“The Roman did not, like the Greek, think of his gods as having human form; he called them simply numina, or spirits; sometimes they were abstractions like Health, Youth, Memory, Fortune, Honor, Hope, Fear, Virtue, Chastity, Concord, Victory, or Rome. Some of them, like the Lemures or Ghosts, were spirits of disease, hard to propitiate….Never had a religion so many divinities. Varro reckoned them at 30,000, and Petronius complained that in some towns of Italy there were more gods than men.”

Having gods in everything is not all that different from monotheistic belief that God, their single god, is in everything which is certainly a lot easier than having to remember the names of all the different gods. However, I rather like the notion of many gods. I thank the cedar shingle god who has placed the right size and number of shingles in my hand before climbing the ladder; I thank the stone god for missing my bare foot when I drop a stone unwisely; I thank the rain god for holding the rain back until I am through picking the beans and if I give thanks prematurely, I laugh at the joke being played on me.

I suppose those who believe that a loving god could be so self-centered as to make the first three of His Ten Commandments be all about himself will be sure that I am on a course for hell. It is my hope that their beliefs make them as happy as the playful relationship I have with my gods makes me.

The quote above is from The Story of Civilization: Part III Caesar and Christ by Will Durant which I am currently enjoying. I have read four of the eleven volumes and highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys reading history

OK folks, how did that first paragraph strike you? If you liked it, then you are all set for Armageddon. It’ll be coming along soon as you probably already realize though the bad news is that it won’t come in your lifetime. If you think I’m an arrogant jerk and that you wouldn’t follow me across the street, then I agree with you. I wouldn’t follow that jerk either. If you also happen to believe in the God of the Bible, the God who sent down the Ten Commandments, you ought to take another look at the first three commandments (Exodus 20:3-7) because that God and the person depicted in the first paragraph are peas in a pod.

Actually the God Moses quoted is worse than my fake god. He said “I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” Man, that’s harsh! If you so much as take his name in vain he will punish your children, your grandchildren and your great grandchildren. If that is the God you want to worship, good luck to you and to your children. If that is your God, you are probably already screwed. What are the odds that your father, your grandfather and your great grandfather never took the Lord’s name in vain?

There are many good thoughts in the Bible like not stealing and not killing (Commandments six and eight) and just because that ancient God is a jerk doesn’t mean one should abandon one’s religion. Most Jews, Christians and Muslims hold in their hearts a loving God. No reason to abandon that God but those who want to take the Bible as God’s word, should start using their mind. If you believe in a God as your creator, the one who gave you life, then use that life, the senses and mind that were given. You know that Satan did not, could not, give you life but that Satan could give you ideas passed on through others, others just like those who wrote the Bible.