“We don’t need a transcendent god, but transient gods. Not a god for forever, but gods for right now. Not a divine masculine or feminine, but a divine whoever the fuck you are. Not a god of salvation, but gods of survival—crafty, cunning, determined, and able to laugh along the way—even if they, too, may succumb in the end. Instead of perfect, eternal deities, magic-bullet one-act saviors, and all-powerful, infallible gods, maybe what we need are imperfect, transient, messy ones. Gods like Loki and Odin. Gods who fail and make mistakes, whose powers have limits, who wander the margins, who are heroic and monstrous, who struggle and strive just like us. Gods who see the end coming, who know it might be pointless, but who try—heroically, monstrously, divinely, humanly—to change the future anyway. Gods who try their best to live.”

The problem with a great number of practitioners of faiths is the end-time goal. The sense of “oh whatever happens here doesn’t matter because we keep our eyes on the end!” But keeping your eyes on Heaven can make for Hell on Earth.

Imagine being cursed to near-eternal punishment because you got invited to a roast and called the wrong dude a bottom. Damn.