All gods are one god? Maybe

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From: Scott Haney, AFDS770 Functional Test X2069 (SYS_RSH%PV0A@hobbes.cca.rockwell.com)
Date: Mon 25 Apr 1994 - 12:46:00 EEST


>I must take the person who stated that the worship of all storm gods
>is really just the worship of Orlanth or Umath.

Take me! Take me, you stud! Oh, sorry, wait...carry-over from the broo-dominance discussion.

>You are basically claiming that all deities of a particular aspect
>are just one deity. [...] Let me put it another way: I seriously
>doubt that Indra and Zeus are really "just the same god" simply
>because they share aspects as lords of storm and sky and King of
>Gods. Why should this be any different in Glorantha.

I'm glad you asked that question! The easy answer is because Glorantha is different!!!!

Now the more complicated answer:

In Glorantha, the gods are REAL, PERSONAL, and INVOLVED IN DAILY LIFE, sometimes in a very tangible way. Our gods here in The Real World aren't. FLAME RETARDANT NOTE: this is not a confession of atheism, merely the observation that, by our myths, humans weren't present at the creation of the world, nor do our gods seem to speak directly to us (at least nowadays). Our belief in our gods is based on our faith in that which we can't prove. In Glorantha, the gods are THERE, and some of the more powerful priests can speak to the gods directly.

Real Life: Christians, for example, don't believe that any of the Hindu gods exist at all, or ever. There is no pervasive mono-myth to tie any of our religions together.

Glorantha: Yelm worshippers think Orlanth is a bumwipe, but they know that he's real. Even the G*d L**rn*rs believe that *something* happened, and although there are many differing myths concerning the birth of humans, there is also a common mono-myth in which practically everyone believes.

I'm not saying that one couldn't make a case against God Learners or against "X is really an aspect of Y," but I just don't feel that Earth religions are a good measure of how things in Glorantha work. Hindu myths don't include the Christian god, and Christian myths don't include Zeus. Gloranthan myths may differ as to what roles the gods played, but the gods are all in the myths!

Scott

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