I don’t think most polytheistic gods (like the Greek ones) are omnipotent. They’re powerful, sure, but not all-powerful.
The monotheistic Christianity-type ones are kinda weird actually, compared to most religions.
You’re sort of mixing metaphysical beliefs here.
The Ancient Greek concept of gods don’t align 1 to 1 with the Abrahamic concept of god, etc.
Each faith has a different concept of god, omnipotence, and what that means. It’s also changed over time. For example, the Romans saw wealth and prosperity as signs of piousness, as one would have to be blessed by the gods to possess so much. Christianity (ostensibly) argues the opposite.
Though, in short, god(s) demonstrates human traits because they’re abstractions from humans, the creatures that created them for various reasons throughout history and modernity. To get specific answers about each faith, you’d be better off speaking to spiritual leaders of those faiths.
You mind of explaining a little bit on the first sentence on metaphysical beliefs and how I am mixing them? Not looking for a fight just want more knowledge much love
some religions think of god(s) as sharing human aspects like you suggested with sex. Other religions consider their god(s) to be different from humans and therefor may not share all or any of our emotions/needs/wants.
In the Star Trek universe, there is an episode in which the ship travels to primitive world (Mintaka III) and the crew accidentally reveal themselves to the humanoid people there who are similar to bronze-era humans. The Mintakins think the captain of the ship (Picard) is a God because he obviously has powers they cannot comprehend. He rejects their beliefs that he is a supreme being and in the most beautiful ending possible, they listen to logic and believe him. But the climax in the story hinges around whether or not Picard can prove to these people he is not a god before he and the crew have to leave, leaving the peoples’ imaginations to run wild with what “God wants” from them. They almost murder someone, believing Picard is angry at them for something the person did.
The point of the story is to provide a scientifically feasible explanation for humanity’s belief in gods as essentially aliens who visited long ago and were unable to prevent humans from letting their imaginations run wild with tales of what the gods do, how powerful they are, and what they want from the people on earth. Over the course of thousands of years, there is no limit to how our imaginations can bend such an experience, twisting it into the culture of the time of the visit and adjusting over time to fit more and more into the development and history of societies.
But it doesn’t take a visit from aliens to start a religion. We have all seen things we can’t explain. Schizophrenia exists. Con artists manipulate reality to steal from people. Psychedelics exist naturally. Once-in-a-generation storms cause mass destruction. There are so many possible explanations for gods other than omniscient, all-powerful beings.
Gods are a human invention so they are like us.
So suspend disbelief for a second. Lets say they are not. Why do they show that human side more than other things? For sake of saying I would take the Sahara and plant a shitload of trees and make a river run through it and so on. Why would taking all the old testament…cause fuck that forgiveness shit be even close to human understanding. Is it just a dumbing down of said god? And if so how come the old testament, the best testament, vastly different from the hippie dippie New Testament?
Well the question of “why are the new and old testaments so different?” will have different answers if you ask a believer vs a skeptic. I think its just because these are stories written by people to control others, so the old and new testaments differ so much because different people wrote them at different times. To me, the difference is because its that religion trying to modernize, trying to change with the times.
I’m not sure omnipotence (all encompassing power) had anything to do with having emotions
Well for one, they’re all made up and as such, imaginary.
The older religions (Christianity, Islam, etc) were written well before most of our current scientific knowledge was available and as such, things like “omnipotence” being a logically inconsistent idea wasn’t exactly known.
Theae stories have been written by that age’s equivalent of fanboys so it’s no wonder that these rather extreme powers are shown off so much
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The Great Courses has a series on Comparative Religion.
They also have a series where each course covers a different world religion.
Then another course covers different mythologies (e.g. Norse) from different regions.
The first course would answer all your questions, the rest will fill out your understanding.
See if your local library carries them - mine does.
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