Question:
Were the ancients gods real beings or were they man made to conrol and enslave people?
2006-09-09 07:53:57 UTC
The civilisations that worshipped GODS and idols have long gone, was it god who destroyed them for not accepting his name and worshipping statues. If so, why is India still here when hindu's are idol worshippers. Are they still here because god punishes them with poverty and disease as well as famine.
24 answers:
2006-09-09 08:05:22 UTC
every one worships some sort of "god",money,budda,fame,etc.they need to find the true GOD.
2006-09-09 15:13:04 UTC
When God gave the angels and humans free will he took the chance some would chose the wrong way.

That is what happened. The devil wanted to be worshipped.

Genesis 6 chaper tells how these other angels came down and lived with women. Jude 6 before the flood.

They too wanted to be worshipped. They were the mighty ones of old the men of fame. So because they were not human did many powerful works. Angels are mighty in power.

So they people began to worship them.

Apparently it was still going on in Jesus day because Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said he would give them to him. Can't give something you don't own.

Jesus never said he didn't own it. So the Bible says Satan is the ruler of this world. Those other demons live here to Rev. 12

speaks of a war in heaven and Satan and the demons are cast down to the earth. They are worshiped as gods or prophets or mystic leaders and do horrible things to people.

Would a religion that tells a young man to strap on a bomb and blow people up be from a true loving god. Kill people you don't even know. So the demons are in religion worshipped as God's.

Jesus said, Test it by its fruits, if it isn't publishing peace and love and forgiveness. Christian or other wise, it isn't from the true god.
lenny
2006-09-09 15:04:13 UTC
Polytheism grew out of ancient astronomy. The ancients used the position of the sun against the background stars at sunrise as a calendar to know when to plant, harvest, etc. Since there are roughly 12 lunar cycles in a year, they divided the sky into 12 regions, and made up stories related to the seasons appropriate for each of those 12 regions.



At some point, they anthropomorphised those stories into gods. The first gods were viewed as basically superheroes living in the sky in control of the weather. The evolved into other forms of control.



The 7 "nonfixed" eye visible heavenly objects were added to the list of gods; sun, moon, murcury, venus, mars, saturn, and jupiter.



This is the origin of all the ancient religions on earth. It's the reason the numbers 12 and 7 are so prevalent in ancient religions. It's the reason angels have wings (they were viewed as people living in the sky, aka heavens, and so they needed wings to fly back and forth between heaven and earth). It's the reason that 'heaven' and 'sky' were the same word in ancient times.



Monotheism grew out of cults that gave special honor to the sun.
ramall1to
2006-09-09 15:03:54 UTC
They were about as real as stone can get. Idol worship is still prevelant today as you see in the Roman Catholic church. They will tell you they do not worship the statues but why then would they venerate them so and kneel down in front of them and plead with them for help? Same thing they do in India and other places that have gods they pray to. God has not destroyed all the gods as yet but will when Jesus comes to take His people back with Him. All the gods are man made and the churches that use them do use them to enslave people, to control them and keep them subservient to them.
C
2006-09-09 15:08:02 UTC
That civilization is still here, just in a more subtle form depending on where you live. If God had destroyed them then everyone on earth would be worshipping the one true God. Also, those so called gods were really demons, agents of Satan. All those requests that are heard by the idols are actually executed by the demons. Satan is powerful but the true God is omnipotent (all powerful)
Spade, Sam Spade
2006-09-09 15:30:46 UTC
The concept of God rose from ignorance and fear of the unknown. Idols are still worshiped by all religions. The cross for example. If you have to "worship" any thing it should be the physical laws of nature.
2006-09-09 15:09:57 UTC
haven't you seen Stargate SG1? Ancient 'gods' were in fact gou'uld! :)



On a more interesting note though one of the ten commandments (of the bible) states thou shalt not worship idols. Correct me if I'm wrong but an idol can also be a statue, so arn't Catholics worshipping idols when they kiss the feet of statues of the Virgin Mary etc- 'cos they're worshipping the statue rather than their god?(que angry backlash)
Valce
2006-09-09 17:54:16 UTC
Both. The human being has a capacity to have feelings. Some of them scape to any rational interpretention. There is also a need to explain what goes further our natural reach cosmos, fairness... God may be used to explain the latter. What is clear through historical experience is that man has used god to impose himself to fellow human beings.
2006-09-09 15:00:30 UTC
Perhaps some of the gods started out as metaphors for awhile but got reinterpreted by superstitious types. Then probably the superstitious types piled up wood and lit some of the reasonable types on fire, and after that pretty much everyone got religion.
2006-09-09 15:11:11 UTC
People used to be so in tune with the land, and the various cycles of life, night and day, lunar cycle etc.



At a later date it was seen as a way of not only trying to control nature, sacraficing people to appease a volcanic erpution - but of also controlling the masses, with the instillation of priests who could commune with said gods on peoples behalf.



Greedy buggers have co-opted this as a way of control
Dick V
2006-09-09 15:08:22 UTC
I think people found it easy to explain things they didn't understand by attributing deity to them. When they found that e.g. pork went bad very soon in heat, they declared it unholy, and people acting accordingly remained healthy. The person giving the prescription was considered holy, a priest and that gave him power. Then there needed to be one superior god, like Zeus, or Wodan. And other peoples believed there was only one god who took care of everything, was the explanation of everything. Nowadays many of us find that we are only a splendid accident in evolution. That has nothing to do with god.
copperyclover
2006-09-09 22:43:29 UTC
In furtherence to spamandham's answer.



The ancient gods and deities and their stories are ARCHETYPES - personality types that helped people understand themselves, their motivations, their behaviour and their relationships.



The myths of the ancient gods entertain and instruct us even today. Their stories illuminate the patterns of the lives of contemporary men and women just as they did many centuries ago.



Archetypes are inner images that embody a wealth of universal characteristics and experiences, universal to every culture and every time period. They are the collective unconcious. Archetypes are responsible for the persistent themes we see surfacing in our own lives. Using Archetypes can assist in our journey to self-discovery and personal growth. These archetypes are also used in astrology.
gjstoryteller
2006-09-09 15:00:09 UTC
This is a pretty simplistic point of view when you consider that Hinduism predates Christianity by thousands of years. How can a loving god punish an entire nation of people who had no prior knowledge of him/her? That's the action of a psychopath.
crale70
2006-09-09 14:59:16 UTC
No, it was people who destroyed them because they felt threatened by the possibility that their was not THE way. People have a long history of destroying that which we do not understand.



India has poverty disease and famine because they have too many people.



And that was 4 questions, btw. Pace yourself.
andrew w
2006-09-10 10:22:45 UTC
the ancient gods were man made to control in there time the same as the man made god now to control the christians but now the christians want to brainwash a planet turn us all into drones like the borg
自由思想家
2006-09-09 14:58:40 UTC
you are right, they are still here because Santa Clause and The Easter bunny are still punishing them for not growing up and learning that all Gods (including Allah and the Trinity godhead) are man made to control and enslave people. Good point you make.
ParadoX
2006-09-09 14:59:41 UTC
All Gods are man-created-beings.



Mainly, I think that gods were created to help man go on with his life with all these un-answered questions infront of him.

to help man believe that he's controlling nature.

Man needed to pray for some being to find peace and security. to pray for a green and a wealthy year.



Then, after several generations, it became some sort of power to enslave others.
Witchy
2006-09-09 15:23:28 UTC
They were and still are deities. There are still many people who worship these deities and they have very fulfilling spiritual lives. It won't take you much research to learn about this if you are objective and really want to learn about ancient cultures and their deities.
t a m i l
2006-09-09 14:55:53 UTC
There is Satan & demonic spirits behind any type of idolatry that leads people away from the LORD God.



If you read Exodus 20, you will find that idol worshippers have a serious conscequence. The iniquities (sinful bondages) are passed onto the 3rd & 4th generations of those that hate God.



To God, having idols is hating God & going to other wanna be gods. Also to be included is disrespecting God's name & having any other spirits (wanna be gods) other than God before Him.
2006-09-09 19:31:03 UTC
Read "Fingerprints of the gods" by Graham Hancock
2006-09-09 15:14:42 UTC
Neither, they fulfil a human need to believe in something - almost anything will do!
S K
2006-09-09 14:57:26 UTC
It was because other religions had better weapons.
w359borg
2006-09-09 14:56:47 UTC
if they were real beings where did they go? no i think they were just the product of myths and superstition.
bonzo the tap dancing chimp
2006-09-09 14:55:47 UTC
All gods, ancient and modern, are man made.


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