Stonehearts religion

[Hugorfonics]

Catelyn was a devout believer in the seven, however the Brotherhood was nearly unanimous followers of R'hllor. Did Catelyn convert like so many who saw Thoros' miracles? 

[Sigella]

Being re-animated by the Red God, it'd be pretty hard to deny it. Being re-animated might make her less invested in spiritual stuff to the point of not even caring, though. Dondarrion described his experience as making him "less".

[Lord Lannister]

Pretty sure Stoneheart is a God of Death kind of gal.

[Jeeves]

I would summon her for an interview but she's not talking much these days. 

A person could lose faith after what she went through.

[KingintheNorth4]

At this point, vengeance is her religion.

[Lollygag]

People in that world believe in other gods even if they don't worship them.

That said, how sure are we that it was R'hllor who was behind it all?

ASOS Arya VI

A huge firepit had been dug in the center of the earthen floor, and its flames rose swirling and crackling toward the smoke-stained ceiling. The walls were equal parts stone and soil, with huge white roots twisting through them like a thousand slow pale snakes. People were emerging from between those roots as she watched; edging out from the shadows for a look at the captives, stepping from the mouths of pitch-black tunnels, popping out of crannies and crevices on all sides. In one place on the far side of the fire, the roots formed a kind of stairway up to a hollow in the earth where a man sat almost lost in the tangle of weirwood.

...

"When we left King's Landing we were men of Winterfell and men of Darry and men of Blackhaven, Mallery men and Wylde men. We were knights and squires and men-at-arms, lords and commoners, bound together only by our purpose." The voice came from the man seated amongst the weirwood roots halfway up the wall. "Six score of us set out to bring the king's justice to your brother." The speaker was descending the tangle of steps toward the floor. "Six score brave men and true, led by a fool in a starry cloak." A scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak speckled with stars and an iron breastplate dinted by a hundred battles. A thicket of red-gold hair hid most of his face, save for a bald spot above his left ear where his head had been smashed in. "More than eighty of our company are dead now, but others have taken up the swords that fell from their hands." When he reached the floor, the outlaws moved aside to let him pass. One of his eyes was gone, Arya saw, the flesh about the socket scarred and puckered, and he had a dark black ring all around his neck. "With their help, we fight on as best we can, for Robert and the realm."

 

Beric is a Ned-like character on Ned's mission, leading Ned's men. He was compelled against all reason to turn Catelyn, Ned's wife. Sounds like Old God stuff to me. Or perhaps there is some link between R'hllor and the Old Gods. Given the weirwood has a thing for blood, looks like a tree on fire, gets compared to snakes like the dragons do, and seems opposed to the Others, it doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility.

To confuse things further, the Tullys are river people like those of the Rhoyne. Stoneheart is a stone person who wears a grey hood/shroud and rose from death in a river. Her condition is passed with a kiss, like the Shrouded Lord. Brienne describes her eyes as pits of fire which sound weirwoody, though.

[sweetsunray]

12 minutes ago, Lollygag said:

To confuse things further, the Tullys are river people like those of the Rhoyne. Stoneheart is a stone person who wears a grey hood/shroud and rose from death in a river. Her condition is passed with a kiss, like the Shrouded Lord. Brienne describes her eyes as pits of fire which sound weirwoody, though.

How about the raking of her face with her nails, leaving red blooded scars, like tears.

[The Map Guy]

Its kinda hard for Cat to go back to the Seven.

Ned died at the Sept.

The Mother didn't protect her children.

The Warrior didn't protect Robb under guest-rights.

The Old Gods didn't do anything, and when Catelyn was floating, the Drown God didn't do anything either (also f- the Greyjoys).

 

Only R'hllor stepped up and gave her this impossible miracle resurrection, even though she never asked for it.

After a miracle happens, one would tend to follow the God(s) that brought that miracle.

 

I, for example, initially as a joke last week, prayed to the "God/Goddess of Thunder & Lightning" to strike down my neighbor's tree. I was moving into a new home, and this tree was blocking a potentially scenic view. It would make my heart really happy if the tree was gone, but there was no legal way around it and I didn't want to commit a terrible crime.

So I prayed for a miracle, somewhat jokingly to this new God I made up.
Then a storm came by today in New York ... and the tree collapsed. Not by lightning, but by storm winds ... still a miracle. And I got my scenic view.
I told myself I would pray to the God/Goddess of Storm now, if I need things destroyed.
But I guess it is no different that any other God(s). Even though it did something I want, it also did things I never asked for ... like destroying other trees around the neighborhood.

I feel guilty for making that prayer now. I find myself asking "What have I done?" even though I have no real control over it.

[sweetsunray]

4 minutes ago, The Map Guy said:

The Old Gods didn't do anything, and when Catelyn was floating,

It was a Stark wolf who pulled her ashore. The red priest didn't want anything to do with it. But one-eyed Beric who has a weirwood throne made of weirwood roots in a hollow hill sacrificed his life for her. Sounds like a conversion to green imo, beneath the impression of Rh'lorr.

[The Map Guy]

33 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

It was a Stark wolf who pulled her ashore. The red priest didn't want anything to do with it. But one-eyed Beric who has a weirwood throne made of weirwood roots in a hollow hill sacrificed his life for her. Sounds like a conversion to green imo, beneath the impression of Rh'lorr.

I guess if you put it that way, its R'hllor with the Old Gods infiltrated inside their bodies.
I wonder if any other gods have infiltrated Beric the Lightning Lord and THORos' R'hllor.
Hmmmmmmmmm  .. gods hiding in other gods

There are reasons to believe Moqorro is R'hllor with the Drown God infiltrated as well.

[Josette DuPres]

5 hours ago, Hugorfonics said:

Catelyn was a devout believer in the seven, however the Brotherhood was nearly unanimous followers of R'hllor. Did Catelyn convert like so many who saw Thoros' miracles? 

Lady Stoneheart is only a shell of what Cat was.  This creature may not be given to deep thoughts.  Religions and Gods are not going to occupy her thoughts in this second life.  Her anger may quell if she sees her children alive.  

[TheLastWolf]

4 hours ago, The Map Guy said:

Its kinda hard for Cat to go back to the Seven.

Ned died at the Sept.

The Mother didn't protect her children.

The Warrior didn't protect Robb under guest-rights.

The Old Gods didn't do anything, and when Catelyn was floating, the Drown God didn't do anything either (also f- the Greyjoys).

 

Only R'hllor stepped up and gave her this impossible miracle resurrection, even though she never asked for it.

After a miracle happens, one would tend to follow the God(s) that brought that miracle.

 

I, for example, initially as a joke last week, prayed to the "God/Goddess of Thunder & Lightning" to strike down my neighbor's tree. I was moving into a new home, and this tree was blocking a potentially scenic view. It would make my heart really happy if the tree was gone, but there was no legal way around it and I didn't want to commit a terrible crime.

So I prayed for a miracle, somewhat jokingly to this new God I made up.
Then a storm came by today in New York ... and the tree collapsed. Not by lightning, but by storm winds ... still a miracle. And I got my scenic view.
I told myself I would pray to the God/Goddess of Storm now, if I need things destroyed.
But I guess it is no different that any other God(s). Even though it did something I want, it also did things I never asked for ... like destroying other trees around the neighborhood.

I feel guilty for making that prayer now. I find myself asking "What have I done?" even though I have no real control over it.

The seven haven't done pretty much anything. 

The only gods with powers we have seen in the series (whose we may not be alive to see) are the Old Gods (Weirnet) and Red Rahloo with his/her (androgynous?) marshmallow fires. 

Anyway I don't understand why the Seven have such a large following when their gods don't do shit. 

UnCat Stoneheart pretty much isn't thinking about religion or philosophy right now. Reading Red Wedding 2.0 and Revenge Murders 101 probably. 

[Lion of the West]

8 hours ago, Lollygag said:

People in that world believe in other gods even if they don't worship them.

 

I'd like to think so but since GRRM don't seem to interested in the religion beyond its political and personal role in the story he don't seem to have fleshed out the relations and various deeper beliefs of many religions.

I always got a monotheistic vibe from the Seven and the Red God while the Drowned God seem to strike it out as a henotheistic god happy to exist as a patron deity in a polytheistic cosmology. How the different deities of Essos, beyond the Red God, relates to each other and which ones may have a polytheism, henotheism or monotheism basis? So are these cults based on an universalist or ethnoreligious basis or what's the deal here?

Now I don't personally hold this against GRRM as religion don't seem to have a central place in the story, as opposed to the feudal political system, but it would have been nice to know generally what stuff we're talking about.

Still I love the series and its author regardless, even if I've had some temporary dips across the years.

[sweetsunray]

20 minutes ago, Lion of the West said:

I always got a monotheistic vibe from the Seven and the Red God while the Drowned God seem to strike it out as a henotheistic god happy to exist as a patron deity in a polytheistic cosmology.

The Seven is monotheistic. The Seven are aspects of the one god, according to their lore. It's comparable to the Holy Trinity + saints with Catholicism.

R'hllorism is not monotheistic, but dualistic. And so is the Drowned God religion. Each recognizes two gods, but one is a benefactor while the other is a hostile god.

• R'hllor versus his anti-thesis The Great Other
• Drowned God versus his enemy the Storm God

So, red priests and Ironborn believe in the existence of two gods, but worship only one of those two, while the other is believed to be a hostile evil god. Its perceived hostility though does not take away the belief the Great Other and Storm God are gods. And yes this leans or fits the definition of henotheism, but with polytheism one can mistake the cosmology to be a pantheon, while dualism clarifies it's two opposing gods.

[Hugorfonics]

10 hours ago, Sigella said:

Being re-animated by the Red God, it'd be pretty hard to deny it. 

Damn hard if you ask me. But perhaps its possible to justify it as well. Like just think "Stranger" when they say R'hllor, for example.

Because, like Stannis, Cats not just being introduced to God, but also to its champion and savior. Thats alot to wrap your head over

10 hours ago, Sigella said:

Being re-animated might make her less invested in spiritual stuff to the point of not even caring, though. Dondarrion described his experience as making him "less".

True. Is less human like, more spiritual though? 

9 hours ago, Jeeves said:

I would summon her for an interview but she's not talking much these days. 

9 hours ago, Jeeves said:

A person could lose faith after what she went through.

Like Job? Idk, Cat was a firm believer that some deity watches over the world, I think for the real religious folks like Catelyn or Davos itd be hard to lose their faith. 

Though Davos, like Cat, knows the power of miracleLyet still insists that the Mother saved him

9 hours ago, Lollygag said:

People in that world believe in other gods even if they don't worship them.

Um, maybe the chill politicly correct heralds do, but Aeron like most southron think other Gods are demons

9 hours ago, Lollygag said:

People in that world believe in other gods even if they don't worship them.

That said, how sure are we that it was R'hllor who was behind it all?

ASOS Arya VI

A huge firepit had been dug in the center of the earthen floor, and its flames rose swirling and crackling toward the smoke-stained ceiling. The walls were equal parts stone and soil, with huge white roots twisting through them like a thousand slow pale snakes. People were emerging from between those roots as she watched; edging out from the shadows for a look at the captives, stepping from the mouths of pitch-black tunnels, popping out of crannies and crevices on all sides. In one place on the far side of the fire, the roots formed a kind of stairway up to a hollow in the earth where a man sat almost lost in the tangle of weirwood.

...

"When we left King's Landing we were men of Winterfell and men of Darry and men of Blackhaven, Mallery men and Wylde men. We were knights and squires and men-at-arms, lords and commoners, bound together only by our purpose." The voice came from the man seated amongst the weirwood roots halfway up the wall. "Six score of us set out to bring the king's justice to your brother." The speaker was descending the tangle of steps toward the floor. "Six score brave men and true, led by a fool in a starry cloak." A scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak speckled with stars and an iron breastplate dinted by a hundred battles. A thicket of red-gold hair hid most of his face, save for a bald spot above his left ear where his head had been smashed in. "More than eighty of our company are dead now, but others have taken up the swords that fell from their hands." When he reached the floor, the outlaws moved aside to let him pass. One of his eyes was gone, Arya saw, the flesh about the socket scarred and puckered, and he had a dark black ring all around his neck. "With their help, we fight on as best we can, for Robert and the realm."

 

Beric is a Ned-like character on Ned's mission, leading Ned's men. He was compelled against all reason to turn Catelyn, Ned's wife. Sounds like Old God stuff to me. Or perhaps there is some link between R'hllor and the Old Gods. Given the weirwood has a thing for blood, looks like a tree on fire, gets compared to snakes like the dragons do, and seems opposed to the Others, it doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility.

To confuse things further, the Tullys are river people like those of the Rhoyne. Stoneheart is a stone person who wears a grey hood/shroud and rose from death in a river. Her condition is passed with a kiss, like the Shrouded Lord. Brienne describes her eyes as pits of fire which sound weirwoody, though.

Very cool!

Though thats kinda the opposite of what you said. They dont believe in the Old Gods yet they were actually the ones to perform the miracle

7 hours ago, The Map Guy said:

Its kinda hard for Cat to go back to the Seven.

Ned died at the Sept.

The Mother didn't protect her children.

The Warrior didn't protect Robb under guest-rights.

The Old Gods didn't do anything, and when Catelyn was floating, the Drown God didn't do anything either (also f- the Greyjoys).

 

Only R'hllor stepped up and gave her this impossible miracle resurrection, even though she never asked for it.

After a miracle happens, one would tend to follow the God(s) that brought that miracle.

 

I, for example, initially as a joke last week, prayed to the "God/Goddess of Thunder & Lightning" to strike down my neighbor's tree. I was moving into a new home, and this tree was blocking a potentially scenic view. It would make my heart really happy if the tree was gone, but there was no legal way around it and I didn't want to commit a terrible crime.

So I prayed for a miracle, somewhat jokingly to this new God I made up.
Then a storm came by today in New York ... and the tree collapsed. Not by lightning, but by storm winds ... still a miracle. And I got my scenic view.
I told myself I would pray to the God/Goddess of Storm now, if I need things destroyed.
But I guess it is no different that any other God(s). Even though it did something I want, it also did things I never asked for ... like destroying other trees around the neighborhood.

I feel guilty for making that prayer now. I find myself asking "What have I done?" even though I have no real control over it.

Lol, im from Ny too. So, you and your God are to blame? Totally went overkill, mad trees fell and like half of Westchester lost power.

It feels strange to meet a priest and his congregation who tell you that he resurrected you in the glory of the Lord of Light, and your all like, nah it was the Smith. 

[sweetsunray]

7 hours ago, The Map Guy said:

I guess if you put it that way, its R'hllor with the Old Gods infiltrated inside their bodies.
I wonder if any other gods have infiltrated Beric the Lightning Lord and THORos' R'hllor.
Hmmmmmmmmm  .. gods hiding in other gods

There are reasons to believe Moqorro is R'hllor with the Drown God infiltrated as well.

Old Gods using R'hllor (fire magic) as a means yes. Old Gods also use Drowned God as a means at WF to get rid of the Faith.

Beric and even Thoros always accepted and respected Old Gods: they visited with the Ghost of High Heart, who's a greendreamer. Thoros cannot see what's to come when he looks in a fire on High Heart. Since Stoneheart, Thoros's powers have waned. 

Quote

"I do not know who we are, if truth be told, nor where we might be going. I only know the road is dark. The fires have not shown me what lies at its end."[...] He looked down at his ragged robes, and smiled ruefully. "The pink pretender, rather. I am Thoros, late of Myr, aye . . . a bad priest and a worse wizard."  [...] "Lightning comes and goes and then is seen no more. So too with men. Lord Beric's fire has gone out of this world, I fear. A grimmer shadow leads us in his place." [...] "This is a cave, not a temple." [...] (aFfC, Brienne VIII)

While it's not stated explicitly, it's implied with Thoros suddenly referring to himself as a pretender and a worse wizard; that the fires have not shown what lies at the dark road; him referring to the cave as a cave and not a temple. Since Beric's death, Thoros cannot see in the fires anymore, just like he couldn't see at High Heart. While the BwB worship R'hllor, the flame has been drowned, to be reborn into green magic, and imo all will be converted to the Old Gods at Riverrun.

LS will not want to kill Jaime outright yet. She's too strategical a thinker for it. She'll use Jaime and Lannister armor to infiltrate the wedding at Riverrun and slaughter the wedding guests. She released him from Riverrun, he acted against her family and broke his vow by helping the Freys to Riverrun, and so she will want to kill him where she now believes he ought to have been killed if she had not released him - at Riverrun. Instead of hanging I suspect she will then want to execute Jaime, after having him witness the slaughter, with the sword Oathkeeper in the godswood, both symbolizing her belief he broke his oath to her and mirroring her son executing Karstark there. There's a slender weirwood there, to which Robb prayed, and slender weirwoods or trees are often associated with Bran. I think Bran will manifest himself, completing the circle, as Riverrun is the center of recirculation. (Finnegan's Wake) This manifestation will convert the BwB to the Old Gods.

[Lollygag]

7 hours ago, Lion of the West said:

I'd like to think so but since GRRM don't seem to interested in the religion beyond its political and personal role in the story he don't seem to have fleshed out the relations and various deeper beliefs of many religions.

I always got a monotheistic vibe from the Seven and the Red God while the Drowned God seem to strike it out as a henotheistic god happy to exist as a patron deity in a polytheistic cosmology. How the different deities of Essos, beyond the Red God, relates to each other and which ones may have a polytheism, henotheism or monotheism basis? So are these cults based on an universalist or ethnoreligious basis or what's the deal here?

Now I don't personally hold this against GRRM as religion don't seem to have a central place in the story, as opposed to the feudal political system, but it would have been nice to know generally what stuff we're talking about.

Still I love the series and its author regardless, even if I've had some temporary dips across the years.

Also @Hugorfonics Just to clarify, I'm pointing out that everyone in Westeros believes in both the Old Gods and the New Gods though they generally only worship one of them. No one denies the actual existence of them like they they question the existence of the Others.

Bold: I get the feeling we'll find out something to this effect in the upcoming books though maybe not in this much detail. There's lines connecting the different religions which seem to indicate some sort of relationship though I don't have a good idea as to what that might be. ASOIAF seems to be a deconstruction back to the time of the Long Night so I think we may well get some answers (and probably many more questions!) as the story goes on.

6 hours ago, Hugorfonics said:

Um, maybe the chill politicly correct heralds do, but Aeron like most southron think other Gods are demons

Southerners often keep weirwoods and swear by "the Old Gods and the New" though they only worship the New Gods. If they're creeped out by R'hllor, I don't blame them on that one. They don't seem to have an opinion on the Drowned God or Storm God. They're just there. It seems to be common knowledge that the Baratheons are descended from other gods but no one's calling them demon spawn or anything.

Notice Sam always believed in the Old Gods.

AGOT Jon VI

"My lord." The voice made Jon glance back in surprise. Samwell Tarly was on his feet. The fat boy wiped his sweaty palms against his tunic. "Might I … might I go as well? To say my words at this heart tree?"

"Does House Tarly keep the old gods too?" Mormont asked.

"No, my lord," Sam replied in a thin, nervous voice. The high officers frightened him, Jon knew, the Old Bear most of all. "I was named in the light of the Seven at the sept on Horn Hill, as my father was, and his father, and all the Tarlys for a thousand years."

"Why would you forsake the gods of your father and your House?" wondered Ser Jaremy Rykker.

"The Night's Watch is my House now," Sam said. "The Seven have never answered my prayers. Perhaps the old gods will."

 

 

[Hugorfonics]

3 hours ago, Lollygag said:

Also @Hugorfonics Just to clarify, I'm pointing out that everyone in Westeros believes in both the Old Gods and the New Gods though they generally only worship one of them. No one denies the actual existence of them like they they question the existence of the Others

I disagree

Quote

"Your Grace, these are the bones of holy men and women, murdered for their faith. Septons, septas, brothers brown and dun and green, sisters white and blue and grey. Some were hanged, some disemboweled. Septs have been despoiled, maidens and mothers raped by godless men and demon worshipers. Even silent sisters have been molested. The Mother Above cries out in her anguish. We have brought their bones here from all over the realm, to bear witness to the agony of the Holy Faith."

Cersei could feel the weight of eyes upon her. "The king shall know of these atrocities," she answered solemnly. "Tommen will share your outrage. This is the work of Stannis and his red witch, and the savage northmen who worship trees and wolves."

I mean no ones doubting the existence of trees, just that, theyre trees.

Quote

"These false kings espouse false gods," she reminded him. "Only King Tommen defends the Holy Faith."

It works the other way too

Quote

What do they know of the Wall or the wolfswood or the barrows of the First Men? Even their gods are wrong.

Some characters like Sansa Tully Stark do seem to believe in the old and the new, but more characters, Arya Tyrion and Jaime for example, do question the existence of gods, or at least what they were taught

Quote

Maybe she should pray aloud if she wanted the old gods to hear. Maybe she should pray longer. Sometimes her father had prayed a long time, she remembered. But the old gods had never helped him. Remembering that made her angry. "You should have saved him," she scolded the tree. "He prayed to you all the time. I don't care if you help me or not. I don't think you could even if you wanted to."

 

3 hours ago, Lollygag said:

Bold: I get the feeling we'll find out something to this effect in the upcoming books though maybe not in this much detail. There's lines connecting the different religions which seem to indicate some sort of relationship though I don't have a good idea as to what that might be. ASOIAF seems to be a deconstruction back to the time of the Long Night so I think we may well get some answers (and probably many more questions!) as the story goes on.

Id say more questions lol. Im pretty sure none of the gods are real. Though Brans clearly something, and what's Arya if not the many named god of death?

3 hours ago, Lollygag said:

Southerners often keep weirwoods and swear by "the Old Gods and the New"

Thats true, I think theyre just tryna cover all their bases. And theyve been doing it for thousands of years so it really just boils down to tradition.

3 hours ago, Lollygag said:

If they're creeped out by R'hllor, I don't blame them on that one. They don't seem to have an opinion on the Drowned God or Storm God. They're just there

Its not illegal or anything, but they don't respect the divinity of them

3 hours ago, Lollygag said:

It seems to be common knowledge that the Baratheons are descended from other gods but no one's calling them demon spawn or anything.

Well, its a silly bedtime story for kids 

3 hours ago, Lollygag said:

Notice Sam always believed in the Old Gods.

 

"The Night's Watch is my House now," Sam said. "The Seven have never answered my prayers. Perhaps the old gods will."

Thats not always believing in the old gods, its trying a new hawk like Stannis.

[The Map Guy]

11 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

While it's not stated explicitly, it's implied with Thoros suddenly referring to himself as a pretender and a worse wizard; that the fires have not shown what lies at the dark road; him referring to the cave as a cave and not a temple. Since Beric's death, Thoros cannot see in the fires anymore, just like he couldn't see at High Heart. While the BwB worship R'hllor, the flame has been drowned, to be reborn into green magic, and imo all will be converted to the Old Gods at Riverrun.

I wonder if this categorizes Thoros' company as "rogue" R'hllor followers ... different than Mel's group.

12 hours ago, Hugorfonics said:

Lol, im from Ny too. So, you and your God are to blame? Totally went overkill, mad trees fell and like half of Westchester lost power.

Haha ... no I really had no part of that divine plan .... wait a minute ... are you asking me if I am a god??? Then YES!
FEEL OUR WRATH AS WE DESTROY THINGS WITH OUR FURY!!!

Haha jk. I still feel a little guilty though.
Off-topic: Not going to lie, this androgynous high-cheek bone David Bowie lady creature petrified my heart when I was a kid ... her croaking voice, her eyes as two red pits burning in the shadows. And somehow she transformed into a gigantic marshmallow man ... which was still creepy.

"Choose! Choose! Choose the form of the destructer!" ... geez terrible options

14 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

The only gods with powers we have seen in the series (whose we may not be alive to see) are the Old Gods (Weirnet) and Red Rahloo with his/her (androgynous?) marshmallow fires. 

Hmmmmm you got me thinking ... marshmallow fire ... I wonder if Bowen Marsh is going to be sacrificed to R'hllor by fire.

Lol ... toasted marshmallows ... kinda reminds me of:

 

[Lollygag]

2 hours ago, Hugorfonics said:

I disagree

I mean no ones doubting the existence of trees, just that, theyre trees.

It works the other way too

Some characters like Sansa Tully Stark do seem to believe in the old and the new, but more characters, Arya Tyrion and Jaime for example, do question the existence of gods, or at least what they were taught

 

Id say more questions lol. Im pretty sure none of the gods are real. Though Brans clearly something, and what's Arya if not the many named god of death?

Thats true, I think theyre just tryna cover all their bases. And theyve been doing it for thousands of years so it really just boils down to tradition.

Its not illegal or anything, but they don't respect the divinity of them

Well, its a silly bedtime story for kids 

Thats not always believing in the old gods, its trying a new hawk like Stannis.

The Seven before and after the High Sparrow are not the same thing. In the quote below, we see that when the Andals came they were more intolerant like the High Sparrow. It's becoming increasing radicalized and intolerant as it once was and if we look at the context, this has more to do with politicization and power than religion itself. Where they're concerned, I think they're headed in the direction of not believing in other gods as part of this radicalization which is a big reason why this doesn't work before the Seven were radicalized. The same thing happened in Christianity which in its early days believed in the existence of the old Greek/Roman gods, but started to decry them as false gods and demons before just believing them to be myth and made up. In the modern West, to believe in other gods than the one/ones worshiped is really bad, but that's not the case in this world unless we're speaking of a few specific religions.

I think we're speaking at cross-purposes but you don't swear to non-existent gods or demons of all things out of "habit". If you read the text below, that's clearly not the case.

In the case with Sam, it's much like what Arya does here below. She's always believed in other gods, like Sam. She tries praying to another hoping for better results.

AFFC Arya I

The Titan's eyes seemed brighter now, and farther apart. Arya did not know any Many-Faced God, but if he answered prayers, he might be the god she sought.

ASOS Samwell I

His own mother was a thousand leagues south, safe with his sisters and his little brother Dickon in the keep at Horn Hill. She can't hear me, no more than the Mother Above. The Mother was merciful, all the septons agreed, but the Seven had no power beyond the Wall. This was where the old gods ruled, the nameless gods of the trees and the wolves and the snows. "Mercy," he whispered then, to whatever might be listening, old gods or new, or demons too, "oh, mercy, mercy me, mercy me."

AFFC Arya II

"Who was he?" Arya blurted, before she stopped to think.

"No one," he answered. "Some say he was a slave himself. Others insist he was a freeholder's son, born of noble stock. Some will even tell you he was an overseer who took pity on his charges. The truth is, no one knows. Whoever he was, he moved amongst the slaves and would hear them at their prayers. Men of a hundred different nations labored in the mines, and each prayed to his own god in his own tongue, yet all were praying for the same thing. It was release they asked for, an end to pain. A small thing, and simple. Yet their gods made no answer, and their suffering went on. Are their gods all deaf? he wondered . . . until a realization came upon him, one night in the red darkness.

"All gods have their instruments, men and women who serve them and help to work their will on earth. The slaves were not crying out to a hundred different gods, as it seemed, but to one god with a hundred different faces . . . and he was that god's instrument. That very night he chose the most wretched of the slaves, the one who had prayed most earnestly for release, and freed him from his bondage. The first gift had been given."

AGOT Bran VII

"The Andals were the first, a race of tall, fair-haired warriors who came with steel and fire and the seven-pointed star of the new gods painted on their chests. The wars lasted hundreds of years, but in the end the six southron kingdoms all fell before them. Only here, where the King in the North threw back every army that tried to cross the Neck, did the rule of the First Men endure. The Andals burnt out the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where they found them, and everywhere proclaimed the triumph of the Seven over the old gods. So the children fled north—"

AGOT Daenerys IX

If I look back I am lost. "It was a cruel fate," Dany said, "yet not so cruel as Mago's will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh."

ACOK Prologue

"I am pleased to hear it, my lord." Lady Selyse was as tall as her husband, thin of body and thin of face, with prominent ears, a sharp nose, and the faintest hint of a mustache on her upper lip. She plucked it daily and cursed it regularly, yet it never failed to return. Her eyes were pale, her mouth stern, her voice a whip. She cracked it now. "Lady Arryn owes you her allegiance, as do the Starks, your brother Renly, and all the rest. You are their one true king. It would not be fitting to plead and bargain with them for what is rightfully yours by the grace of god."
God, she said, not gods. The red woman had won her, heart and soul, turning her from the gods of the Seven Kingdoms, both old and new, to worship the one they called the Lord of Light.

ACOK Theon I

Beneath the dubious protection of the fish-ridden little castle lay the village of Lordsport, its harbor aswarm with ships. When last he'd seen Lordsport, it had been a smoking wasteland, the skeletons of burnt longships and smashed galleys littering the stony shore like the bones of dead leviathans, the houses no more than broken walls and cold ashes. After ten years, few traces of the war remained. The smallfolk had built new hovels with the stones of the old, and cut fresh sod for their roofs. A new inn had risen beside the landing, twice the size of the old one, with a lower story of cut stone and two upper stories of timber. The sept beyond had never been rebuilt, though; only a seven-sided foundation remained where it had stood. Robert Baratheon's fury had soured the ironmen's taste for the new gods, it would seem.

ACOK Bran III

"You don't, so hush up," he told his brother. Ser Rodrik bellowed for quiet. Bran raised his voice. He bid them welcome in the name of his brother, the King in the North, and asked them to thank the gods old and new for Robb's victories and the bounty of the harvest. "May there be a hundred more," he finished, raising his father's silver goblet.

ASOS Daenerys II

"My queen," said Arstan, "there have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination. Evil. If you should land in Westeros at the head of a slave army, many good men will oppose you for no other reason than that. You will do great harm to your cause, and to the honor of your House."

ASOS Catelyn III

Lord Rickard had spoken truly, Catelyn knew. The Karstarks traced their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but that soon became Karhold, and over the centuries the Karhold Starks had become Karstarks.
"Old gods or new, it makes no matter," Lord Rickard told her son, "no man is so accursed as the kinslayer."

ADWD Davos IV

"Then a long cruel winter fell," said Ser Bartimus. "The White Knife froze hard, and even the firth was icing up. The winds came howling from the north and drove them slavers inside to huddle round their fires, and whilst they warmed themselves the new king come down on them. Brandon Stark this was, Edrick Snowbeard's great-grandson, him that men called Ice Eyes. He took the Wolf's Den back, stripped the slavers naked, and gave them to the slaves he'd found chained up in the dungeons. It's said they hung their entrails in the branches of the heart tree, as an offering to the gods. The old gods, not these new ones from the south. Your Seven don't know winter, and winter don't know them."

https://asearchoficeandfire.com/?q=old+gods+and+the+new

 

So here's more about how they believe in the existence of gods that they do not worship.

AGOT Bran VI

"They're sad. Your lord brother will get no help from them, not where he's going. The old gods have no power in the south. The weirwoods there were all cut down, thousands of years ago. How can they watch your brother when they have no eyes?"

ACOK Prologue

"He has an ally," Lady Selyse said. "R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow."

"Gods make uncertain allies at best," the old man insisted, "and that one has no power here."

"You think not?" The ruby at Melisandre's throat caught the light as she turned her head, and for an instant it seemed to glow bright as the comet. "If you will speak such folly, Maester, you ought to wear your crown again."

ADWD The King's Prize

That tale she had from Justin Massey, who was less devout than most. "A sacrifice will prove our faith still burns true, Sire," Clayton Suggs had told the king. And Godry the Giantslayer said, "The old gods of the north have sent this storm upon us. Only R'hllor can end it. We must give him an unbeliever."

ADWD The Sacrifice

"Even in this place of fear and darkness, the Lord of Light protects us," Ser Godry Farring told the men who gathered to watch as the stakes were hammered down into the holes.

"What has your southron god to do with snow?" demanded Artos Flint. His black beard was crusted with ice. "This is the wroth of the old gods come upon us. It is them we should appease."

"Aye," said Big Bucket Wull. "Red Rahloo means nothing here. You will only make the old gods angry. They are watching from their island."

ADWD The Wayward Bride

Men and mounts alike were trotting by the time they reached the trees on the far side of the sodden field, where dead shoots of winter wheat rotted beneath the moon. Asha held her horsemen back as a rear guard, to keep the stragglers moving and see that no one was left behind. Tall soldier pines and gnarled old oaks closed in around them. Deepwood was aptly named. The trees were huge and dark, somehow threatening. Their limbs wove through one another and creaked with every breath of wind, and their higher branches scratched at the face of the moon. The sooner we are shut of here, the better I will like it, Asha thought. The trees hate us all, deep in their wooden hearts.

...

After the scouts had vanished into the trees, the rest of the ironborn resumed their march, but the going was slow. The trees hid the moon and stars from them, and the forest floor beneath their feet was black and treacherous. Before they had gone half a mile, her cousin Quenton's mare stumbled into a pit and shattered her foreleg. Quenton had to slit her throat to stop her screaming. "We should make torches," urged Tris.
"Fire will bring the northmen down on us." Asha cursed beneath her breath, wondering if it had been a mistake to leave the castle. No. If we had stayed and fought, we might all be dead by now. But it was no good blundering on through the dark either. These trees will kill us if they can. She took off her helm and pushed back her sweat-soaked hair. "The sun will be up in a few hours. We'll stop here and rest till break of day."