this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

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Do the old Greek, Norse or Roman gods take godhood of modern concepts? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 month ago by captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Like, would Hephaestus be the god of magnetos, distributors and capacitor discharge ignition systems? Or does that count as lightning and thus be Zeus' problem? Is Oden the god of whiskey because it necessarily must be made in oak barrels, or being booze would that fall under Dionysus? Is Mercury the god of SMS?

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

IT makes me wonder...

First of all one has to remember that the ancient Greeks weren't as united as we think of them now; I've heard it described as "a collection of city-states that mostly spoke the same language and worshipped some of the same gods." But even within that, or swapping ancient Greece for ancient Rome...how much innovation really took place during those eras? How many old men died in the same world they were born in having seen nothing of note change about society?

Meanwhile, just look at the United States Navy. In 200 years we went from building ships like the USS Constitution to the USS Monitor to the USS Nimitz. There were Americans who read about the invention of the airplane in the newspapers who also watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon live on television. Those events were only 65.5 years apart.

How would a polytheistic religion full of "gods of something" cope with or support that level of progress? I associate the industrial revolution almost exclusively with North America and Western Europe who were and are related flavors of monotheistic.