This topic is not an easy one. Engaged in sharp analysis we find parallel ideas running in interminable loops. By the end of the back and forth and round and round we have nothing to show for it, until we blink our eyes and see the world around us. Put succinctly: Proof of the gods is sudden and not rational.
Let me take you on a tour. It begins at the beginning. What was the first thought and from whence did it come? We are wondering who created first with intention and that one was first to have intention, or thought. If the gods made beings with their thought then who made them? If you tell me they were first, essentially coming from nothing, then why could beings not have come from nothing and their thoughts created the gods? Once it is decided that there had to be a first, then there is a definitive cut wherein we see all parts as equal. Why is this one thing first and not this other? As we strain with the push and pull of these things we may not pay attention to the quiet background within which we struggle.
Given time we can see that background and realize that the only parts of existence that have always remained constant, though not unchanging, are consciousness and reality. Side by side they journey through time together seemingly without reason; yet emphatically separated by circumstances of perspective...really, what does perspective mean with no ground for understanding? As far as some have speculated, consciousness and reality are the same though distinctly different. As one changes, the other grows and brings further change and growth and so on.
Thus, to say "I believe" is to affect change upon reality which then in turn changes consciousness. In a way, to give devotions to Ehlonna creates her as much greeting Grr'ang'thek, an archer in my camp, as he warms himself at the morning fire, creates him. The issue is no longer whether the gods exist or if they existed first. Such questions are trivial or have no meaning. We now want to know how they exist.
Needless to say, my considerations of the matter are far from common or popular. Neither the gods nor their priest-kings care for my inquisition of their phenomenological circumstances. Theology, therefore, is about how best to serve the gods. So, as though I were a specialist in domesticated livestock, I shall tell you of the various formal faiths and the beings to which they are attached. I've spoken my peace. You can venture as far as you choose.
