theological diddling
Is there only one god? Are all gods one god, all goddesses one goddess? what *is* a god, or "God"? Who are *our* gods? I've seen the concepts surrounding who or what we worship change and grow, evolve, over the last 25 years- those who have been around longer can probably add their experiences to this timeline. Ancestors? Heroes? Enemies? Rivals? Facets of a larger whole? Mental constructs around which stories gather? Do we have a "God-shaped hole" in our consciousness, so that we subconsciously search for something awesome to fill it? Volcanoes? Bears? Natural catastrophes? Embodiments of that unseen energy that we depend upon for survival on a daily basis: seasonal cycles and food sources, luck in hunting and childbirth? The NeoPlatonists seem to have organized everything into a hierarchy; other historical cultures may only have cast their beliefs in terms of pantheons when they began to rub shoulders with more advanced cultures that thought in that way. So is "God" a meme? I'm suggesting that "our" gods are on the ancestors-heroes-daily survival level, which may be why they don't seem so all-encompassing or horrific as the gods based upon catastrophes. Just as powerful, but in a much more immediate way. If you let Catastrophe gods run your life, you get people who can only be impressed by catastrophes.