Let us presume that the supernatural really is out there. If you are religious you have already made that presumption. More specifically let us presume that gods are real. What is a god really, other than a powerful timeless entity?
So we have one or more gods in each pantheon. They are either organized, somewhat organized, or not organized. They are either for order, chaos, or something in between. They are either moral entities, or they are not. They have their own goals that either involve us or they don't. They either are in the enlightenment business or they aren't. They either have something to say about our afterlife, or they don't. They either care about humans, care somewhat, or don't care at all.
The Sumerian pantheon is highly organized. It has highly structured systems for getting things done. It has comities and weighted votes to make decisions. When a decision is made it is passed on to the proper gods who have a team of other spirits who support them in carrying out the will determined by the gods. Even the demons, when acting in their own interests, act in organized teams.
We can think of the Sumerian pantheon as one extreme end on the organization spectrum. At the other end you have pantheons such as the Aztec pantheon. For the Aztec gods equivalent forces are constantly sparring and butting heads. Even there though we have some demon like spirits serving specific gods predictably.
In the middle you have the majority of pantheons. Greek, Canaanite, and Norse pantheons for example are more like clans. They are organized, but they don't make organization a goal unto itself. They fight internally, but they do not do so to the point where internal conflicts are the driving force of the religion.
The Christian and Zoroastrian pantheons land a little right of center. They have a good god and an evil god. Each has a host of demons that have ranks but tend not to act together in organized teams. You hear of hosts of angels, or legions of demons. You don't hear about the inner ranking systems within these armies.
Organization brings up the question of order and chaos. For the Sumerian pantheon the Order is the religion that the gods themselves follow. It is an unstoppable force that can not do anything but expand. To these ends humans are the perfect tools. We love civilization. We organize things as we come across them. We occasionally cause chaos in the process, but even that process is organized.
The Sumerian pantheon does not fight against chaos. It simply shoves it aside as inconsequential. Nature isn't the enemy, it is simply something that has yet to be organized.
The Egyptian pantheon has another take on order. The pantheon is constantly fighting on the side of order against chaos. Their idea of order, Maat, is different than the Sumerian Order with a capital “O”. The Egyptian order has a lot more to do with stability than it does organization. The Egyptian gods do not simply displace disorder, but actively fight it.
At the other end of the spectrum you have some new age faiths. Some can loosely be categorized as Wiccan, but they are hard to define. It is often hard to pigeonhole them as an organized religion. They abhor much of the structured approach of most religions. They tend towards working with gods rather than worshiping them, and the spirits that they deal with are often not organized into a pantheon. Rather they are more of a mob of supernatural entities.
There is also something of a religion built around science. Do not confuse this with a religion “of” science. Science is often dealt with unkind hands. The predominant tenant of this religion is that absence of a thing proves its nonexistence. There are no gods because they cannot immediately be seen. Aliens are not real because we have not found them. Their proverbs usually begin with the opening “scientists say. . .”.
In the religion of science entropy is a universal force that applies not only to thermodynamic processes, but to everything. Any act of organization will fall into disorder, and it will create disorder in its formation. This religion has a totally different take on the debate between order and chaos. They fight chaos half heartedly because the battle is hopeless.
On the spectrum of order and chaos Christianity doesn't even register. Christianity doesn't fight against disorder. In that religion their chief gods use order and chaos to their own ends to forward their moral objectives.
This brings us to the idea of morality and good versus evil. Most religions have their moral codes. The question here is not whether the religion itself has a moral code, but whether the gods in a pantheon associated with the religion care if humans follow that moral code.
This time let us start with Christianity In that religion the good god and the evil god bump heads over whether humans observe various sets of moral codes. The idea being that if one does “evil” things then the evil god has more control over your life. Christianity believes in the concept of universal good and evil, and the idea that something can be evil just by being.
The Sumerian gods are somewhat on the other end of the spectrum. One can transgress against specific gods, or against the Order of the universe, but there is no universal moral code. One god may ban a certain act encouraged by another god. As a substitute the Sumerian gods back temporal law for the most part.
People can do morally bad things, but not be evil in and of themselves. Likewise people can be recognized as virtuous by one god and looked at indifferently by another god. The key is whether humans are messing with the structures set up by the gods.
Most other religions fall somewhere close to one end or the other without much in the middle. Either the gods care absolutely about concepts of morality in individuals and groups, or the gods care only when it upsets their business. No god actually encourages evil, because from their perspective whatever it is that they are encouraging is good. Gods do however often call the actions encouraged by other gods evil.
Drifting away from the specific religious perspectives we come to a disturbing thought. Let us say that one or more god is immensely powerful. Why would they care what we do? There might be whole pantheons of gods out there in the vast universe that go on about their lives without a care as to how their actions impact our lives. Likewise these gods may not care about what we do and will not shed a metaphoric tear when we plead for their help.
In this instance perhaps the best course of action would be to consider the biggest fish in the pond we happen to live in. What that means is that if an extremely powerful god doesn't care if you exist, then perhaps you should care about the other gods who might care if you exist. Let's use a political model. The king of a country often only cares about the peasants in a general way. If most are doing what they are supposed to and don't hate him he can ignore the one who is not doing well and hates him. The local judges, barons, and potentates on the other hand might be willing to help a friend in need, or even a desperate man on general principles.
This brings us to worship in general. What does a god care if we worship them? There are a number of theories out there on this subject. One theory is that the gods require our worship to live, but for some reason do not act to maintain this system. Another theory is that gods simply like their egos stroked, or that the gods want to make personal friends with humans. A third theory is that while they do not require it they do get something out of the deal. Finally there is the counter point to these theories, that the gods do not really care what we think of them so long as we do what we are supposed to do.
Now we come to the enlightenment game. Enlightenment is a somewhat vague term. Often enlightenment is completely separate from the idea of good and evil. It could mean internal peace and tranquility. It could mean having all of the answers to a certain set of questions. It could mean universal understanding. It could mean being a true believer. It could mean a lot of things.
In general enlightenment comes with some degree of contentment. Enlightenment tends to be a mental state rather than a supernatural condition. Enlightenment tends not to come with temporal power, and is often harder to get with temporal power than without.
From one form of Buddhism we get the idea that gods are real and powerful, but that they do not have the answers. In this instance enlightenment is the answer to the questions of how to escape pain and the reincarnation cycle.
The question of enlightenment as it relates to the gods is a hairy one. Do the gods care if we are enlightened? Can they be enlightened themselves? In the aforementioned form of Buddhism some gods have achieved enlightenment.
In Christianity, and some other proselytizing religions, one becomes enlightened when they become a true believer of the Christian god. This doesn't make the individual in question more “saved” than another Christian, but it is often described as being on a higher spiritual state. Is it a higher level of understanding though?
The Sumerian gods are working towards something greater than any individual god, is this enlightenment? If it is do the gods care if humans are enlightened? Humans will tend to do some of the work that the gods want done simply by being around. We do not need to understand that we are working to their benefit for them to gain from our actions. It is built into our natures.
When we die what happens to that part of us that makes us who we are? Atheist faiths say we die and that's it. Many western religions have an afterlife, a realm we go to to exist on another level apart from this one. Many eastern religions believe in reincarnation. Those who die today will be born again in the children of tomorrow. Then there are those who believe in ghosts.
Let's side step the question of what happens to the soul. Let us instead focus on the gods. Do the gods get a say in what happens after we die? In Christianity one all powerful all knowing god makes the decisions about how we live, and what choices we make. After he decides it is time for us to die he rewards us or punishes us based on how he had us act. With the Sumerian pantheon a similar process is done by a team of gods with no one god enjoying absolute power, and with humans having more than just an illusion of free will. In some forms of Wiccan belief the gods have no control over the reincarnation cycle. People decide for themselves how they will live in the next life. If someone is miserable that was simply how they chose to be.
Finally let us consider our own well being as it relates to the gods. Do the gods care about our happiness? Wrapped into this question is the question of what we are to the gods. In Celtic religion each Celt is the trusted friend of one or more gods. Many Norse religions see the gods as family. The Jews are the chosen people of their god. Sumerians and Romans have household gods that they have a covenant with. Some Wiccans live completely apart from their gods, while others view the gods as entities who are supposed to do as they are told.
So now we have asked a lot of questions. We didn't really answer more than a handful. Mostly we just looked at the answers that others have come up with. Where did that get us? As you read the questions you thought about the gods you follow and considered their implications. The simple thinking of the questions gives you a better understanding of the gods.
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