Why are most gods not nice fellows?

It honestly depends on the nice god you're talking about really whether or not they are fun to read about. The Bodhisatta and Celestial Buddhas have some fun and interesting tales about them. It is much easier to take "VENGEFUL SPITEFUL BEING THAT SLEEPS AROUND WITH ALL THE BABES" and make that fun though I suppose. Or maybe I'm weird for liking nice gods?

???

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

We're talking about Bronze and Iron Age people who lived in a world that they didn't understand. They didn't know anything about the physical causes of earthquakes, volcanoes, lightning, floods or disease, so it was easy for them to imagine that they lived in a world full of Jerkass Gods who enjoyed toying around with them and who got angry for no discernable reason. The belief that the gods caused all these things to happen was more palatable than having no idea whatsoever.

Plus in a way it's an insight into human nature. Really, if somebody suddenly found that they had the power of a god, how many of us would turn into a huge jackass? Even regular humans who wind up with a lot of ordinary power start going insane.

In the ancient world, religion was not so much about doctrine or right living as it was about discerning the will of the gods and trying your best not to offend them. If you made even the slightest error in performing the sacred rituals, you risked bringing down divine wrath on your head. And sometimes they would lay on with the wrath just because.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

^^ At the risk of sounding a little trite or like I'm trivialising anyone's beliefs, I think there are probably rather a lot of us for whom the God they like the most is nice, depending on what you consider niceness to be.

edited 29th Jun '11 7:48:34 AM by BobbyG

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

Belldandy, seeing this thread: But why are you so mean?

Anyone who knows Urd: Yes, I really wonder why... Your big sister is such a nice fellow...

Belldandy: Yes! That's what I've been telling Keiichi-san and the others for an eternity.

All: Face Palm

edited 29th Jun '11 7:51:56 AM by RufusShinra

As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

^^^ That's definitely part of it. The old gods were created out of man's inability to cope with such a random, darwinian universe. If there is a god controlling this whole mess, how could he NOT be a giant douchebag.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

Um... do you have any idea what a can of worms you just opened?

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

If you're talking about me...yeah...although I want to keep the discussion on the side of literature/mythology analysis or past human psychology, and not opinions on the religion itself...especially not on how its formation or idea of gods cause current problem or something to that effect...I'm not sure if it'll keep being that way or not...if mods do think this topic might get out of hand, then feel free to lock it...

edited 29th Jun '11 8:05:03 AM by onyhow

Give me cute or give me...something?

Not you. Mythology discussions are fine.

I was referring to johnnyfog's post, which potentially opens up a particular line of discussion which inevitably leads to either (a) really complicated theological derails or (b) flaming.

Either way, I'd have thought it was flame bait to say anything to the effect of "how could gods not be douchebags".

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

We live in a fundamentally "evil" world. There are natural disasters, we get old, we get sick, we die. (It's also a world of great beauty, but that's neither here nor there). Because of that, the concept of a creator or controller of said world is going to be the controller of those "evil" things.

Sometimes it goes beyond that (the story of Noah and the ark is a really good example of passing the Moral Event Horizon) but mostly that's what you're dealing with.

The real question here isn't that that by our modern secular morality, gods are not nice, it's what effect does the worship and the nature of various types of worship of these deities have on our modern society.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

Um... what about Zoroastrianism?

something

Also the extinct religions Marcionism and Manichaeism.

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

Gods tend to reflect the people who create them, so...

"Without a fairy, you're not even a real man!" ~ Mido from Ocarina of Time

WMG I heard: Back in the day, people had different standards for what was "good" or "heroic". Notice how all the Greek heroes are jerks? The important thing was strength and not the stuff we would consider virtues. The good guy was the strongest guy and the bad guy was the weak and cowardly guy; "villain" originally meant "peasant".

And "bad" is derived from a term meaning "effeminate".

IIRC, by Ancient Greek morality the absolute worst thing you could do to somebody was seriously humiliate them. The worse you humiliated them, the more severe your crime.

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

I thought it was killing your father or breaking guest hospitality.

Please.

I think the latter was considered a form of hubris. Not sure about the former.

Welcome To TV Tropes | How To Write An Example | Text-Formatting Rules | List Of Shows That Need Summary | TV Tropes Forum | Know The Staff

Because much of life is not nice. One of the roles of religion is to rationalize this.

Because God is a conservative.

(Actually, wouldn't God be THE conservative? At least, if you take your holy book literally...)

On a serious note; yeah, the past wasn't a nice place to live. How do people who don't understand micro-organisms or the workings of the body compute how a well-meaning God would send things like small-pox? Or strike down people with lightning? Or cause fleets to get lost in Mediterranean storms?

The only reasonable conclusion any thinking person living in BC could come up with is if the Gods do in fact exist, and something must have created the world, then the Gods are assholes.

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

mellon; you may not be far off the mark.

bobby on 'bad'; you got that right.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Because people need to be inured to blind obedience to some degree.

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

So long as everyone admits every single deity has good and bad qualities it should not matter beyond literature context.

A single phrase renders Christianity a delusional cult.

Sure, though it warrants mentioning that just because all deities have good and bad qualities, that doesn't make them all equal, and it doesn't justify their bad qualities.

Power corrupts.

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

Really depends on how much of whatever religion you take as fact. Personally (I am a Catholic, BTW) I believe no less than 90% of the Old Testament is bull. And naturally, people's interpretation of God changes over time.

They call themselves seamstresses -Feet Of Clay

~thread hop~

The answer to this question is simple: Earth isn't a nice place, so we assume that the people upstairs aren't nice either. Even right now, things are not rosy, so how much worse was it for a person in poverty 3000 years ago? Not very nice, I assume.

If your food tastes bad, then something is wrong with the cook, right?

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! ~ GOD