It’s been pointed out on occasion that when things are tough in the United States, church attendance tends to increase. This is mostly because, when people are desperate, they’re more susceptible to believing in any sort of ridiculous hogwash that offers a glimmer of hope. Sure enough, reports have been coming out all month, during this (buzzword alert) global economic recession, that churches, particularly those of evangelical Christians, are seeing a swelling in their ranks.

A similar phenomenon is occurring in Japan, but in their case, rather than begging for mercy, they’re looking for someone to blame. That someone is Bimbogami, the Shinto God of Poverty. Shinto practitioners interested in driving Bimbogami away flock to a special temple, where they can hit a statue of the god with a very large stick.

I’ll say this for polytheism: it does wonders for the division of labor. When a supernatural system has hundreds of deities, each in charge of only a small sector of life, one can choose their own priorities for worship at any given moment, and have some sense that they’re at least talking to the correct department. In contrast, when one believes in a monotheistic system, there is only ever one god to pray to, and that makes just about any prayer seem petty and selfish. If you don’t believe me, just look at the following two phrases, and think about which one seems stupider:

#1. “Hey God of Poverty, fuck off!”

#2. “Hey God In Charge of Everything, help me re-finance my mortgage!”

Doesn’t seem so silly now, does it Westerners? Now if only the Japanese could combine their love of polytheism with their love of robots, we’d really be onto something. Coming soon to a temple near you! Interactive Artificially Intelligent Robotic Idols! You could collect them. Like Pokemon, but with gods.