that each of the gods and goddesses have their own distinct personalities, and the jobs that each one of them is reported to do is probably more to help others understand the nature of that personality than them specifically being responsible for that job, but the nature of the spiritual plain of existence is going to be as fluid and changing as this one. So they likely won't be appropriate anymore.

all

Exactly! We believe everything changes and that includes the gods.

It comes down to how much the myths actually reflect the deities they are held to be speaking about.

From my own perspective, myths are myths and the gods are the gods. The myths contain those timeless truths, as well as culturally and period specific truths, which are of value to us. So when I read about the Olympians, and see it as mythic soap opera, I understand the difference between those stories and the deities they are supposed to represent. Myth is not history, neither for humans, nor for the gods. I am doubly trepidatious when it comes to the myths of the Gaels, as they were recorded (and written) by Christian scribes, with the explicit purpose of reducing the deities to magical peoples.

While it is not a perfect document, and is not from my own cultural perspective, I find that Sallust on the Gods and the World is a useful piece of polytheistic theology.

On the OP, I always admired Thor. Often outwitted, frequently tricked and balked by enemies, sometimes even humiliated, he always perserveres and wins out sometimes through power, but more often through sheer determination not to admit defeat.

Myths of gods behaving badly are often parables. They are lessons. They are not true as in "this sh*t really went down this exact way" they are truths in the sense of "learn from this, or you will end like THAT".

The role of the gods is one that holds as many layers of understanding as a mile thick onion. Our ancestors comprehended many levels that we do now, and others we have forgotten. Likewise we can see much that was not yet open to them. Those who follow us may see more still, and yet none can grasp it all.

That is pure poetry, John. Thank you.