• Welcome to the new Internet Infidels Discussion Board, formerly Talk Freethought.

5000 Gods worshipped by humanity

Q

Questions

New member
Joined
Apr 4, 2012
Messages
4
Location
Minnesota
Basic Beliefs
Sceptic, Stoic, Epicurean
Reading many articles and forum posts in various Atheist, Humanist, and Secular websites I have come across the claim "...over 5000 gods have been worshiped by man..." While I don't doubt that this is most likely the case, I'm curious where this claim originated from. After a number of Google searches, I've seen this same statement made and remade but nothing pointed to a source for this claim. If any of the fine minds about this forum can point me where to find the source of this claim, that would be grand.
 
It is quite likely just a number pulled from someone's arse. Other's liked it and quoted it. A meme was born.

But just in India today there are up to 330 million gods depending on who you ask. Then around the world there are many, many more.
 
That's the feel I was getting. As much as I agree with the spirit of the argument, it seems Atheists are humans too and can spout whatever supports their stance as well as Theists. I'm pretty sure I've done it myself. Read an article or watch a youtube clip and nod my head in agreement without really picking apart whats being said because it fits into my view of the world.
 
I compiled a few until i got bored: http://elephanticity.250x.com/wager.html
But a lot of them are demigods, heroes, sons of gods without quite being divine. Some of the soources i cribbed from were less than meticulous in keeping the godlist discrete from the 'other characters in the mythos' and some just have slightly different definitions of godz.
 
It is impossible to have a definitive, countable, list of Gods, because people don't agree on what qualifies - Until we have a clear definition of what makes an entity a god (rather than a demi-god, superhero, or minion with limited supernatural powers), there is no one right answer.

There have been LOTS. Probably thousands; maybe millions. Shit, even Christianity can't decide how many gods there are in their one religion alone - is god one, or three? Given that Jehova/Yaweh/Whatever he is calling himself today is reportedly pissed off at his followers for having 'gods before me', then that might imply that there are more than three - and that is just in one, nominally monotheist, religion.

The irrationality is fractal; Looking at religion and trying to work out what claims it makes or has made is impossible, because at every level there is the unknown. We don't know how many Christian gods there are. How could we possibly know how many non-Christian gods there are? The Muslims say they only have one; which seems a bit of a better start - until we try to find out if their one is different from, or the same as the Christian's one. Or three. Or however many.

Trying to understand crazy in its own terms is futile.
 
There's reasonably good evidence that ancient Judaism was itself not monotheistic but became that way over many decades (or centuries). Yahweh had a daddy, brothers and a consort. He "inherited" the Jews from his paw. The Ugaritic texts are intriguing in that regard.
 
Atheos said:
http://www.godchecker.com claims to list 4000 different gods, not quite the 5000 that you've seen claimed. I wouldn't be surprised if at least 1000 others have forever been lost to history.
Click to expand...

Seeing as there's a number of pre-christian gods from my local area that aren't listed there (Rekwaz, Tanfana, Vagdavercustis, Arduinna, Magusanus) I'd say a 1000 forgotten gods is probably a conservative estimate. Some of it also doesn't seem particularly accurate. Nehalennia for instance is listed as a Norse goddess of Plenty; when in fact she was either a Germanic or a Celtic goddess (or even predating both, but certainly not being Norse) of the North Sea.
 
God Checker doesn't have STAB MASTER!
 
And let's face it: Darth Vader was a god. Born of a virgin, performed miracles of many stripes, sacrificed himself to save more than one world and lives with the sainted Yoda and Obi-Wan. A Lord Raglan approved mythic hero-god if ever there was one!
 
Not only are there over 5,000 gods, but there are over 5,000 Christian Gods. Every believer appears to have a different thought on who and what God is, so each really has their own God.
 
I don't care about the number being 5000 or 4000 or 15,000, because it can't be meaningfully quantified without a set of definition setting phrases ('in recorded history,' 'in the historical era', etc.) What is clear is that thousands of deities have been dreamed up by man -- that no matter what orthodoxy a believer subscribes to, he would, to be honest, have to admit that man is the great creator of deities, highly elaborate deities. And this doesn't seem to faze believers!!!! They have ridiculous arguments in place for the phenomenon ('Those earlier religions were just man yearning for my god, the true god') Although I can't imagine myself as an orthodox anything, I think the phenomenon of the multitudes of dead, obsolete gods would be the biggest hurdle to continuing in my orthodox belief. Mencken has a brilliant short essay on this topic, titled 'Memorial Service.' Share it with your pastor today.
 
I used to preach that the one true god was holy and untouched by sin unlike the gods that were created by human beings. I'd make a point of "Man would no more invent a holy god than he would invent a lake of fire in which he would burn forever."

It was a stupid and circular argument topped off with a generous helping of baseless assertion, but it sounded sincere.
 
http://downlode.org/Etext/nine_billion_names_of_god.html (UK billion!)

The Nine Billion Names of God
Arthur C. Clarke

“This is a slightly unusual request,” said Dr. Wagner, with what he hoped was commendable restraint. “As far as I know, it’s the first time anyone’s been asked to supply a Tibetan monastery with an Automatic Sequence Computer. I don’t wish to be inquisitive, but I should hardly have thought that your — ah — establishment had much use for such a machine. Could you explain just what you intend to do with it?”

“Gladly,” replied the lama, readjusting his silk robes and carefully putting away the slide rule he had been using for currency conversions. “Your Mark V Computer can carry out any routine mathematical operation involving up to ten digits. However, for our work we are interested in letters, not numbers. As we wish you to modify the output circuits, the machine will be printing words, not columns of figures.”

“I don’t quite understand....”

“This is a project on which we have been working for the last three centuries — since the lamasery was founded, in fact. It is somewhat alien to your way of thought, so I hope you will listen with an open mind while I explain it.”

“Naturally.”

“It is really quite simple. We have been compiling a list which shall contain all the possible names of God.
Click to expand...
 
bilby said:
Everybody else's religious beliefs are clearly crazy.

I suspect there may be a worldwide shortage of mirrors.
Click to expand...
That's easy to cure. Aim the mirrors at one another. It works for contemplation of ideas in many minds as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom