Amaterasu to Zoroaster
Everybody is an Atheist (to Other Peoples' Gods)
There are thousands of deities floating around the world. Well, some float. Others walk, some talk, some dance, others throw thunder bolts and wreak all manner of havoc on hapless humankind. But one thing they all have in common is that somewhere, somehow and at some time people have believed in them or still do to this day.
I googled the term “creation myths” lately and was presented with a panoply of gods and goddesses both ancient and modern. I had not even heard of a fraction of these deities before. Some are really cool.
Joseph Campbell was a famous story teller. He loved recounting myths and legends – both well known and obscure. In fact, he could go on and on. I was watching him not long ago on a Public Broadcasting station with a collection of Fundamentalist friends. I know, that sounds unlikely, but for some reason I think there was some mention of the real creation story coming up sometime after the fund-raiser.
“How could anybody believe that crap?” roared a heavy set guy of at least twenty.
“Yeah, when are we going to get to the Bible?”, the others insisted in unison. They had all put up with just about enough of all this ridiculous blabber about tribal African gods, Native American gods, Eskimo gods and ancient Greco-Roman gods to boot. “Let's get to the one true God and forget all this pagan nonsense”, they chanted, growing increasingly weary of stories about all these other “false gods”.
Well, we finally got to their own personal god, Yahweh, and his only begotten son, Jesus. Boy, were they disappointed, and mad! He got no more air time from Campbell than Amaterasu and her magic sword that dipped into the Pacific Ocean and created Japan, or Zoroaster, who apparently didn't create anything, but did cause a lot of trouble upsetting the establishment in ancient Persia (Iran).
Well, they slammed the TV off in a huff and all began cursing PBS. Somehow in their collective Christian minds, and intoxicated as always on their American Christian privilege, they were all spitting mad that their tax dollars were going to support public television and giving a forum to a quack like Joseph Campbell.
“Why don't we turn on FOX and maybe we can catch the last of Hannity or Rush?” I recommended. Nobody got the dig, of course, but they finally settled down and decided on Monday Night Football instead. I made my exit at this point.
