In battle:
"The Dalesmen were holding - the Dalesmen stood firm - oh, thank all gods!" (p. 84)
There are times when I feel grateful but to whom or to what? Expressing thanks for the course of events is part of animizing nature. We have been selected to interact with other persons, therefore sometimes to thank them, so we interact in the same way with impersonal forces and thus the gods are born. But I still want to feel, if not grateful, then at least appropriately appreciative of aspects of actuality.
But is it appropriate to thank "all gods" during a battle? Surely some of the gods will be on the other side, whether literally or metaphorically? If I were asked to pray in public, then the only honest prayer that I would be able to offer would be as follows:
"All gods, we ask your help. But, if not, we'll do it ourselves."
That might sound disrespectful but, in fact, it is as respectful as I can make it:
first, by acknowledging that it is possible that I am mistaken to believe that no superhuman beings exist;
secondly, by affirming that we should not just pray (if we believe in praying) but should both pray and act.
The gods expect action. Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra and urges his friend, Arjuna, to act in the world, not to withdraw from it. Theists and non-theists can agree on the necessity of action.
