The Tribal Gods – Gods of Discord
In God We Trust – And, in God’s Name We Kill, Rape, Loot, and Destroy. Ours is The Loving and Caring God. More than Fifty Million native Americans, Millions of natives of Australia and New Zealand, Tens of Millions of people in India, and the Millions in the Middle East sacrificed at the Alter of God are Testimonials of God’s Love and Care – And, The God’s Love is Never Ending!
And, there is no shortage of Gods – Every Group of humans, every tribe has its own personalized God who happen to be the Only Real God. In the frenzies of establishing the ‘truth’ and superiority of their Gods, the devotees feel compelled to kill and destroy the “enemies” of their respective Gods. Actually, they kill others, the ‘non-believers’, to save them – The “Mercy Killing” and “Mercy Rapes” !
With such destructive “loving” traits, and their strong hold on humans, these Gods deserve a closer scrutiny.
The Gods of The Tribes
The Creator of the Universe may very well be The Absolute Authority and The Supreme Intelligence – He may may very well be the Schemer, Planner, Originator, and The Source of the entire System of The universe – He may very well be The Sustainer of the Universal System – He may very well be The Creator of all of us, but, still, He is outnumbered by all the Tribal Gods on the planet Earth — The courtesy of the humans.
On our planet Earth, there may be shortage of every thing; from the clean water to natural gas, and from an honest journalist to a self-respecting politician, but when it comes to Gods, we have plenty. Actually, we have enough supply of Gods to export quite a few to other planets – whenever we happen to ‘conquer’ those far away places.
How many Gods in total are there? Difficult to say with certainty – May be our ‘open-source’ community will take on the task, and start compiling an ‘Encyclopedia Godenica‘ – It may be worthwhile to start a Godly project on the lines of the Wikipedia – It may be called the ‘‘Wikigodia’‘.
We humans are an interesting lot!
We are very ’emotional’ and ‘sentimental’ about our own Gods. The ‘proprietary’ attachment to our respective Gods is unbreakable – No ‘disrespect’ or ‘insult’ to our ‘personal’ God is tolerated – we insist that the ‘ours’ is the ‘true’ God, and theirs are just the ‘gods’ ! With fervor we fight, destroy, and kill each others in the name of tribal Gods of ours – The Hell to the other tribes who dare to ‘deny’ our God!
Amazing beings we are!
And, In Faith We Trust
Volumes of the ‘Godly’ books have been written telling the most unbelievable and logic-busting stories to ‘strengthen’ the faith of the believers in their own Gods – The faith and trust in those Gods is just amazing:
A few years ago I had a discourse with a “believer” – a friend of one of my clients. He wanted to ‘convert‘ me to his ‘faith’ – The fervor and ‘sincerity’ of his belief system was touching. He argued that if I joined his ‘faith’, and accepted the ‘Only Son‘ of the ‘God’ as the ‘Savior‘, I would be ‘saved‘ and be given a free pass to the ‘Heaven‘.
When I asked him what made him believe that his ‘savior’ was the ‘only’ son of God. He insisted that it was the ‘truth’ – so was declared in the ‘Book‘ of ‘God’!
When I informed him that there were more than 300 other known ‘saviors’ who are also believed to be the ‘only sons’ of the respective ‘Father Gods‘ by hundreds of millions of other human beings – he retorted, “but, we know the truth.”
He honestly believed that his ‘savior’ was the ‘only son’ of the God. One must just have to have the ‘faith’!
I have another friend who staunchly believes that his ‘God’ stand tuned to all his wishes and demands. He narrated multiple times – probably hoping that one day I would join his God’s camp: ” One day, while I was not married yet, I gave God my wish for a wife, and asked him if He would provide me a wife like that. And, you know what, the next day the girl, who is my wife now, just walked into my office.”
Touching – is not it?
He assured me that his God’s favors were not limited to the ‘serious and important stuff’ only. His God even granted him the Van of his choice. He stated, “One day, while driving along, I noticed the Van that I always wanted to have, passing in the next lane. I asked ‘O my God, can I have a Van like that?’ And, you know what, next day I found the the similar Van for sale on the ‘Craigs List’, and at an unbelievable price. This is the Van that I am driving now.”
Would not you love to have such a caring personal ‘God’?
The Godly Nature
It is amazing to discover all these tribal Gods – some well packaged and mass-marketed, while others the hidden gems! It would have been fun to study these Gods and their fantastic stories, if it were not for the fact that these Gods, most of the times, are an angry lot – lusting for the human blood. Not fun, if you happened to be on the receiving end of their wrath!
It is understood that the Faith and God are very personal ‘things’. But, by virtue of their tribal ‘nature’, these Gods have a tendency to start ‘acting’ as the conductor for the marching bands of the warring factions – and, marching on the rhythm of the Godly Band, the armies of these Gods get busy with their slaughter spree.
The problem with The Creator, on the other hand, is that He cannot be ‘‘tribalized’‘, and, therefore, cannot be ‘used‘ to claim the ‘exceptional status‘ and privileges – Him being The Creator of all, and of every thing, He cannot ‘chose‘ some over the rest. He cannot be used to satisfy the vicious side of the human nature – Therefore; hello the tribal God!
Through the analysis of scientific data and application of deductive reasoning, we have been able to sort out the essential attributes of The Creator of the Universe (Sifting Out The Creator). Based on those essential attributes and Virtues of The Creator, we can, with certainty, distinguish Him from the tribal Gods.
The Creator of the entire System of the Universe – and of all of us, can be perceived as the embodiment of Absolute Authority, Supreme Intelligence, Thoughtfulness, and Compassion – Beyond the bounds of ‘form’, ‘shape’, or ‘time-space’ dimensions – Beyond the tribal affiliations – Not the head of a ‘family’, nor the chief of a ‘clan’ – Absolutely Rational, and in Absolute Command and Control of the entire System – Completely Self-Sufficient and Capable – Beyond the need for ‘worship’ and the demands for ‘sacrifice’ – An embodiment of Absolute Peace and Harmony.
If you happen to visualize the One with the above characteristics, you are having a perfect vision.
ℕow, it is time to pay homage to some of the more prominent tribal Gods of the humans, and try to figure out their characteristics:
Tribal Gods – The Count
It is next to impossible to figure out the total count of all the tribal Gods that have been around on planet Earth. Humans have been on Earth for an estimated 400,000 – 600,000 years. We can say with confidence that there have been more tribal Gods on Earth than the number of years we have our abode on this planet.
But, when taking a count of all the tribal Gods, we have to note that we are taking into account only the ‘Head’ tribal Gods – but, these tribal Gods, normally, come with the assortments of ‘Family Members’ – Wives, Sons, and Daughters etc. – all these ‘members of the family’ do act as the ‘Junior’ or ‘Supporting’ Gods of the tribe.
It is almost impossible to keep tab on all of them – there are too many, and we don’t want to end up using the scientific notation. It will, therefore, be prudent to simply abandon the efforts to have a count of all these tribal Gods, and rather focus on the qualitative side in order to recognized and differentiate between The Creator and these numerous tribal Gods.
In fact, it should be rather an easy task, since the tribal Gods are made on ‘our own image’, and, hence, depict the aspirations, desires, fears, lust, and the savagery of the tribe.
Tribal Gods – The Attributes
A point to note is that most of these tribal Gods come packaged as ‘Three-Packs‘. The oldest of the most prominent ‘Trio Packs’ are the mid-central Indian tribal Gods – The Trinity of Brahma (Father God), Vishnu (Salvation God) and Shiva (Warrior God), and the Egyptian Trinity of Osiris (Father), Horus (Mother) and Isis (Son).
The Son/Sun God is the next most ‘popular‘ package of the tribal Gods. The prominent ones are: Krishna – India; Mithra – Persia; Apollo – Rome; Baal – Babylon; Balder – Scandanavia; Baccus – Greece; Zoroaster – Persia; Adonia – Syria; Astarte – Carthage; Attis – Phrygia; Buddha – India; Yu – China; and many more to add to the list of Son/Sun Gods.
In contrast to The Creator, whose relevant attributes we have highlighted above, all these tribal Gods show some very ‘interesting’ characteristics:
▸ A Confused Lot:
These tribal Gods seems to be unable to plan any thing right – they create the things, then repent their doings.
They cannot articulate their ‘thoughts’ properly – they speak a lingo that is a collection of undecipherable and incomprehensible words – decipherable only by the ‘appointed’ ones – gibberish to the rest.
▸ An irrational, foul-mouthed, and angry bunch:
They move around confused, frustrated, and angry – Utter obnoxious and foul words, spit out curses at regular interval, and threaten to kill and destroy the ‘enemies’.
▸ Devoid of Justice, Lustful, and Blood Thirsty:
They have no sense of ‘proportionality’ – they impose capital punishment even for the minor offenses, and show no mercy. They demand ‘utter destruction’ and slaughter of their enemies, even of babies. After the thoughts of ‘killing and destruction‘, next in line of their thoughts are the ‘sex and lust’ – they cannot hold themselves from spitting out the ‘descriptive’ references pertaining to the sexual acts and genitalia.
▸ Obsessed with the Real Estate and Gold – Like the Kings:
Like the kings, all the tribal Gods are in love with the Real Estate and Gold. They demand the most magnificent ‘houses’ – gold, jewelry, and precious stones must be used lavishly in the decoration. They also offer ‘For Sale and Lease’ the property in the heavens – most of the time it is the auction process – highest bidder wins!
▸ And, Tribal All The Way:
Here, they cannot help themselves – after all, they are the tribal Gods – All the ‘goodies’ go to the tribe. They chose the tribe over the others – assigning the status of ‘cattle’ to the rest of humanity.
Indeed, an amazing lot are the tribal Gods.
Descriptive History of The Tribal Gods
Focusing only on the few of the more prominent ones, we will quote some selective ‘words’ of these Gods, and present a brief narrative of their ‘official’ histories. You decide whether they represent the ‘persona’ of ‘The Creator’, or the characteristics of a tribal God.
The Trinity of Brahma – From The Puranas (The Hindu Bible):
Brahma, the main ‘Hindu’ God, is said to be self-created, or born from a lotus, or hatched from the cosmic egg. He is often depicted with four heads – as his daughter Sarasvati tried to avoid his lustful gaze, other heads grew up in each direction she ran. She could not escape from her father. She succumbed to Brahma’s lust. Brahma and his daughter Saraswati lived as husband and wife(!) Brahma, done with the job of creation, passed his authorities to God Vishnu.
Vishnu is the sustainer of the universe. He keeps on returning to earth, – in human form – to save the world. Lord Krishna was his latest incarnation. [ He, apparently, has given up on humans – has not returned to earth for more than 6,000 years. ]
Shiva is the destroyer and the God of fertility(!) He destroyed the city of demons – He waited 1000 years until the cities, which rotated in the air, were aligned, then pierced all three with one arrow – He became so powerful because the other Gods gave him their divine energy, which he kept after the battle of Mahabharata. He also has three eyes and a necklace of skulls as “Lord of goblins”.
After this exciting description, we will rather skip the ‘wise words’ from this lot.
Zeus – The King of All Gods:
Zeus was a Greek God. He is described to be the Son of God Cronus and Goddess Rhea.
Cronus fathered several children by Rhea, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he was told (!) that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, just the way he had overthrown his own father.
When Zeus was about to be born, Rhea devised a clever plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against his own children. When Zeus born, Rhea handed Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed.
God Zeus is known for his erotic escapades and carried an assortment of consorts. These affairs resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. By his wife, Hera, he fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.
An interesting God was this Zeus guy.
Mithra – The Sun God:
Mithra was the sun (son) God for both the Romans and Persians. He is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, is wearing a Phrygian cap and is holding his legs together.
He ruled over his ‘Goddom‘ for many centuries – His whereabouts is currently unknown.
And, The God’s Words – The Gems!
Here are some of the ‘genuine’ words of God – taken directly from the God’s Book, depicting the peculiar ‘Godly’ characteristics:
The Repenting God:
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
The Deceptive God:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Scared & Plotting God:
Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. . . Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Demanding Blood Sacrifice:
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Commanding to Kill – Even the Infants:
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
Ordering to Destroy All The Inhabitants of The City – Leave Alive Nothing:
Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Ordering to Stone to Death:
Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
☞ Very Godly, indeed!
And, The Godly Infiltration
But, perhaps, the most amazing story is the one where the tribal God seems to have infiltrated into to realm of The Creator! What else it could be? It was all very ‘Creatorly‘ – with all the signature characteristics of The Creator. And, all at once sprang out the familiar tribal God – demanding the surrender of human faculties of logic and reasoning, enforcing worship, and commanding sacrifice.
In order to train the obedient ones to obey his Godly commands, and to make sure they don’t go astray, The God chains them down to the ‘Five Pillars‘- three of the pillars are designed to hold you tight, while the two are just for the heck of it. No, you can go nowhere – You stay put – let the centuries pass by.
The First Heavy-duty Pillar:
To assign five time blocks – spread out over the day, to worship Him – Each time block must be spent in performing the rituals that are very thoughtfully designed to make the ‘worshippers’ the laughing stock of all – May be, it makes the God proud and happy.
The Second Heavy-duty Pillar:
Five times of worship needed some extra support! So, one full month must be assigned to Him – in absolute starvation. No food, and no water the whole day – Plus worship most of the night – Imagine, no water even at 120 degree Fahrenheit (49 degree Celsius) under the blistering sun – It is The Real Fasting.
The Third Heavy-duty Pillar:
The Five bouts a day of worship and fasting over the one whole month was not enough, now go and perform the pilgrimage – indulge in the rituals that put the ancient ‘pagans’ to shame. End the pilgrimage by ‘offering’ the sacrifice!
Strange. It seems that it is the tribal God himself who has morphed into these ‘Pillars’ – And, has tied the ‘believers’ into himself – Or, is it the handy-work of the ‘God makers’ – As usual.
Anyway, we have to solute the resilience of the tribal Gods.
☘ ☘ ☘ ☘ ☘
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