How Many Gods Have Been Worshipped in North and South America


I enjoy the continuing views that comes out of archeology about the history of humans. There is evidence beings similar to humans were other places on earth as much as 300,000 years ago. On our continent the prevailing view has been humans were here around 15,000 years ago. Now there is there is evidence humans were here as much as 25,000 years ago. This latter comes from footprints found in desert soil. 

While probably most people would not find this 10,000 year difference very important, it interests me because of the history we have about gods. Gods have a shelf life. A particular god or gods are worshipped for a while and then humans move on to others. I've always thought it would be helpful if Christian Sunday Schools would teach that the current god is just one in a long parade of gods that started in pre history.

I'm not an expert in this, but my thinking is the current magical being today called God began under another name or names about 10,000 years ago. That god is currently on the descendance and may be gone in a while. If we assume the life of this god have been 10,000 years the adding 10,000 years to the time humans have been in the Americas we have added time for an additional god on this continent to have thrived and then disappeared. Of course, the life of ancient gods is pure speculation. They may have had longer or shorter lives than our current God. 

I know what I'm thinking is quite speculative but I'm trying to make this point: The U.S. is not a "Christian Nation" if we treat this piece of geography as a place where people have lived for 25,000 years. Most of that time it was some other or many other religions.

Our current crop of Republican candidates, and the large number of Democrats prior to 2020, allow us to see the wide variety of ways groups look at our society. Various candidates come from different circles where different issues are more important than others. For example, Desantis believed we were all siting around worrying about "woke." Now he hardly ever brings up this silly notion. Mike Pence thinks we are all opposed to allowing women to get abortions. If leaders in ancient times were similar to those today they may have dreamed up gods they thought everyone was seeing.

Over 25,000 years of imaginations run amuck would have provided a lot of gods.   


Comments

  1. Ardy BOctober 9, 2023 at 1:54 PM

    Jon, “Over 25,000 years of imaginations run amuck… “

    God or no God, how would we know the difference?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JonOctober 9, 2023 at 4:26 PM

      "God or no God, how would we know the difference?"

      Beats me. An old song said, "The sun comes up and the sun goes down, the hands on the clock keep a turnin' round." That's what has happened since the first days of the universe. God or no God, or, many gods changed nothing. It appears now humans will someday make our tiny bit of the universe uninhabitable. Time will continue. There will be no gods because there will be no humans to create them.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe the "Original Sin" Should be Reassigned

Image
We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make...
Read more

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more

Young Women can see Bull$hit a Mile Away

Image
Republicans including their Forced Birth subgroup is bother by recent election results and polling. All show young women going to the left. A poll shows young women are 30% more likely to be very liberal than young men. The link advises the Forced Birth community to give young pregnant women an uplifting message. The message suggested is, "Buck up. You've got this. You can give birth and have a happy life." Another way of saying this is, "It will be OK if you miss work and/or are fired because of the birth. If you cannot make your rent payment, it's OK. Somewhere out there is another place to live. We don't know where but be optimistic."   This is an add on to the new version of the Forced Birth message, "We're for both the baby and the mother." They are not and never have been for the mother. Their message has always been to condemn women who have abortions. Now, the "thoughts and prayers" message, which costs no money, it the me...
Read more