God Is Dead. Long Live The Gods!

The world stands in dire need of new gods, and preferably lots of them. The current fad of worshipping one single all-powerful deity is clearly not working - all the major monotheistic religions are in crisis. Believers have been losing faith in the Judaeo-Christian God for centuries. In spite of the shrill evangelical movement, Western society is still largely secular - one of this year's runaway best-sellers is The God Delusion by the militantly atheist Richard Dawkins. In the Islamic world, one of the root causes of extremist anger - according to some scholars - is the feeling that Allah has not delivered: if he is indeed all-powerful, why are his followers subject to the political will of America and Israel?

Part of the problem is that a single God is too remote. Omniscience notwithstanding, we stand little chance of catching his eye, let alone interacting with him in any useful way.

Benrik Limited has devised a range of more accessible gods, more suited to our 21st-century requirements. They are inspired by the lares and penates, the Roman household gods. These, of course, were little wooden figurines that every Roman household kept in a special shrine, called the lararium, and prayed to every morning. Unlike the all-in-one monotheistic God, the lares and penates were fit only for particular purposes: ensuring the family was properly fed, for instance, or protecting travellers against peril. Full Story

Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells