The Church of Pain views the idea of God (or Gods) as a representation of parts of Nature. Humans often develop archetypes to give ourselves an easy way to relate to phenomenon that are so large that they defy our ability for understanding. This need to create more easily understandable personalities that we can more comfortably relate to is the reason that there are, quite literally, thousands of gods.
We believe that Nature is the divine, universal, and omnipotent force that pervades all existence. Nature comprises the totality of the observable and unobservable, represents the entire set of possibilities, and connects every point in existence to every other.
The magnitude of Nature can be terrifying and, so, it is completely understandable that many people feel the need to demystify it by giving it a relatable personality. In a relatable form, with relatable (human) emotions and motivations, a god (e.g., of thunder, fertility, famine, destiny, or heaven and earth) is something that we can interpret and maybe even bargain with. The idea of having a predictable relationship with power beyond conventional understanding can be comforting and gives a convenient answer to the question of why things happen. It is, in other words, perfectly natural that people invented gods to describe Nature.
The Church of Pain encourages people to see beyond the anthropomorphic conception of Nature as a set of relatable archetypes and, in daily actions as well as ritual observances, open ourselves to the divine power that surrounds, flows through, and connects us to every point in existence. We believe that using a god as a representation of Nature, or some aspect of Nature, can be a distraction in our efforts to commune with the divine.
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