Why even bother...?

[badstar]

Why bother worshiping a god if you can't accept what they are and are just going to try to cut and bend them into something that you do like? Why do people do this? Why not just...I dunno, find gods that you can accept? Especially when it's a matter of trying to cut out that deity's major area of provenance- seriously "Well, I'm a pacifist and I've managed to find a way to see Athena as a goddess of mental conflict instead of war and I think if I can do the same thing to Ares I could worship him too but while I'm trying to think up ways to pretend he's something nice and clean and personally palpable to me I'm going to make an offering to him because he asked for it- and while I'm at it I'm going to ask him to put a stop to the war!"

This isn't even acknowledging that there are aspects that you don't like and only really dealing with those that you do (hell, I can at least have some respect for someone who can acknowledge that there are aspects of a given deity that they don't like instead of pretending they don't exist.)

Oh, and please don't try to tell me that anti-violence is just sooooooo ingrained in you that you had to rescue a bug from drowning in your backyard pool when you were four years old. Seriously, that has fuck-all to do with anti-violent morality and everything to do with the actions of an innocent child.

Gah, people make my brain bleed. Why don't you just go find some unicorns to run around with or something?

Comments

[acousticdryad.livejournal.com]

DROWN THE BUGSSSSSSSSSS

[eternalhearts.livejournal.com]

HEHEHE, I'm waiting for Gavin to give him/her a shake

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

Gavin just woke up, give her a few minutes to get in kill mod.... oh never mind, there! :-)

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

http://forum.hellenistai.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=791&p=3709#p3709

There, are you happy now? :-)

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and may I say your icon has never been more appropriate. :-)

[laria-a.livejournal.com]

Damn it, you beat me to making a post like this. :)

I don't understand trying to ignore Ares' main area of influence. I get trying to come to terms with a 'difficult' god, but you can't just ignore the fact he's the god of war and hope it'll go away.

And maybe she can find some sparkly pixies to frolic with, too?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Please, don't let me stop you from making your own!

[laria-a.livejournal.com]

Nah. I'll leave it to the epic rage-machine that is Gavin to deal with now. :D

[smithing-chick.livejournal.com]

People try to do that with the Morrigan all the time, too. Yes, really she's fuzzy bunny Goddess of War, not the sort to smite Her champion because he hit on Fand instead of Her. Just ignore that lore behind the curtain....

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Hehe...at least they let her be a goddess of war :-P

[smithing-chick.livejournal.com]

Err. actually, I've seen people claim that She isn't really. It's nuts.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Well, Wade MacMorrigan is a rather epic variety of special...

[bluedolfyn.livejournal.com]

*twitch* My gods, I haven't come across him in *years*, thank all the gods. I'd forgotten he existed. Hee.

[sephatta.livejournal.com]

Oh man, don't get me started on what people do to the Morrigan. That drives me insane.

[brontosproximo.livejournal.com]

This fool deserves what they get.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

You know...a while after I made this post, I started wondering what you might end up saying in comment...lol

[brontosproximo.livejournal.com]

It's that old aphorism about trying to teach a pig to sing.

If the person is worth teaching, point them at truth and they will find it and be grateful.

But it only annoys the pig.

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

And that's the way to do it, in my opinion. And there is yet another reason I don't care for that must worship all gods equally shit.

Of course I also think this person has taken a dislike of violence to a brain burstingly retarded level (I totally let people beat me up and put me in the hospital all the time, because to try and stop them would be wrong peace love and fluffy bunnies!!!), so maybe a divine kick in the ass is what we need? :-P

[totallypinkrock.livejournal.com]

must worship all gods equally shit.
FOR. SERIOUS.
This isn't Dungeons and Dragons, people. ^_^

And yet, I have to wonder what exactly we "do" with our gods of war. Gods of death? Sure - the Morrigan can help us come to terms with the fact that death happens. But gods of war? What do you do with them, exactly?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

I don't really 'click' with Athene, Hestia, Demeter or a number of other goddesses but I'm not going to try and pigeonhole or reinterpret them so that they're more in line with my interests. I just keep a respectful distance and say 'I'm glad they've got that part of the kosmos under control.'

Yeah, me too. Seriously, the whole bending and twisting of gods into all kinds of crazy alternative shapes- whether to get away from things one finds distasteful or to make them fit a mold- like the MMC thing- just really drives me nuts. It's so disrespectful and dismissive.

[ursus-of-unrv.livejournal.com]

Oh, that stupid bitch?

Do you girls ever get tired of moderating and what to throw in the towel?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

There really isn't a whole lot to moderate, so- at least for me- it's not so much a case of getting sick of moderation, just getting sick of the epic stupid...but then, the rest of the world really isn't any better, the forum is just a lot more subject-specific.

[rin-x-x.livejournal.com]

Back when I was coming to terms with Dionysos' more violent side, I said (at the time) that I wasn't able to comprehend it, and that I doubted that I ever would, but that it was entirely possible that I would.

Two years down the road and I'm confused I ever thought it in the first place!

As per the person of this post.. I don't get their reasoning either. With Athena, MAYBE I can see it.. but with Ares? No. I think he'd be pretty insulted to just have his major attributes ignored. Even if you didn't honour that side of him, you can't sweep that under the rug. Just no.

[dance-shiva.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

I think some people have a hard time understanding the differences between respect and worship. You can respect a deity and pay homage to "you are a force greater than myself" without needing to worship those aspects that you don't consider admirable.

Still (not going back and reading the whole flame war...just don't have the stomach today) picking up and probably misinterpreting a scrap of what was said here, I don't really see anyhting wrong in asking the help of a God of War in ending a war, as long as you ask for the right thing. Working in hypothetical gods (because I don't wanna step on anyone's concept of a specific deity, and there are a shitton of war gods in the world) "war" CAN mean a lot of things. If a god is a god of the glory of war, you could beseech that a certain war has become gruesome and petty and not suited to the concept that that god is truly the patron of. If the god is a god of destruction and change, you could beseech that a centuries-old war has become a condition of stagnation and entrenchment of a military complex, and no longer serves the purpose that war under that deity's auspices ought to serve.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Still (not going back and reading the whole flame war...just don't have the stomach today) picking up and probably misinterpreting a scrap of what was said here, I don't really see anyhting wrong in asking the help of a God of War in ending a war, as long as you ask for the right thing.

Actually...not really a flame war, if you can believe that...lol

Since you didn't follow the link...to give you the basic idea, the person in question is someone who has suddenly decided that she needs to worship Ares- but has problems with it because she's a total and complete pushover pacifist- she goes on for paragraphs about how she abhors all violence to the point where she'd rather die than defend herself against someone if they were beating her.

But she needs to worship Ares, but she doesn't like that he's a war god, and she's already found a way to bend and twist Athena and her war aspects into something she can swallow, so if she can do that with Ares too, she can worship him and be okay with it.

And the thing is not that it's a problem to pray to a war god for the end of a war- the problem is that's it's just so ridiculously disrespectful to decide to worship a god only if she can re-image him into something that she likes and then ask him for something so massive as the end of a war.

[dance-shiva.livejournal.com]

Ah. Gotcha.

Sounds like someone's getting called to a shaman-level test when they're still wearing their white-light training wheels.

[sephatta.livejournal.com]

I don't think I will ever get that. If I can't accept the entirety of a god, I keep a respectful distance. And furthermore, I honestly think that a god's "flaws" are part of what makes the god awesome- they personify what they are completely, and live what they are fully, and that comes with things we see as "good" and "bad".

But that's okay, since I am Bubble Fox Moon Rider and I worship the Goddess Who Pees Rainbows. :D (Which will make no sense unless you read that entry. If you haven't, I will send it to you.)

[patch99329.livejournal.com]

This angers me a ridiculous amount. Things like this make me hate everyone.

I especially hate the 'Kali/lilith/morrighan/other badass deity is a mother goddess blablabla' ...no sorry. Kali will eat you and Lilith will steal your kids!

A god is a being too. It's like me deciding to see you with green hair because I hate your current colour, it dosen't work!

[fuego.livejournal.com]

I especially hate the 'Kali/lilith/morrighan/other badass deity is a mother goddess blablabla' ...no sorry. Kali will eat you and Lilith will steal your kids!

Well...some of them ARE mother goddesses, or have mother aspects- like um, I think it's Kali-Ma?


But they're not the nice, snuggly make you cookies and give you hugs mothers.

[wordcandlemage.livejournal.com]

Amen, Sister! LOL

You have hit one of my pet peeves. People have facets of their personalities that others might not like. Their friends overlook those aspects or learn to deal with them. Why should it be any different with gods? They have aspects to Their natures that we might not like, but it's part and parcel of who They are.

This pacifist person seems to be overlooking the very strong possibility that Ares wants offerings from her because He wants to teach her to be at least a bit assertive on her own behalf.

I do not deal well with the "all gods are pure light and fluffiness and beautiful love" approach to Paganism.