A father reunited with his sons is heard:
"...crying praises to all the gods..." (p. 52)
Chapter headings include:
10. Vengeance of the Gods
11. The Gods Are Angry
16. Defiance of the Gods
20. Twilight of the Gods
Would polytheism return if civilization destroyed itself in a nuclear war but humanity survived? Some people that I have met would say that polytheism is the natural religion and will always return. In James Blish's Cities In Flight, people respond to the interstellar frontier by invoking the "gods of all stars." (See "Religion In Cities In Flight," here.)
Polytheism appeals to my imagination but not to my intellect. The gods are an important part of our imagination which is an essential part of our humanity. Thus, the gods are in us.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I can imagine people coming to believe in false gods again if civilization crashes. Absurd tho Odin, Baal, Jupiter, Cernunnos, etc., are. And I can just as easily believe Christianity surviving as well.
You say polytheism appeals to your imagination but not your intellect. I took a quick look at VAULT OF THE AGES and I saw Carl taking the opposite course, coming to disbelieve in the pagan gods and declaring he would prefer to have faith in the One God of the ancients.
Sean
Sean,
I am rereading VAULT very slowly and have not got near Carl's change of opinion. I feel at home in stories with multiple gods. It is what our ancestors believed or rather took for granted. "Belief" took a whole different meaning when Christians insisted on belief and on true belief.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm not so sure "belief" was that different for Christians and pagans. I'm sure many Egyptians of the XVIII Dynasty, say, firmly believed Amon-Ra was as REAL as Christians believe God to be.
Sean
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