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How many Gods are there in mythologies?
I have been trying to conduct research on the "Gods" of mythologies but have come up short. To be clear, i am looking for a being that had these proported qualities
1. Created existence (space, earth, water, everything) by himself
2. Is not an elevated human (not anthropomorphic ie doesnt have arms, legs, and fills the universe etc)
3. Is immortal (cannot die, period)
4. Is timeless ( ie, was not "born", has no parents that are older etc)
Other issues like "all knowing" are secondary, and i am only worried about finding a deity with these particular qualities. The most popular "gods" such as zeus, norse gods etc fail to qualify as they are not proported to have made the universe, and in most cases are mortal, or only immortal as long as they dont get killed by other beings (ie they qre not immortal in the true sense, they simply dont die of old age). Also, these gods all have parents etc and they themselves are byproducts of existance (gaia etc) . This is not a debate thread, i am just looking for gods in mythologies that were truly proported to be Gods and not simple elevated humans.
Crock a duck clearly didnt read my post, evident by the fact that the answer is obviously not correct, and by the fact tyat it was posted 30 seconds after by question was posted.
Please read the criteria and whole question guys.
To Fah King Genius, most of the criteria comes straight from the webster's definition of "God". In fact, if a being is not immortal, didnt create the universe etc, then how are they any kind of God at all? Also, "none" is plainly false as the obcious example ia the God of the bible. I am just looking for other Gods since i cannot find any. Michael jordan isnt a God for being an elevated human etc.
6 Answers
- Anonymous10 years agoFavorite Answer
Your 3rd and 4th criterion significantly shorten the list
But there are probably still quite a few
I honestly have no idea how many, though
___
I'm not trying to argue here, but if you believe in the Trinity, could it be said that God is, indeed anthropomorphic? (Or at least one iteration of Him?)
- TaoLv 610 years ago
Sorry to say but your very question betrays a bias towards the Abrahamic god. It is doubtful you will find anything that matches your criteria. I'm assuming you are genuinely trying to do some research here so I'm going to help you out by explaining some of the problems with your criteria and then mention some deities that might be closer to what you're looking for.
First of all, by capitalizing the word 'God' you are meaning the Christian god of that name/title. There is only one god named God, if you follow me, but there are many gods.
I'm curious at your use of the word mythologies as if that is something different from religion. I mean, what if I mentioned a deity like Yahweh, which would follow your criteria but something tells me that's not what you mean. It almost sounds like you're looking for 'fake' versions of the Christian god.
1. Your first criterion betrays another example of the bias by using the word himself. What about genderless or female deities? Why would your deity have to be male? Another problem with your first criterion is that many belief systems didn't necessarily assume that everything had to be created. Altjira, for example, created earth as the central god of Dreamtime. For the early Aborigines of Australia, this may very well have meant everything the way you mean it but that concept didn't necessarily mean anything to them.
2. Well, first of all, the Abrahamic depiction of god is/are very anthropomorphic in manner, demeanour and behaviour if not physical form (but then there was that whole Jesus character.) Atira of the Pawnee was the earth, symbolized as the mother goddess, creator and nurturer of all earth's creatures. Even still, the Pawnee might refer to plants as Atira's hair and rocks and ore her bones. See, being humans, it's hard not to see things in human terms. I'd suggest the very idea of gods is necessarily anthropomorphic. Perhaps most deities, were personifications of natural processes. Even giving a natural process agency would be be an example of anthropomorphism.
3. Immortality is interesting. Not all cultures saw that as a virtue or something to be desired or something indicative of power. For many deities, the whole point was the death and rebirth cycle (usually along with the seasons, like the Green Man) symbolizing a connection with nature. I'd wager that the story of Jesus is a bastardization of or example of brinksmanship over the cyclical gods meme. Jesus died and was reborn, once and only once, so that we could get to heaven and have immortality, releasing us from the cycles of nature where death is inevitable and we become food for those we would eat.
4. Not having parents or a birth doesn't mean timeless. Altjira created 'everything' then retired to 'the top of the sky.' Is that timeless, particularly since this happened in Dreamtime?
I think it would probably help you to get a better sense of the correlation between culture and the deities people believe in.
I highly recommend "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn which is a fantastic and easy read which explains (in the context of a fictional story) how things came to be this way. Despite using fiction as a medium, the author is quite serious and I daresay he hit quite a few nails right on the head, particularly regarding Adam and Eve.
With that basis, you can then read Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize winning "Guns, Germs and Steel" to see how and why civilization spread out of the Fertile Crescent the way it did.
Put the two concepts together and the history of all the deities makes a great deal of sense.
- Anonymous10 years ago
Near innumerable.
Nearly every human civilization has some kind of creator god that exists outside of time.
If you are doing research on gods you might be interested in the works of Joseph Campbell.
- FraizieLv 610 years ago
There are a LOT. I don't think anyone has conducted research on every single one, that would take a lifetime or more.
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- Anonymous10 years ago
there are no gods that fit your bizarre criteria.
none