How come there used to be lots of gods pagan/Roman/Greek and now there are fewer?

Question

Could it be that it is all just made up?

Answer 1

who says they have all gone ?
i know many here who think otherwise

Answer 2

Who says there are fewer gods today?

Maybe we just hear less about gods as more and more people in all cultures become educated and thoughtful.

Obviously the disappearance of any one civilization means that its gods will be changed as they are absorbed by succeeding civilizations.

Thus the Greek Zeus became the Roman Jupiter. Greeks honoring Aphrodite were succeeded by Romans remembering Venus and today we have St. Valentine's Day. The Egyptian man-god who dies and is resurrected and offers us eternal life was Osiris, who became Attis in Turkey then Jesus in Galilee.

Hindus have never given up their commitment to ten thousand gods. Monotheism was invented by Akhneton of Egypt long ago and is today carried on by Judaism and Islam, but Christianity has fudged a bit and made three persons of allegedly one God.

Maybe the Scientologists will soon tell us that L. Ron Hubbard has been recognized as a god. That would be no wackier than some of the other stuff they teach.

Why do you say there are fewer gods today? The human imagination is boundlessly creative.

Answer 3

polytheism, or the belief in many gods, was the way ancient man, who was wholly ignorant of the natural world, explained natural phenomena. the sun made things grow and was therefore a god, the rain filled drinking ponds and was therefore a god, the wind, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods, death and destruction were all the work of gods who were either pleased or displeased with their servant man. all these gods had to be appeased, worshipped, and paid tribute to which became rather an unwieldy process for travelers, merchants and others going about their business. then, the hebrews hit on a brilliant idea, they combined all gods into one, thus creating monotheism and its much more dangerous and intolerant ideas. the misery this has brought upon humankind is incalculable and continues to this day. a brief trip through history confirms this from the hebrews to the crusaders, and now the war on radical islam not to mention all the other wars of religion waged from time immemorial to the present day. the really sad thing is, that the gods that are invoked to give reason for these wars, are nothing but a figment of mans fertile, creative, and monstrous imagination.

Answer 4

If you ask me, yes, they were all made up. But this doesn't answer your first question. It is not all that true, that there are fewer gods in todays religions as they were in Roman or Greek religion. Just thinkc of they many saints, angels, demons etc. of the Catholic church. Of course, god is the chief of all those dieties, but wasn't zeus the chief of all greek gods? It's the same for other religions like buddhism, where darmas and other enlighted beings are revered. What's more, taoists, which don't believe in a god, pray to a lot of different dieties too.
I believe you get the point.

Answer 5

The gods art sill there. And they are gaining followers all the time. More and more peol are returning to the wroship of their ancestral gods, Greece bieng the most newsworthy of those places and more Greeks are returning to the worship of their TRUE gods. The same is happening in other pantheons as well (Celtic, Norse, Egyptian and many others).

Answer 6

it's the understanding of the world that has changed, not the number of "gods". in old days, people made "god" of any charismatic person that was somehow "above" others, and it remained in the religion (you can see this in a lot of myths, study the stories). today, people would certainly (if they had the old mind-set), say that some hoolywood starts or Bill Gates are gods and tell the stories until they grew into legends. the monotheistic religions are relatively new (though still very old) and I think that the concept of "one god" appeared to battle the old religions.

Answer 7

There are no fewer gods than there were before. There are just as many, if not more. It's just that not as many people know about them or worship them. They're hiding under the radar, so to speak.

Answer 8

Of course. The Roman gods were a rip-off of the Greek gods. And of course the Pagan, well they get into the "Elements" or Nature. We know animals are not gods, because well, we can eat them. Use them for our purpose at any given moment. (1 God does not submit to man. EXAMPLE: If your god is a bull, and I came at night and shot it, how can you say its a god? Even if you put guards to protect it, what point is that? This god can't defend itself.
And as far as "Nature," If I got up right now and cursed and spit at the wind, nothing would happen. No tornado would sweep me up, I wouldn't go to Oz. And If I cursed and pissed on a tree, it will NOT fall on me. Heck, If I took a dump on a campfire, it's not going to "Flare up" and take revenge. Man can control nature for his own needs. Wind for boats, Fire for food and warmth, water for cleansing and drinking, oh and Air to breath, but if I strangle somebody I cut off his supply right? 2)The earth is not a god.

Answer 9

that is because the christians came along took over there country and said thay are not true gods and turned them all into myths when in fact there god is not the true god the old gods have been there a lot longer than that christian fairy tale one the christians are control freakes and have been trying to brainwash this planet for 2000yrs

Answer 10

No, and they are not fewer in number. Why would you think that?

The Old Gods are alive and there are many of us that still worship and honor them.

Answer 11

Ragnarok spelled the end complete for many of them. Try to look for the apocolypse played to the conclusion as sacrifice for the coming age in mythology.