Of Gods and Heroes

There has long been speculation that some (if not all) of the gods we are familiar with in Heathenry were at one time actually human, deified (made into gods) by their people for their achievements, wisdom or power. This kind of deification isn’t uncommon to Paganism, either – the Pharaohs, the pharaoh-cation of the Ptolomeic line in Egypt, the posthumous deification of some Roman emperors are all examples of this practice. It would be argued by many scholars that the practice isn’t uncommon to Christianity, with the elevation of Jesus from human prophet (what most of Jesus’ contemporaries considered him to be) to God-made-flesh (what his followers would eventually believe him to be) …

End of ‘Our’ Universe

Today I read an interesting article on Space.com, about how a theoretical astrophysicist named Abraham Loeb has arrived at the conclusion that in about a hundred billion years or so, galaxies in our universe will travel at or beyond the speed of light, and thus no longer be visible to each other. Loeb’s theory would make it theoretically impossible to send or receive signals from distant galaxies, let alone travel to them or even observe them, once galaxies have reached this speed. This theory presents some interesting questions – not just about science, but also about religion, and I thought I’d share them …

An Explanation

I’ve debated whether or not I should write about this topic for a couple months. As some of you realize, and anyone could see by looking at the dates on my posts, I’ve been relatively inactive in the blogosphere for nearly three months. Yesterday was my first real attempt to resume where I’d left off, and parts of me would like to think that this will continue. As I made clear in my March post, it was for health concerns that I took a break from blogging and the Internet in general. Since then, I’ve received comments and E-mails wishing me better health, encouraging me to resume blogging when I’m able, and encouraging me to give myself the time I need – I have appreciated these more than I’m able to express, and I think a proper explanation is in order …

Hospitality

Finally returning to my series on the Nine Noble Virtues in Heathenry (and returning at least for the time being to blogging in general), I’d like to explore the virtue of hospitality. This virtue happens to be my favorite virtue, as I consider it to be a pinnacle of human achievement. In my original article, I said of hospitality that it “…does not lock itself indoors, nor does it suffer the hindrance of inconvenience. It is the greatest of the nine virtues because to have it, one must also have the other eight.” It seems like a pretty bold claim, for a virtue that some consider to mean little more than serving a meal to the occasional guest; but there is another way in which to view hospitality, a way in which this virtue represents humanity at its best, and it is in this way that I tend to regard it ….