Can the Gods be bribed?
A bribe is when an individual or a group of people gives a gift of money, or some other inducement, to an official so the official will act in their favor. We allegedly ban such transactions because they subvert justice but they can also encourage justice if a good actor bribes a bad actor so the bad actor does the right thing. Does that make it a “good” bribe?
Prayer itself isn’t a bribe but it can contain the promise of one in the future if the Gods are induced to grant a wish. Prayer is then the gateway, the entrance door to a bribe.
As revealed by Martin Luther in 1517, an indulgence was a payment to the Catholic Church that purchased an exemption from punishment (penance) for some types of sins. Church leaders justified the bribe by arguing that they had inherited an unlimited amount of good works from Jesus, and the credit for these good works could be sold to believers in the form of indulgences. In other words, indulgences functioned like “confession insurance” against eternal damnation because if you purchased an indulgence, then you wouldn’t go to hell if you died suddenly or forgot to confess something.
The corollary question is: Can the devil be bribed?
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