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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2368307" data-attributes="member: 7240">In polytheistic cultures, worshipping the gods is a matter of civic duty. Gods, demons and angels cause droughts, epidemics, earthquakes, floods, good harvests, bad harvests, victory in battle, etc. Religion is not just a matter of personal devotion, it is a metter of public responsibility. A town is required to all come together in the annual Feast, Lottery, Stoning and Jamboree for the Great Earth God Hrunoth because it is misanthropic not to join your fellow citizens in working to ensure that the harvests are good next year and the volcano stays dormant. Next week, you'll all be out again to for the quarterly Baptism and Clambake for Ulhonnaia, Goddess of the Broad River. I live in a country with socialized medicine, as I believe the original poster does. Even those states with purely private healthcare have things like the Center for Disease Control to deal with epidemics and other major matters of public health. Viruses, like gods, are invisible, hard to understand, seemingly fickle and arbitrary and potentially lethal. One of the mistakes people make by seeing pre-Christian polytheistic divinities through the lens of modern Christian belief is assuming that worshipping a god is the same as loving the god or believing him to be perfect.</blockquote>