You will find men like him in all of the world’s religions. They know that we represent reason and science, and, however confident they may be in their beliefs, they fear that we will overthrow their gods. Not necessarily through any deliberate act, but in a subtler fashion. Science can destroy a religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now. Arthur C Clarke, Childhood’s End
If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god. Napoleon Bonaparte
‘Won’t the advent of a single world religion annoy the hierarchies of all the current orthodox religions?’ I asked. ‘More than that,’ he said with a smile, ‘They will be shocked. I daresay they will be among the last to accept the Christ. But according to Kisling,’ Creme said confidently, ‘It will come, because it must. We will begin to live,’ he said ... ‘as potential gods.’ Constance Cumbey, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow
When it came to Religion the Romans were not fundamentalists ... In spiritual matters the Empire was like a sponge, absorbing foreign gods as readily as it had gobbled up foreign territory. Professor Richard Miles, The Ancient World VI: City of Man, City of God, BBC 2010
Why are we so afraid to let go of the antiquated belief systems by which we were raised? What if our great, great, great, great and then some grandparents were wrong? What if those who viewed lighting as God’s wrath were mistaken? What if their primitive interpretations were wrong? Moreover, what harm could come in at least exploring the tools of science as a means to fortify ourselves, as a means to minimize life’s pain and maximize our happiness?
So, which will it be? Are we to accept the underlying principles conceived in scientific method – reason – or are we to obstinately hold on to those antiquated belief systems that spring from our pre-scientific, ignorant past?
… Besides, if there truly is no spiritual reality, just think of all the energy we’ve wasted in practicing our illusionary beliefs. Think of all the useless rituals and ceremonies we’ve performed, all of the sacrifices we’ve made, the shrines we’re built, the purses we’ve filled, the gods to whom we’ve worshipped and prayed and, meanwhile all of it in vain. Matthew Alper, The God Part of the Brain
The [Easter] Islanders even destroyed their gods. Horizon: Easter Island – The Story, BBC 1988
It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient let us believe that there are. Ovid, Ars Amatoria
So where are the gods now? Agora 2009 starring Rachel Weisz & Max Minghella & Oscar Issac & Rupert Evans et al, director Alejandro Amenabar
Surely you don’t believe in the gods? What’s your argument? Where’s your proof? Aristophanes
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. Euripides, 484-406 B.C.
The gods are on the side of the strong. Tacitus
Tell proud Jove,
Between his power and thine there is no odds:
’Twas only fear first in the world made gods. Ben Jonson, Sejanus, 1603
Is this how heroes are treated by the gods? Professor Simon Armatage, Gods and Monsters: Homer’s Odyssey, BBC 2010
Even a god cannot change the past. Agathon, 445 B.C.
It would be no different if Bush were to summon up Jupiter and the Palace Athena. Whatever happened to those gods anyway? Where are the people to believe in them now? How quaint they seem and yet how seriously they were held to be, to exist. Ian McEwan, interview Professor Richard Dawkins
All gods are better than their reputation. Mark Twain
The gods offer no rewards for intellect. There was never one yet that showed any interest in it. Mark Twain, notebook
So all we know
Of what they do above,
Is that they happy are, and that they love. Edmund Waller, Upon the Death of My Lady Rich, 1645
O, why should nature build so foul a den,
Unless the gods delight in tragedies? William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus iV i 58-59, Marcus
As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods;
They kill us for their sport. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear IV I 35-36, Gloucester
So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The World’s Need
Why such great anger in those heavenly minds? Virgil, Aeneid
If the divine powers take note of the dutiful in any way, if there is any justice anywhere and a man recognising in itself what is right, may the gods bring you your earned rewards. ibid.
The gods thought otherwise. ibid.
He prays to the spirit of the place and to Earth, the first of the gods, and to the Nymphs and as yet unknown rivers. ibid.
If I am unable to make the gods above relent, I shall move Hell. ibid.
Now there are some, and I don’t just mean Communists like you, but thinking men of all political parties, who think that not many of these gods actually exist. Some believe that none of them exist. There’s just us and an ocean of darkness around us. I’m no philosopher or poet, how would I know the truth? It’s true that all these gods seem to do awfully little work – much like our politicians – and yet keep winning re-election to their golden thrones in heaven, year after year. That’s not to say I don’t respect them, Mr Premier! Don’t you ever let that blasphemous idea into your yellow skull. My country is the kind where it pays to play it both ways: the Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere, at the same time. Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger p8-9
It is an ancient and venerated custom of people in my country to start a story by praying to a Higher Power.
I guess, Your Excellency, that I too should start off by kissing some god’s arse.
Which god’s arse, though? There are so many choices.
See, the Muslims have one god.
The Christians have three gods.
And we Hindus have 36,000,004 divine arses to choose from. ibid.
Thus have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals; they that live in grief while they themselves are without cares; for two jars stand on the floor of Zeus, of the gifts which he gives, one of Evils and another of Blessings. Homer, The Iliad
Early man’s sense of wonder at the sun’s immense powers led naturally to belief in a sun-god. In different forms they are found in the pantheons of many early cultures. Solar Empire: Heaven’s Above, Discovery 1999
I believe that the gods themselves are frightened of the world which they have fashioned. Peter Ackroyd, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde
Man is quite insane. He wouldn’t know how to create a maggot, and he creates gods by the dozen. Montaigne aka Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Essais, 1580
The fertility of the earth was linked to women ... The goddess has got bigger ... She’s a kind of dominatrix. Bettany Hughes, Divine Women I: When God Was a Girl, BBC 2012
Zeus overthrows his elders and becomes supreme. He is now top god. ibid.
Zeus was wiser than any other god ... or any woman. ibid.
Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, enchantress. Bettany Hughes, Divine Women II: Handmaids of the Gods
This is the deity who led Greek heroes to their deaths, who Roman generals honoured with sacrifice before battle, who was the incarnation of the ecstasy and the agony of lust and love. Bettany Hughes, Venus Uncovered: Ancient Goddess of Love, BBC 2017
She is married to Hephaestus the lame blacksmith god, but is in an adulterous affair with the god of war Ares. She has mortal lovers too. ibid.
Real Greek women were second-class citizens. ibid.
This was once the haunt of Bacchus, the god of Ecstasy and Wine. The god who blurred the boundaries between human and divine, between women and men, between the wild and the tamed. Bettany Hughes, Bacchus Uncovered: Ancient God of Ecstasy, BBC 2021
In B.C. 186 the senate of the Roman Republic had put its foot down, passing a decree punishing the worship of Bacchus throughout Roman lands. ibid.
Descriptions of Bacchus in ancient myths and Jesus in the New Testament have striking similarities. We are told both performed miracles, like changing water in wine. Both had immortal fathers and human mothers. And Bacchus was said to have been killed by Titans before being born again. ibid.