Having examined previously some of the ways in which the territoriality of matters in contemporary life demonstrates a polytheistic approach to life where there is an absence of common authority and a desire for people to gain benefits through competition and for people to view themselves as benefactors in giving largess from what properly belongs to others, let us ponder some of the ways in which heathen gods have a more palpable influence on our contemporary lives as a whole. How is it that heathen deities are viewed as having space and terrain to work with?

When we think of how heathen deities operated in the past, they had domains in one of three ways. Sometimes, heathen deities were assumed to rule over certain space. So it is, for example, that certain false gods were viewed as the patron deities of certain cities or certain civilizations, and so it is today that people in Southeast Asia build spirit houses for the spirits that supposedly reside in a given residence or property. Other deities or patron saints or something else of that heathen nature are viewed as having domains over a particular aspect of life. So it is that sailors or thieves or people engaged in certain professions or activities would have someone in particular to pray to who could bless or at least not hinder efforts in that area. Additionally, deities were viewed as having authority over certain periods of time. So it is that Romans viewed the Jews as being under the influence of the gloomy Saturn because their conception of that day was that the Sabbath was (mostly) under that god’s temporal control.

Unsurprisingly, when we find heathen gods in our own lives and in our own times, it is precisely these same concerns that are listed. The efforts of the false messianic state to enshrine itself in authority lead to a proliferation of regulatory agencies that view themselves as being above the scrutiny of ordinary citizens or elected officials or judicial processes, thus seeking to make themselves rulers over certain domains and activities and spheres of life. Similarly, we find tyrannical authorities as well as heathen deities being assigned territories, be it moons or planets in the case of astronomy or state or national boundaries in the form of political leaders who seek to rule by emergency decree without restraint. Likewise, we find heathen deities as well as rules and regulations being strictly bound by time, and in the latter subject to arbitrary and whimsical enforcement and establishment.

It is frequently not clear to people how it is that the absence of meaningful rule by consent and the conscious desire to undermine any sort of unified cultural or religious or moral worldview within society establishes a heathen culture. It is not surprising that people should not be aware of the end results of what happens when people are placed beyond scrutiny in their behavior and when knowledge and expertise are viewed in the segmented and divided fashion as commonly exists. Yet those who understand the nature of heathen religious worldviews may very easily understand that the desire to adopt pre-constitutional forms of government would inevitably result in heathen culture springing from that desire to go beyond moral and procedural boundaries. It is only a self-restrained people that can be free, because when people chafe against standards and refuse to regulate their own conduct, they will make it impossible for society to operate in a reasonable matter without external regulation, and this external regulation will suffer from the same inability to restrain itself that we find in criminals, only with the force of law behind its arbitrary and capricious decisions. Tyranny and anarchy alike are enemies to any just social order, because each justifies the other, and both represent heathen departures from the way of righteousness and justice.