Aidonian's blog

 I saw the latest Thor movie called Thor: Love and Thunder, which had a great villain. Gorr was a great villain who had understandable motivations for doing what he does and I think Kratos would be jealous and proud of him. While I do found the movie entertaining, I also found its theme’s problematic. It puts atheism against people who believe in a higher power. 

I’m a polytheist. I worship the Hellenic Gods. For me, I understand  Gorr, but I also understand why the Gods do what they do. Gods are eternal. The problem some have is that they want the divine to answer their prayers and are disappointed when they don’t. What most people don’t realise that the divine does not do things if you can do it yourself. if its your fate to experience certain things that would help you grow, why would they intervene and stop that? 

the worst thing that can happen is to survive your own children. its very traumatic and painful experience to undergo. All life is subjected to the Fates, they decree how people live and die. Zeus as Moiragetes is the leader of the Moirai(the Fates). if you are fated to undergo such experiences, its hard to believe. Its difficult to say that the Gods have a plan for us all. Unlike with the monotheistic idea of a deity that is all good, the Gods are not like that. They don’t need us to worship them, but through our worship we can form a bond with them. To ask the Gods to intervene so a person does not die or suffer is to ask them to step into a domain of another God and possible disrupt the natural order. If a certain God that you worship witholds their blessing, it means that you haven’t done something that you should have done to honour that God. 

In myths the Gods are shown to send calamity to the people when they felt wronged or witheld sacrifices. This is not to illustrate how petty or evil the Gods are, but its to demonstrate that if you worship the Gods and withheld sacrifices, that their will be consequences. 

I always found the monotheistic concept of a deity to be simple. If it works for the people worshipping that God, that is good. But the divine is more complex than that they are all knowing, all powerful and all good. Which is contradictory if you think about it. A God can never be all good. If he or she is all good, and all powerful, how come evil and misfortune exist? Its the devil’s fault is a simple answer. 

In a polytheistic worldview “evil” is considered part of nature and not the fault of one God or something like that. Zoroastrianism is dualistic but most polytheistic religions are not dualistic.

misfortune builds character in a way. But fate is unavoidable. We are born, we will die. We only do not know when or how. Which is a blessing in disguise. Most will not be able to handle it and our society will most likely collapse if we know when and how we are going to die. 

Through suffering, people’s faith is tested. When everything goes according plan its easy to believe. In stressful times or during times of suffering when you lose a lot, its harder to hold on to your belief. Its human to ask the Gods to intervene, but the Gods will only help those who help themselves. its harder to keep your faith when everything goes wrong. Even if the Gods don’t actively intervene, they can still comfort you. I know that is what they did for me during stressful times. I found comfort, peace in them.