Demystifying the Gods

Fragment of a marble relief with a Nike [open access. The MET Museum]

I am an author who likes characters who live on history’s edges: the figures everyone talks about but no one quite looks straight in the eye. That’s why I decided to start my author’s journey with the Gods. Because they live in those edges. We talk and argue about them constantly, but almost everything said about the gods falls into one of two approaches.

1. Trying to prove they do not exist.

2. Trying to convert or show devotion.

I think that both approaches miss an opportunity to better understand–or make their case– by looking at the gods as characters. We must stop looking at gods as symbols, metaphors, or abstract forces floating above history. I want to explore them as characters, with wants, fears, needs, a competitive drive fueled by survival instincts, and agendas that change over time.

History is full of kings, generals, and prophets like that. Authors and researchers analyze their motivations without blinking. They ask: Who funded them? Who opposed them? What problem were they trying to solve? What did they need people to believe so they could stay powerful? But when we get to the gods, we suddenly stop asking questions. Even the people who argue that the three monotheistic gods are not the same god tend to stop one question too early. They say, “They are not the same,” and then walk away, without asking the most interesting one: If they are not the same god, then who are they?

That’s the gap I’m exploring in my book Not the Same God, and it is why I am blogging and podcasting about gods now, and will keep doing so until my next book, The Woman Who Killed the Prophet, launches this spring.

I am not an atheist or a devout believer, and my goal is not to convert anyone. I’m just not interested in replacing one certainty with another. I am interested in uncomfortable questions.

My audience is not everyone. It is people who are comfortable asking uncomfortable questions and can sit with ambiguity. I am looking to have a conversation with people who can look at the history of the gods without needing it to end in a verdict.

If you want proof or comfort, you will not find it here. If you want a different way of looking at the most powerful characters humanity ever invented, or encountered, or negotiated with, then pull up a chair.

We are going to demystify the gods by taking them seriously.

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