Quotes About Gods

History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods…

Much of ancient mythology is in fact a legal contract in which humans promise everlasting devotion to the gods in exchange for mastery over plants and animals

During the Agricultural Revolution humankind silenced animals and plants, and turned the animist grand opera into a dialogue between man and gods. During the Scientific Revolution humankind silenced the gods too.

Unfortunately, blind faith in these stories meant that human efforts frequently focused on increasing the glory of fictional entities such as gods and nations, instead of bettering the lives of real sentient beings.

The most interesting emerging religion is Dataism, which venerates neither gods nor man – it worships data.

Sapiens, in contrast, live in triple-layered reality. In addition to trees, rivers, fears and desires, the Sapiens world also contains stories about money, gods, nations and corporations.

Is there anything more dangerous than dissatisfed and irresponsible gods who don't know what they want?

Los santos cristianos no solo se parecían a los antiguos dioses politeístas, sino que a menudo eran los mismos dioses disfrazados. Por ejemplo, la diosa principal de la Irlanda céltica anterior a la llegada del cristianismo era Brígida. Cuando Irlanda fue cristianizada, Brígida fue asimismo bautizada, convirtiéndose en santa Brígida, la santa más venerada en la Irlanda católica hasta la actualidad.

Myths, it transpired, are stronger than anyone could have imagined. When the Agricultural Revolution opened opportunities for the creation of crowded cities and mighty empires, people invented stories about great gods, motherlands and joint stock companies to provide the needed social links. While human evolution was crawling at its usual snail's pace, the human imagination was building astounding networks of mass cooperation, unlike any other ever seen on earth.

We normally think that theist religions sanctified the great gods. We tend to forget that they sanctified humans, too. Hitherto Homo sapiens had been just one actor in a cast of thousands. In the new theist drama Sapiens became the central hero around whom the entire universe revolved.

Leyendas, mitos, dioses y religiones aparecieron por primera vez con la revolución cognitiva.

If gods can possess land and employ people, why not algorithms?

world as a reflection of the relationship between gods and humans. Our prayers, our sacrifices, our sins and our good deeds determined the fate of the entire ecosystem. A terrible flood might wipe out billions of ants, grasshoppers, turtles, antelopes, giraffes and elephants, just because a few stupid Sapiens made the gods angry.

Animists thought that humans were just one of many creatures inhabiting the world. Polytheists, on the other hand, increasingly saw the world as a reflection of the relationship between gods and humans.

We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all that power. Worse still, humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever. Self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.

desde la revolución cognitiva, los sapiens han vivido en una realidad dual. Por un lado, la realidad objetiva de los ríos, los árboles y los leones; y por el otro, la realidad imaginada de los dioses, las naciones y las corporaciones. A medida que pasaba el tiempo, la realidad imaginada se hizo cada vez más poderosa, de modo que en la actualidad la supervivencia de ríos, árboles y leones depende de la gracia de entidades imaginadas tales como dioses, naciones y corporaciones.

Finns det något farligare än missnöjda och oansvariga gudar som inte riktigt vet vad de vill?

Less fortunate members of the old animist system lost their stature and became either extras or silent decor in the great drama of man's relationship with the gods

The monotheist religions expelled the gods through the front door with a lot of fanfare, only to take them back in through the side window. Christianity, for example, developed its own pantheon of saints, whose cults differed little from those of the polytheistic gods.

Ancient Greece the philosopher Epicurus explained that worshipping gods is a waste of time, that there is no existence after death, and that happiness is the sole purpose of life.

And tear him to pieces, like a mortal! Let him shoot down all the gods from the sky!

Let it be clarified here that neither the Akkadians nor the Sumerians had called these visitors to Earth gods. It is through later paganism that the notion of divine beings or gods has filtered into our language and thinking. When we employ the term here, it is only because of its general acceptance and usage that we do so.

I will produce a lowly Primitive; "Man" shall be his name. I will create a Primitive Worker; He will be charged with the service of the gods, that they might have their ease.

when civilization began, the gods who were worshipped—the focus of the act of being "religious"—were none other than the Anunnaki/Nefilim, who were the source of all manner of knowledge, alias science, on Earth.