Do The Gods Meet

Do the Gods meet and discuss us amongst themselves? If so, what does each have to of His or Her chosen people?

Do the gods of different nations
talk to each other?
Do the gods of Chinese cities
speak to the ancestors of the Japanese?
To the lords of Xibalba?
To Allah? Yahweh? Vishnu?
Is there some annual get-together
where they compare each other’s worshipers?
Mine will bow their faces to the floor
and trace woodgrain lines for me, says one.
Mine will sacrifice animals, says another.
Mine will kill anyone who insults me, says a third.
Here is the question I think of most often:
Are there any who can honestly boast,
My worshipers obey my good laws,
and treat each other kindly,
and live simple generous lives?

— Orson Scott Card
Children of the Mind (Tor 1997)

Not my words, but at times my question. Could any of the Gods stand before His or Her fellows and state truly the his worshipers obey His or Her laws, treat each other kindly, and live simple generous lives? Do we – their purported worshipers – not prefer to aggrandize ourselves by reason of our faiths? Do we not prefer to use our Gods as reason for pride or spite, instead of serving them?

What would the Gods say of us if they met?

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13 Responses to “Do The Gods Meet”

  1. aafke Says:

    maybe:
    God1: ”Your people have been bombing My people again”
    God2: ”I know, they just won’t sit down and really read My book! But then Your people have been behaving very badly to My people lately.”
    God1: ”My people haven’t paying attention to My book either. And it’s really the same as Your book!”
    God3: ”Everything clearly in writing, teachings of My profets, and they still manage to turn My words around”
    Gods 1&2 ”OUR words! We All wrote the same thing!”
    God3 ”Perheaps We should just wipe all this away and start over afresh!”

  2. jonolan Says:

    Welcome, aafke!

    Yes, I could envision the discussion playing out that way.

  3. aafke Says:

    I’ve been lurking about the last few days; I’m sick at home.
    I like your blog very much.

  4. Odale Says:

    Very Interesting site! Thanks for visiting me so I could find you!

    ‘Pridefulness’ would definitely be on the table. It seems to be a monumental task to remain humble in a chaotic, ‘gimme, gimme’ world.

    I was reading about the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ earlier. Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, slothfulness… look how common they are, but, worse than that, how apathetic the attitude toward them have become.

    Wipe it clean and start fresh, indeed…

  5. jonolan Says:

    Welcome to Reflections From A Murky Pond, Odale. I’ve actually lurked on your site a couple of times in the past, but hadn’t commented until the other day.

    Yes, I believe the pridefulness of their worshipers would sadly be on the agenda for any meeting of Gods. It’s strange how Man tries to chains their Gods to Man’s purposes instead fulfilling their purpose to those Gods.

    Ah well, all life is a crucible – and we each can choose whether to be gold or dross.

  6. Christy Says:

    Loved this thoughtful post, Jonolan.

  7. jonolan Says:

    Thanks, Christy. I wish the words were mine, but I’m afraid Mr. Card is far more eloquent than I. But then, that’s how he earns a living so he should be. πŸ˜‰

    He’s a great author by the way, and I highly recommend his works to anyone who enjoys Sci-Fi that forces one to think about uncomfortable matters.

  8. Christy Says:

    I knew it wasn’t yours, but the decision to share was yours, and for that, I was thankful.

    When I have time (hah) to add more books (hah) to my books-to-be-read pile that is currently about ready to fall over as it is towering on my bedstand, I shall add him to the list! He sounds like an author I’d really enjoy. I just need to fall into some sort of inheritance so I can read all day long. πŸ˜‰

  9. Christy Says:

    By the way, random…but I’ve checked it out on my end and cannot figure it out…why does my gravatar incorporate your website address? And last week, it was trying to direct people to one of my photos, which was not intentional, either. The options within Gravatar do not allow me to link my gravatr with an address, so I don’t know how it’s generating these addresses. (While I do know a thing or two about this kind of thing, having built a lot of my previous websites… I’m currently stumped. πŸ˜‰ Or maybe I just need to finish my coffee. πŸ˜‰

  10. jonolan Says:

    Christy,

    I think it’s doing that because you didn’t preface your URL with “http://”. W hen that is left out, wordpress – mine at least – prefaces it with my blog’s base URL. I’ll see about fixing your comments πŸ™‚

    Update: Your recent posts had “http:/” instead of “http://” and many of your older posts linked to .jpg that isn’t there anymore. I’ve fixed the ones I could find easily.

  11. Christy Says:

    Argh. I’m doing too much, Jonolan. ;p Too much. I whip off quick comments and don’t proof anything…and that’s what I get. Sorry for any extra trouble you expensed on my behalf!!

    The .jpg one still puzzles me as I never linked to a jpg, nor did I move the file it appears to be referencing. I give up for the time being and cry “uncle!”

    πŸ˜‰

  12. jonolan Says:

    No problem at all, Christy. Just pause for a nonce and breath.

  13. Christy Says:

    Nice diction!

    But how does one “pause”? πŸ˜‰ I think I skipped learning that in school.

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