We recently gave as a present to a nephew....the LEGO blocks of NASA's Artemis rocket to the moon. Artemis was the Greek god worshiped by the Ephesians. The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. NASA leaned more to Greek deities....the Apollo and Mercury missions etc....while the planets were named after Roman deities.
We may not worship Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln....but the memorials in our capital to them are very similar to the temples that Paul commented on while in Athens.
I was at the movies this morning for a nine AM showing of The Odyssey. I wasn't looking forward to seeing the latest blockbuster to come out of Hollywood....an idol factory in its own right....but if it was that popular....and if I spend so much time commenting on our culture....then I just had to go and see the film.
This isn't a movie review....other than to say....OK....it was epic alright....of war and the gods and morality....where the Greek gods are the main protagonists. Everyone except Matt Damon's character was concerned about offending Zeus.....and Poseidon....although Odysseus had a personal relationship with Athena....while Calypso had a big sway over him.
We are familiar with how David wanted to build a house for God....but God said that he was too much a man of war....so the task of building the temple went to his son Solomon. Well Matt Damon's Odysseus wanted a decent civilization to return to Ithaca after all of the corruption....but that task would have to be for his son Telemachus.
The narrative of the movie is a morality play. I know that I have watched Jimmy Stewert's 1946 classic....It's A Wonderful Life....almost every year as Christmas approached....but that also was a non-Christian morality play! Not only is American culture a morality play....but evangelicalism is heading that way very fast is....a morality play on a Christian stage.
So who are these Greek gods anyway...or the Roman gods? For that matter....who is Krishna and Kali in Hinduism? Well you can start with the Baals and all of the Canaanite gods....and then take one more step backward....and the circle is complete....fallen angels....also known as demons....starting with Lucifer.
If AI eventually gives us a god....which I believe that it will....it in essence will not be any different than Zeus or Jupiter or Molech or Dagon!
