Do Gods Exist? Philosophy and Mythology

Abstract

Recently in Poland, the essential works by German historian of Greek religion, Walter F. Otto (1874–1958) have been translated. As a commentary to this somewhat confusing oeuvre, I distinguish four attitudes to the problem of existence of mythological gods: naturalistic rationalism, humanistic rationalism, naturalistic irrationalism and humanistic irrationalism. On this occasion, I also recall a metaphysical project of a Polish historian of art Wiesław Juszczak (1932–2021), who believed that the faith in ancient gods could be a way of experiencing them, and even more, reaching the ultimate absolute, in the form of mystical feeling, the primal source of all religious as well as artistic visions and revelations.