What could so great a power in the Universe as God, possibly care what we call Him. Such concerns are for little minds. God isn’t small minded. The names of God can be Any thing. Lok at this list: God, or Spider, Allah, Annubis, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena, Atlas, Baal, Diana, El, Frigga, Gaea, Hera, Ishtar, Isis, Janus, Jesus, Jove, Juno, Jupiter, Ka, Ku, Loki, Lona, Lono, Mars, Minerva, Oden, Osisris, Pele, Persephone, Pluto, Prometheus, Ptah, Quetzalcoatl, Ra, Raven, Saturn, Sekhmet, Seth, Sheela-naGig, Thor, Venus, Victoria, Vishnu, Wakantanka, Wicca, Woden, Wotan, Yahweh, Zeus and the three hundred and thirty-five million other human names for God from the Hindu religion. This list above are just the ones I could name off the top of my head. I did have to look up the spelling of a few of these Gods. Most are familiar from Greek, Latin, and English Germanic language roots, some are not. I live in Hawaii. That added a few to the list. As far as I know, every God listed above was a center of a faith. A faith that was as strong for those people as any faith extant today. There were rites, celebrations, dances, ceremonies, prayers, and sacrifices. Believers loved their God. Believers possibly feared their God. Believers made sacrifices to their God. Believers made masks, headdresses, and costumes. Believers danced with them, and prayed to their God. I read somewhere that adherents of the God Baal gave their living children to the flames of the sacrificial fire. Of course, this was written by someone from another culture who didn’t like the God Baal. Someone who was in competition with the society that worshipped Baal. If true, however, it certainly points to a strong belief. God in every human religion I’ve studied is the trickster, the “way”, and the “bringer of light”. Many, many, many Gods, across cultures worldwide, are creator Gods. They are fertility Gods. They are Gods concerned with flocks or crops, or other specialties. People were rightly concerned with the fertility of themselves. People were concerned about the wild animals they hunted for food. People were rightly concerned the domesticated animals they raised and protected for food, shelter, and clothing. People were concerned the fields and crops that they raised. One of the Gods, is the God for the crop of tobacco. Often tobacco was reserved only for religious ceremonies. To a farmer, rain can be very important. I have heard prayers in churches for rain. I’ve even attended a special cross denominational prayer service especially for prayers for rain. I’ve seen a rain dance. I’ve seen a city wide organized car wash for the same purpose, to encourage rain. Whatever name we choose to call God, there remains but One Eternal Truth. We humans assign attributes to God. We do this in order that we might hopefully better understand God. We do this to help us think about God. The problem with this is that little minds like ours then become limiters of God. God encompasses all matter and all beings. The name Trickster was given to God because God was known to be unreliable in answering prayers and sacrifices. Praying was a gamble, and in gambling, one learns to be aware of the possibility of tricks. Add to this, that God doesn’t operate like a human. He may “say” one thing, but mean another from His perspective. God is not dependable, He can not be bribed, and stay bribed. God is not a good politician. God offers no guarantees. The Way, as in a pathway to the Truth, is an almost universal goal of religion. This is true across continents and cultures. People understand walking along a path to get from one place to another, one step at a time.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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