Depression Relief Proves Divinity

Religious people tend to be less depressed than non-religious. This is not an opinion, but the fact of 61% to 67% of studies on the subject. It's been something long thought to be true. While there are always exceptions to every rule, the over all reality is that people who are religious and spiritual tend to have better mental health, which you would think shatters the idea that religion is a "mental illness," as some non-religious people ridiculously claim. The bigger picture is that this is hard evidence that Divinity exists. Why? For the simple fact that depression is a real condition, a chemical imbalance, and thus, it's not something that you can "believe" away. In order for the affliction to be conquered or controlled, order and balance must be restored. So what do religious people have in this case that non-religious do not? The presence of Gods and ascension inside and around them.

All that is Divine can do good for the human condition. Take the Sun for instance, which was and still is a God to certain people and groups. The Sun's light and rays have proven healing powers (Apollon being God of the sun and healing). The light can as well push depression out of the mind and even heal infants of jaundice. The Sun saves the babies from permanent brain damage and death caused by this affliction. Again, jaundice is not something you can "believe" away. The Gods are literally staring us right in the face if we would simply open our eyes and look. Higher Powers are obvious.

Being someone who has battled severe depression and severe anxiety disorder in his own life since I was a teenager, I can attest to the power of the Gods in confronting the conditions. The medicine provided by the Gods and my doctors also helped a great deal (as they were meant to), but without the Gods themselves I feel I would have simply been soiling the problem. The Gods are the ones who lift our minds to a higher plane. Our lives become unbothered, at least in my experience, by the typical obstacles of mundane life. When I walk into my temple, all my troubles leave my mind. When I sit in the hot rays of the Sun, it's as if nothing else matters, an overwhelming sense of good, love and security takes over.

Perhaps this observation has been with us even as far back as ancient Greece, when Homer wrote, "Those who depart from the Gods, I find to be in wanting."

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

Fire Didn't Raise No Fool

Prometheus gave humans fire in order to advance our minds, that is what the ancient Greeks believed. Humans were made last, and there was nothing left to give us in the way of natural weapons or abilities, and so the Gods gave us an amazing mind, that we could be superior to all the animals around us. The beginning of that development was the gift of fire that the Titan blessed us with. While most people of our modern Age may think nothing of the story outside of a cultural worldview long passed, science proves that it's actually true. As with mostly all the Myths, our educational system of today leads us to discount rather than examine them.

Prehistoric man did indeed have fire, and we now know that because they had fire and were able to cook with it, the human brain grew. Because of the fact that food became more digestible, far more nutrients went into the body as opposed to earlier primates who couldn't use the tool. In short, it is a literal fact that the gift of fire advanced the human mind. In the broader view of humanity, it literally gave a rocket boost to human evolution itself. Fire later became used in sacrifices and was considered a sign of the presence of a God. Fire, when big enough, would also keep nightly predators away, and so it became known as that which drives away evil. 

Of course, the ancient Greeks had no knowledge of this prehistoric and modern science, so how did they know? Who told them? The Higher Powers and Intelligences of the universe, whom all humans have an inherent connection and quest for because of schema, created that realization. Simply put, the Gods told them. Today we are often raised and trained to be afraid of fire. I remember when I was growing up, just lighting a stove scared or made me very nervous. We should most certainly be careful with it, because after all, it did come from Powers beyond our control, but I think that the more we grow accustomed to the natural world and our natural selves, we understand the Divinity and wonderfulness of it all. 

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

Ask and The Gods Will Tell You, Every Time

One of the most common questions asked by atheists and agnostics today is, "If there is God or Gods, why are there so many bad things in the world?" But the thing is, there wouldn't be anywhere near as many if we would listen to the Gods every time. 

In the opening of The Odyssey, Zeus is talking to the other Gods about the tragedy of Agamemnon's wife and her lover, who chose to murder Agamemnon. Zeus says, humans blame us Gods for evil, when it is nothing but their own folly. I even sent my Messenger, Hermes, to warn them, and they would not listen, and now they face destruction. Athena finishes the dialogue by saying, may this be the fate of all like them.

The people who ask the question above often don't realize that they are repeating the same error that was made thousands of years ago, and that Zeus has already answered them. They are still laying blame upon the Gods for evil, instead of their own refusal to listen. The Gods would tell us all good things to do to make our lives and the world a better place, if we would only obey their words instead of our own desires which we often allow to take the place of wisdom. Humans listen to their prejudices, hate, greed and destructive desires more than to good, and the Gods know this. Thus, the evil in the world is the fault of humans, not the Gods, and the result shall be the fate of all likewise.

If a murderer, robber, rapist, and every other criminal would listen to what the Gods say, they would not be a murderer, robber, rapist or any criminal. If we would ask the Gods whether we should cheat our fellowman or be honest by them and listen to the answer, we would eventually never know what a lie or a falsehood is. What's even more revealing is that deep down, we already know the answers, because the Gods put their goodness inside of us and the world. Without asking, governments know they should help the poor instead of gluttonizing the rich. And what of disease and illness? We can solve that, too. But we have vaccines that people refuse to take. We have hospitals and technologies that care more about money than human beings. We have natural remedies, like cannabis, that we have kept illegal for countless years, and is still illegal in many places, despite the fact that it's been proven to be a miracle drug for many patients. The Gods gave and are willing to give us the power and knowledge to end about 99% of Earth's problems.

The Gods are not our babysitters, nor did they come to this world with the intention of attaching strings to us like puppets. It is our duty to make something great of our existence, otherwise there is no purpose to said existence.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

Validating Ancient Greek Creation Stories

Ancient Greek myths, especially the stories of creation, are often regarded by mainstream society and the educational system as primitive and holding no value or truth to them. In short, the idea that they should be discarded, while the mainstream monotheistic religions claim that their own stories are the most logical and likely. But when you've spent time as a Hellenist, especially religiously, and you've deeply studied and deciphered the myths, you realize the immense amount of truth behind them. Comparing some of the myths to what we know or think regarding science today, I will explain these examples.

Let's begin with the first myth relevant to ancient Greek religion, that being the story of creation. The ancient Greeks believed that, in the beginning, there was simply chaos, immense disorder. Then, after a significant passing of time, the chaos stopped and the Earth or Gaia came into Being. If we apply this to what science thinks the beginning of the universe was like, we find a perfect match. There was nothing but chaos and disorder in the beginning. Not only did we have the Big Bang, but the Earth itself went through collisions, impacts, separations, and eruptions. However, eventually, the chaos stopped and there was order in the universe. And, unlike modern religions that wrongly date the age of the Earth to be mere thousands, the ancient Greeks never attempted to put a number on it, because they knew it was massive. Today, we know this to be true. The Earth is over 4 billion years old, not 6,000, and while the idea of a flat Earth is still accepted by some people even to this day, an ancient Greek named Eratosthenes correctly calculated its circumference, thus proving Earth to be round.

According to the ancient Greeks, once the Earth came into Being, She first gave birth to monsters. Today, we know this to be true because, at least when it comes to large forms of life, dinosaurs and other prehistoric giants roamed and swam upon the Earth. Now the myth does not directly describe a dinosaur itself as far as I can recall, but nevertheless, the ancient Greeks knew that a world of monstrous beings predated us. When mankind did finally arrive on the scene, he was said to have come in five Ages, or stages. In short, what we would call today an evolutionary pattern. The ancient Greeks knew that man today was not the same as man who first started out upon the Earth, that man and civilization changed over time. It's also worth noting that the Greeks believed that man was created last, after all the other creatures of the Earth. Because of this, all of the natural weapons and abilities had already been given to all the other creatures. There was nothing left to give man in this regard. This is why we don't have the power to really harm other animals with our hands, but they can often devastate us with a single blow. Instead, the Gods gave us a great mind, that we could find ways to rule over our shortcomings in the animal kingdom. And so, we have. 

The beginnings of ancient Greek myth also began to advance our understanding of bodily anatomy. It was said that when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man, Zeus punished the Titan by chaining Him to a mountain, and each day, a liver-eating bird could come and peck out the organ, only for it to grow back the next day so that the punishment may be inflicted again. Today, we know that the liver is the only organ that has the ability to regenerate itself.

It's no wonder that so much of our modern science derives from that which was started by the ancient Greeks, and it's proof that theology and science can exist together, because for the ancient Greeks, there was no separation of religion and everything else in life. It was all rolled into one, and still, their sciences advanced because the Gods encourage the pursuit of knowledge. They do not like ignorance, especially willful ignorance. If the ancient Greeks had been allowed to continue on through the centuries, instead of being forcefully disrupted, persecuted and destroyed by dogmatic monotheism, who knows what we might know or be able to do today?

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.