As mentioned in the introduction to this series, spirit, understood in terms of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos, is that which makes alive. Everything that is alive has spirit and is spirited, including goddesses, gods, and other beings invisible to us humans.
The question I address in this post is whether or not I believe goddesses and gods are eternal. In addressing this question I reflect on the meaning of "eternal", the effects of believing that goddesses and gods are eternal, the meaning of immortal, and the effects of believing that goddesses and gods are immortal rather than eternal.
First, I do not believe that goddesses and gods are eternal. Here's why:
In Western civilization "eternal" tends to mean "always has been and always will be." An eternal god is without beginning and end. He is unchanging. He has no parents that conceived him, no birth, growth, decline, death, and rebirth. Such a god by necessity exists "outside of time", apart from the universe, and in a supernatural/metaphysical realm.
The effect of such a belief is the valuing of a realm, life, and existence that is outside the world we live in. It exalts what is eternal, unchanging, separated from "this world." It values life before and after the life we live in "this world." Those who believe in eternity often speak of going to a better place than this world after they die. Such a belief devalues, and often denies, all that is temporal and mortal, all that changes, and all that is of "this world"; that is, all of nature.
I simply cannot believe is something so life-denying.
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