RE: A Thousand Gods?
October 19, 2016 at 1:02 pm
(This post was last modified: October 19, 2016 at 1:08 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
@OP
Well, that's certainly one of the ways that polytheists seem to have conceptualized the capriciousness of nature...the many conflicting currents of this that or the other, and the complete and utter lack of any overriding paradigm. Why good sometimes wins out and sometimes doesn;t. Why the volcanoes sometimes rain down fire on the wicked and othertimes the virtuous. Why disease killed indiscriminantly. If there's one god, why not many, and if so..it might explain a few things here and there.
If one imagines there to be a "good" god, it's intuitive to imagine that same said good god is somehow not responsible for botflies....and monotheists today are still running with that assumption, though in place of evil gods they present the evil of man. OFC, polytheists often had a more nuanced and subtle vision of gods in any case...as flawed creatures, by our standards. Not always willing to or capable of doing the "right" thing. You see this most poigniantly in transitionary pantheons, as polytheists move to monotheism they often envision their god as great, not necessarily good, but at least, -ours-.
Well, that's certainly one of the ways that polytheists seem to have conceptualized the capriciousness of nature...the many conflicting currents of this that or the other, and the complete and utter lack of any overriding paradigm. Why good sometimes wins out and sometimes doesn;t. Why the volcanoes sometimes rain down fire on the wicked and othertimes the virtuous. Why disease killed indiscriminantly. If there's one god, why not many, and if so..it might explain a few things here and there.
If one imagines there to be a "good" god, it's intuitive to imagine that same said good god is somehow not responsible for botflies....and monotheists today are still running with that assumption, though in place of evil gods they present the evil of man. OFC, polytheists often had a more nuanced and subtle vision of gods in any case...as flawed creatures, by our standards. Not always willing to or capable of doing the "right" thing. You see this most poigniantly in transitionary pantheons, as polytheists move to monotheism they often envision their god as great, not necessarily good, but at least, -ours-.
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