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Do Gods Die?

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?
 

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
Only on the internet

Mind you, Zeus, Poseidon and many others are fairly benign these days

Interesting. What religion or spiritual tradition do you follow again?

Or did you just reply to the thread title and ignore the OP?
 

Messianic Israelite

Active Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?
False mighty ones die because they do not have the intrinsic quality of eternal life that Yahweh does. Of course, I am playing with words and so does the Bible. They are no real mighty ones but Yahweh. Yahweh is everlasting (Isaiah 63:16). However, because humans give the status of a mighty one to objects, idols and material things, they are indeed other mighty ones in the figment of man's imagination.

Psalm 96:5 says: "For all the elohim of the peoples are idols; But Yahweh made the heavens." Further, Deuteronomy says that the people are worshiping demons (Deuteronomy 32:17).

It would preferable to use the term Elohim, or elohim, rather than G-d. Elohim means strong ones.

Strongs definition of the term is: אֱלֹהִים ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem'; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:—angels, × exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), × (very) great, judges, × mighty.

H430 - 'ĕlōhîm - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)
 

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
In the sense that any forgotten story does.

Otherwise its just an equivocation game

What does this have to do with the death of gods? We're talking about gods in this thread, not stories about them.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?

The one true God does not die but all others die in various ways because they are not immortal.
I have no data on the typical life span of gods.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?
Yes, but I am not up to speed on theological mythology enough to list them. Also, they die, of course, when cultures die and people forget about them.
 

MyM

Well-Known Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?

In Islam, Allah never dies. He always was, is and always will be. In Islam, we believe that Allah, the Creator of the universe, of you and me, never dies and he is the only one worthy of worship. :)

In Islam, there is only ONE GOD. :)
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Some who die are deified for various good deeds. You can compare them to saints.
Iravan, for example. Iravan was son of Arjuna and a Naga Princess, Ulupi. Worshiped in Tamilnadu.
He is supposed to have been a transgender. Iravan - Wikipedia
Folk deities of Rajasthan: Pabu ji, Ramdev ji, Meha ji, Harbu ji, Goga ji.
Folk Deities of Rajasthan - Panch Pir | UdaipurBlog
Other regions also have their folk deities.

Iravan, Koothandavar Festival
220px-Aravan_head.jpg
 
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George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?
I'll go with 'Yes' for my answer but prefer the words 'merge into the absolute' than dying. Only Brahman is eternal.
 

Yazata

Active Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?

Well, I'm an agnostic, so I guess that I would have to say that I don't know, right?

In ancient times a god was anyone perceived as superhuman. Larger than life, so to speak. So we had things like divine kings and emperors. Their lifespan was pretty much the same as other people. Maybe less, since they had a tendency to die in battle or be assassinated. In ancient times the dividing line between human and divine was fuzzy and indistinct and individuals could straddle it, like Heracles. There was still a hint of animism and everyone had a personal daemon/guardian angel and everything could be imagined as having an associated spirit. The divine was right here, right now, in every event that happened. One of the features of the history of religion is how that human-divine distinction has opened up into a chasm as gods became more and more exalted, transcendant and receded up into the heavens, incomparably far above man.

In traditional Buddhism, gods have typically been conceived of as shaped by karma just as normal humans are. Gods are beings who were human in earlier lives who have won a more exalted rebirth into a paradisical heavenly existence as a result of their virtuous actions and (especially) virtuous motivations.

But it's tricky being a god. That's because the divine state fosters ego. Gods are always (in effect) thundering "ME! ME! ME!". From the Buddhist perspective the Judeo-Christian-Islamic god is a divine being who like so many gods before him fundamentally doesn't get it. Becoming divine can be a huge trap leading to the worst kind of self-involvement and most gods will eventually tumble out of their plush heavens, back into human life or more likely into one of Buddhism's many hells. So we could say that gods have finite lifetimes, though in another sense they are immortal like every sentient being supposedly is.

So in Buddhism even gods are in need of enlightenment and are still turning on the wheel of karma. That's why the wisest gods welcome the appearance of Buddhas and eagerly gather to hear their teachings.

If so, how and why? What it the typical lifespan of a god in your belief?

My own tendency sort of follows Anthony Flew away from atheism towards something like deism. I conceive of "God" as whatever the answers are to a whole set of fundamental metaphysical questions. What is the source of cosmic order? What is the ultimate non-reducible nature of being? Why is there something rather than nothing?

I'm still an agnostic and don't know what the answers are. I don't know whether there even are answers, let alone how to discover them. I don't know whether it all comes together in one single ultimate answer or whether there are separate answers to the different questions.

And I don't really see how the question of lifespan is even relevant to that kind of idea of transcendance.
 
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1213

Well-Known Member
In your religion or spiritual tradition, do gods die?
...

I said, "You are gods, All of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless you shall die like men, And fall like one of the rulers."
Psalms 82:6-7

By what the Bible tells, fake gods die, the one and only true God doesn't.
 

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
A couple Gods make it out of Ragnarok alive, but I forget who exactly. As well as a couple humans.

Yeah, but then Thanos finds them, kills Heimdall and Loki, as well as many other Asgardians, then the Saakarian ship explodes sending Thor hurtling into space until he's found and picked up by the Guardians of the Galaxy.

So I guess Thor was the only one that made it alive out and settled in Norway in New Asgard.

But according to Loki, the lifespan of a god is roughly 5,000 years.

Am I using the correct resources for my knowledge of Norse mythology? :p
 

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
I find it both arrogant and sad (and at the same time, mild amusing) that many of those that follow religions with so-called "fake" gods acknowledge the god of the religions who think their gods are fake.
 

Link

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I find it both arrogant and sad (and at the same time, mild amusing) that many of those that follow religions with so-called "fake" gods acknowledge the god of the religions who think their gods are fake.

Salam

The Quran doesn't say polytheist gods are not real, it says, they been given titles with no proof and that if they were what they claim they are, they would be chosen Angels, but says furthermore, they mostly are Jinn (misguided ones) and even more so, many are misguided to the extent they are devils that are under Satan who doesn't believe and is a disbeliever and a rebel.

Surah Jinn shows, a great amount are deceived sincerely, and can be awakened. They honestly believe all Jinn and humans are truthful in what they attributed to God and their positions in religion. Till they become awakened.

Personally a lot of Jinn come to me to see what I view of them and Quran, and sometimes they show their position and opinions in my dreams, and I counter argue in the day with my thoughts.

I've even had some of them thank me for the views of Quran I've given them, and that I provided them with deep insights.

I use to think they come with hostility, but a lot come to see the light and insights I have of Quran and I can help purify some of them.
 
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