Can you explain the Orthodox Christian belief in Deification?

Question

This is a legitimate and long-standing eastern christian doctrine. Is anyone familiar with it?
To me, it seemd to be saying that the destiny of Man is to become how God is. Any other explanations?

au contraire--there is most certainly an orthodox doctrine specifically called "deification"
If you don't know anything about it, either look it up or don't answer the question

Quoting from Pew Potato's article:
Merciful Lord, guide our Orthodox brethren towards the quest for theosis, as they do not rejoice because they are unaware of the magnificence of their vocation as ‘called to be gods’

Also from Pew Potato's link--Deification is called in Greek "Theosis":
Theosis
The deification of man. According to the Orthodox Tradition, man’s purpose in life is to achieve union with God, and to become god by grace. Acquisition of the Holy Spirit; self-realization.

BTW--Mormons don't believe that by becoming "gods" they are taking God's place. God will always be supreme and superior to us.

Answer 1

see a multipage explanation here.

THEOSIS* - DEIFICATION AS THE PURPOSE OF MAN'S LIFE

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE THEOTOKOS TO MAN'S DEIFICATION

Our Church depicts deified men: those who became gods by Grace because God became man. This is why in our Orthodox churches we can depict not only the incarnate God, Christ, and His immaculate Mother, the Lady Theotokos, but also the saints around and below the Pantocrator. On all the walls of the Church we paint the results of God’s incarnation: the sainted and deified men.

Answer 2

Theosis or deification in Eastern Orthodoxy is the "partaking of the divine nature" from 2 Peter1:4. Grace is not just a covering over of our falleness but a transformingshare in divine life as a true gift and union with God. We are not in partakers in the incommunicable Divine Essence or ousia that the persons of the Trinity share but we share in the "energies" of God which transform us and the fulfillment will come with the transformation of even our bodies"into copies of his own glorious body(Phillipians)" as immortal at our Resurrection.
We become "engodded" with uncreated grace in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We are actually adopted by God the Father through Christ in the Spirit and incorporated into the reality and "Body of Christ". We experience the indwelling of God as living temples.
This is not pantheism or the Mormon "becoming gods" but we become truly human through the Resurrected human nature of Jesus,true God and true Man, by union with the divine energies .We will not be eternal but communing with the Eternal.
St Gregory Palamas talked of the "uncreated Light of Tabor" or what is imaged at the Transfiguration of Jesus as someone shared with us and united to our depths in the deepest sense.

Answer 3

This goes along with Gnostic Christianity and Roman Catholic beliefs as well... God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, because just like any loving Parent, a child must be given the opportunity to grow outside of the safety of their parents love and home, to become mature adults. He sent the Human Spirit down to earth from Heaven in order for us to mature beyond the innocence of Heaven, to become spiritually mature, and realize where we came from, and where we are to return. Jesus Christ shows us that Way, and the Way back to God, our Father, born of the Spirit of God and Mind of Christ, back to our Divine roots and home with God, as children of God.

I wouldn't call it "deification" though, but to become imitators of Jesus and God, as we are sparks of the Divine God, as His children, but as our Parent, God will always be above us.

Answer 4

You must be confusing one of the oldest christian churches with Mormonism whose followers believe that they must eventually become gods. The Orthodox christians ARE christians. They believe in God being separate and humans NOT being gods (ever) and reject the first (and to be last) lie of satan "you shall be as gods". In fact the only difference between them and the Catholic Church is in the filio doctrine, where they believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father while the Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son(Word). Not to mention in the spritual heads both claim to be descended from Peter and a long line of bishops through the laying of hands to this day.
Through Jesus Christ, every Christian believes they will be fully human (and not gods). Jesus Christ showed true humanity as intended in the image of a holy God who created us, intended to be as sinless as God.

Nope, the destiny of man is not to become God. According to the definition, [ As God became man, in all ways except sin, He will also make man God, in all ways EXCEPT HIS DIVINE ESSENCE. St. Irenaeus explained this concept in Against Heresies, Book 5, in the Preface, "the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." ]
Obviously God is not god without his divine essence and omnipotence. But we can become as holy as God is, through Jesus Christ, without sin, blameless.
Yes, I agree, I overreached the definiton of "deification" without reading through. You are right. We become like God, but without being God. But I must add, without being divine or omnipotent either.

Some Mormon sects believe that the Father was once a man and became God at some point in the past, and that Mormons may eventually INHERIT the same state, called "Exaltation" by Mormons and "Deification" or "Theosis" by Mormons also. Mormons misinterpret Lorenzo Snow who framed it as a couplet: "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be." A more certain statement of the LDS teaching is that human beings are literally God's children, and, "as such, each has a divine nature and destiny", as stated in an authoritative proclamation by the contemporary church leadership
These Mormon doctrines have been heavily criticized based on some interpretations of the Bible, often citing Isaiah 43:10, in which God declares: "before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."