Croire aux dieux

Abstract

If one is attached to polytheistic rituals, the relevance of the distinction between belief and faith is simple enough to perceive – belief in the gods is invested in practices such that their existence is not the central problem. The account of the death of the great Pan makes us realize that the real question is rather that of divine animation in the form of a familiarity that is not reduced to presence or even co-presence – the epiphany that sees the god loom in our perception provisionally belies the parallel nature of this animation. The mention of Protagoras tells us that this dimension, without being a transcendence, is to be thought of outside our frame of reference. Analyses from neuroscience shed light on the dual nature of belief – investment in practices and psychological and syntactic anticipation. More specifically, believing in the gods forms part of a cosmological system of correlations.

Keywords

• belief
• gods
• polytheism
• Protagoras
• Pan
• neurosciences