All gods are imaginary

My grandson named his dog Anubis after the ancient Egyptian canine deity that is either a jackal or a dog.

Those long-ago Egyptians worshiped about 2,000 different gods of every variety, some part animal and part human. The holies were served by an army of priests in lavish temples. The Egyptian priesthood held enormous wealth.

Does anyone today think those gods were real?

Similarly, the Aztecs sacrificed an estimated 20,000 people yearly to an array of strange deities, including an invisible feathered serpent. Did those gods actually exist?

Most people know that ancient Greeks had a pantheon of colorful gods atop Mount Olympus. Greeks sacrificed great numbers of animals to them. And they visited oracles who supposedly transmitted messages from the gods. Wealth accumulated by the Oracle of Delphi caused “sacred wars” that allowed the Macedonian Alexander to seize Greece and end the era of city-states. The Roman Empire had a similar pantheon.

Were the Greek and Roman gods anything but imaginary?

Ancient Scandinavians worshiped a zoo of Norse gods — now considered imaginary.

Ancient Hindu Veda scriptures say there are 33 gods, but according to some sources there may be millions of Hindu gods. Is any of this real?

The Encyclopedia of Gods lists 2,500 known deities — all the way to Nyakaya, the Shilluk crocodile goddess. Who knows what a crocodile goddess is or doubts that she’s imaginary?
Montaigne said: “Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, but he will make gods by the dozen.”

Since thousands of former deities now are seen as fantasies, why should anyone think that today’s supernatural gods are real?

James A. Haught, syndicated by PeaceVoice, was the longtime editor at the Charleston Gazette and has been the editor emeritus since 2015. He has won two dozen national newswriting awards and is author of 12 books and 150 magazine essays. He also is a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine and was writer-in-residence for the United Coalition of Reason.

https://freethoughtnow.org/all-gods-are-imaginary/?fbclid=IwAR3lk6QJtk8r2Pp6khvFakYhsY3ELs3WR-0L-p-h2ySOqkhREWVLh2xbyPA

Peaceandnamaste · 26-30, F

All gods are imaginary except Nature and the Sun and stars. And the Moon.

Before our ancestors invented anthropomorphic gods we worshipped and revered the natural world and the Universe.

so gods are really just archetypes and icons that were created in our minds and collective unconscious. Death is just the recycling of energy and atoms there's no heaven or hell. Heaven and hell are just states of mind not real places.

If you want to revere and be thankful for something thank the Sun, stars and thank Earth for bringing you into existence, at least the elements of nature exist we can see them unlike the gods we created out of our collective unconscious.

Everything is made of star stuff anyway.

Diotrephes · 70-79, M

@GovanDUNNY

I would never say this to my mother, but religion is a money-making racket

The Moses character was the original religious con man who wrote the book on how to extort money from people who get wrapped up in religion.

Ynotisay · M

Right on. All true.
The quote he used kind of jumped out at me though.
“Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, but he will make gods by the dozen.”
Could have just as easily read, "Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm so he makes gods by the dozen."