I've mentioned many times I hold belief in God--singular, capital G--but not God as strictly defined by any religion so much as it is a concept transcending reality which has a direct influence over it. (More or less.) A little hodgepodge of every stance on what God would be, from Abrahamic religions to a scientific outlook to a little bit of more Eastern religion influences. (There might be some, say, Buddhism in there. It all blends together, so it's hard to define what exactly forms my belief.)
But I also believe in gods--plural, lowercase g--that also directly influence the world. What these entities are, exactly, I don't know. I've theorized they exist on the ethereal, and maybe also the other realms, be it dream or thought, and they are actual thinking beings. Beings who can be both lesser than humans or greater than humans or just different from humans, but which exist.
Among the more weirder gods that I believe in? I, no joke, find myself with absolute belief in 'the traffic gods'. Blog readers are probably holding back their laughter, but you can go ahead and laugh; even I can't say that with a straight face and break out crying from laughter at the thought. But in spite of just how ridiculous it sounds.
I know that deep down, I actually do hold absolute, sincere belief in the power and existence of the traffic gods. I will curse at the traffic gods if I'm in a bad mood and things go poorly on the road. If I am in a better mood and things go poorly on the road, I'll note in a more objective viewpoint, "Hmm, I must've angered the traffic gods".
When I do something questionable (e.g. running a yellow light), I apologize to the traffic gods. When I want to be a perfect driver, I do so out of a desire to appease the traffic gods. (My slowness is my sacrifice to them, in a sense.) When I want things to go well, I pray to the traffic gods to bless my journey. When things do go well, I thank the traffic gods for their assistance.
And so on and so forth. I do this so casually, so automatically, so consistently and naturally, every single day, almost entirely without giving it thought. So I legitimately, sincerely, actually believe...there is such a thing as traffic gods, plural, as in, multiple gods covering different aspects of traffic. How many gods, who knows. It could feasibly be as low as 2, or plausibly be in the hundreds. Realistically, probably in the middle, somewhere in the lower dozens, with some being lesser gods of traffic (aspects of specific parts of traffic) and some being greater gods of traffic (aspects of more broad, general parts of traffic), since that seems to be how most traditional pantheons work.
I really don't know why I hold this belief. Or how it developed. But. It's there, all the same. And funnily enough. They're the only gods, lowercase at least, which I think about. I don't think about, say, electronic gods. I'm sure such entities, such beings, do exist. But I don't actively think of their existence. Yet for traffic gods, I do. To put this in other terms, if I were a cleric devoted to a god (or, at least, a specific pantheon of gods in a system with a multitude of pantheons), it would be to the traffic gods (or maybe a specific traffic god but who knows).
Some time I should develop some fictional superpowers which the traffic gods could bestow upon a devout follower. But I suppose that's a just-for-fun thing I'll have to do at a different time; right now, I really should be getting back to work.