In the good old days, gods were absorbed into society with a minimum of fuss. When a new god was needed, there was usually an emperor eager to be deified. If such a pinnacle of human vanity was lacking, the necessary new gods were invented, or taken in from other cultures, when enough people with money became disenchanted with the old gods.
That disenchantment generally coincided with the rising costs of maintaining the old gods. Old gods, with big, established priesthoods and temples, were expensive. When money was short, it was economically beneficial to bring in new gods and goddesses. New priests and hierarchies started at lower salaries and didn’t have benefits. Political leaders helped make changes from old gods to new. Then, as now, they don’t want any religion to be too large or too powerful.
No one minded the old gods very much. Gibbons related how Egypt’s Isis became popular in Rome. He tells of one young man who bribed a priest at the temple to let him pretend to be a visitation of god so that he could seduce a Roman matron “at Isis’s command”. When the trick was uncovered, the priest was executed. The randy Roman had his wrist slapped. The matron and her prominent family suffered some embarrassment.
That’s about the most interesting thing that any of the old gods did, aside from justifying whatever war the rulers wanted.
Today, governments have rolled all the old gods into one. Their approved deity is fear. The fear-god takes many forms, all of which are empowered by the state and its evangelizing media. For several years, the fear-god appeared frequently before us in the form of dioxin. More often, he visited us as manifestations of asbestos. Once, the fear-god briefly came among us in the form of Alar, a harmless insecticide. Frequently, the fear-god is found in carbonated drinks. Often, he is re-discovered to be living in fat, sugar, and salt. Virtually every liquid, solid, or gas can be inexpensively transformed into an idol in the temple of fear. The most powerful manifestations of the fear god appears when taxes may be cut, causing budgets to be reduced.
The Roman Catholic Church believes that Christ is literally present in the Eucharist. Those who worship the fear-god believe that he may be found in every identifiable process and thing. His acolytes spend their lives searching for his manifestations. The most successful of his priests and priestesses find something to fear in every thing, in every activity, and are skilled at pointing out reasons to fear, wherever the fear-god may be found.
The Roman Catholic Church is universal. One of Her jobs is to provide the chosen with access to Heaven. The fear-god gets no one to Heaven. He has, strangely, encouraged absolutely no one to fear being sent to an eternity of hell.
