If one can put aside the garbage of acquired knowledge, and the forest of shoddily put second hand intellection of a corrupt mind, then one may define gods simply as the things we value most.

Having been let down by the gods of youth, health, wealth, recognition, relationship, friendship, love etc., the broken human with a shoddy and corrupt mind, which is most of humanity, then goes on a quest to find other gods.

In this quest he or she collects all the information they can on/of the various available gods, and then, decides on the one that suits his or own system, conditioning, experiences, and bias. It could be a belief on a religious god or it could be a more secular god as science (the newest god in the block). It could be the permanent gods of fancied imaginations, or it could be the ever changing gods of knowledge. It could be a god of 'belief', or it could be a god of 'experience'. So on and so forth…

It seems, if one has gone deep into the matter, this search for security in gods, which may take various forms such as deities, ideas, knowledge, intellection, possessions, entertainment, etc., is a search for an all perfect miraculous drug which will ease an underlying pain.

The underlying pain may be a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of meaninglessness to it all (thus searching for meaning) etc. Thus this search to find a perfect drug that will soothe the underlying internal sorrow is an escape from facts, from what is.

If the observer has come thus far, working on their own ( not second hand shoddily put intellection of a corrupt mind), and has an expereintial insight into the complete map, then the question confronting the observer is, can the entire loop be dropped. Can observation be washed of the observer, the observer being the essence of the loop, the essence of the corruption.

However, since the observer is afraid of its own death and wants the pleasure of continuity….it doesn’t know how to face these burning questions, but would rather escape into some comforting beliefs, some comforting ideas, some comforting drug, or some comforting distraction/entertainment etc.