Number of Gods in the world:

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2002-10-25 05:45pm

Something I heard on the net:

By last count, since the start of recorded history, there have
been exactly 1,472 offical Gods identified.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2002-10-25 07:03pm

How many religions were there?

Also, you have to consider different views and opinions on the same god.

Post by **haas mark** » 2002-10-25 07:13pm

I think that was his point, establishing all the gods form all the different religions

(PS: fyi, if you you use the word "God" in that context, it is lowercase, not capitalized)

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2002-10-25 07:32pm

"But mine is the real one!", spoke 1,472 children

That is alot, I must admit. I'd love to know their sources and parameters for defining separate gods.

Post by **haas mark** » 2002-10-25 07:39pm

One must realize that some of these gods come form poyltheistic religions...such as Hiduism, paganism, American Indian religions, etc....

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2002-10-25 09:32pm

Are different forms of the same god also included? Like is God from Christianity counted differently from the God of Catholicism?

Post by **haas mark** » 2002-10-25 09:36pm

Catholicism came first, so Christianity's God IS Catholicism's God.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2002-10-25 09:39pm

verilon wrote:Catholicism came first, so Christianity's God IS Catholicism's God.

I know, I'm just wondering if it's counted as one or two deities, since some religions have different views on the same deity.

Post by **haas mark** » 2002-10-25 09:41pm

Yeh...but all Christians believe in the same God...or so they say...but in that instance, they'd be believing in the JEWISH God, becuase he came first!

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2002-10-25 09:46pm

verilon wrote:Yeh...but all Christians believe in the same God...or so they say...but in that instance, they'd be believing in the JEWISH God, becuase he came first!

I know all that. I'm just wondering if for the purposes of the survey God is counted more than once in order to boost the final count. I doubt it though, but I'm just wondering.

Post by **haas mark** » 2002-10-25 09:46pm

neoolong wrote:
verilon wrote:Yeh...but all Christians believe in the same God...or so they say...but in that instance, they'd be believing in the JEWISH God, becuase he came first!
I know all that. I'm just wondering if for the purposes of the survey God is counted more than once in order to boost the final count. I doubt it though, but I'm just wondering.

Maybe, maybe not. But I would assume that number may almost double, if it did.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2002-10-25 09:56pm

Hinduism, if you view it as a polytheistic religion, is supposed to have thousands of gods.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2002-10-25 10:03pm

I`ve read that there were nearly 1500 Aztec gods. A lot of those would have been different aspects of the same critter, though.

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2002-10-25 10:14pm

verilon wrote:Yeh...but all Christians believe in the same God...or so they say...but in that instance, they'd be believing in the JEWISH God, becuase he came first!

Actually, modern scholars have determined that Yahweh originates from Canaanite mythology, so technically all Christians and Jews believe in a violently jealous mountain god.

Newtonian Fury · Post by **Newtonian Fury** » 2002-10-26 12:25am

Gods are stupid. Now wonder so many of them are dead right now! When people realize that they don't need masters to slave over, divinity started falling apart.

master_yoda · Post by **master_yoda** » 2002-10-26 02:52am

Apparently theres 350 million gods, in buddhas (sp) alone. some much for the 1,472 figure.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2002-10-26 03:32pm

Technically, Hinduism has as many as a few tens of MILLIONS of gods. many ancient religions have an insane number of gods.

Master Yoda, buddhism has no gods, buddhism is an atheist "religion" as said by buddha himself.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2002-10-26 04:44pm

Hinduism has upward of 300 million gods, if memory serves. I think that whoever was doing the research may have miscounted.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2002-10-26 06:08pm

Perhaps by that 1,472 figure, they mean number of religions throught history. Of course, there could have been many smaller, unrecorded sects, and the number could exclude different branches and views of a religion.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2002-10-26 06:35pm

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Perhaps by that 1,472 figure, they mean number of religions throught history. Of course, there could have been many smaller, unrecorded sects, and the number could exclude different branches and views of a religion.

Try christian denominations. And I might not actually be kidding, either.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2002-10-30 10:57am

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:Perhaps by that 1,472 figure, they mean number of religions throught history. Of course, there could have been many smaller, unrecorded sects, and the number could exclude different branches and views of a religion.

I think it's that which he refers to. By the way, many people who study ancient religions, divide deities into archetypes rather than particular deities..... (Marija Gimbutas and Robert Graves do, at least, but I'm 100% sure that they're not the only ones.)

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2002-10-31 10:48pm

The traditional answer in Hinduism as to how many gods there are is 330 million, in the Vedas (old Vedas, not the Vedas as the entire Hindu religious writings). In the Upanishads, it focuses on three deities (Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva), who are the main reflections of the one true reality Brahmin. I think the 1,472 are those given specific names in religions.

By the way, Yahweh isn't a Canaanite name. It originates in Hebrew originally not using vowels, and the phrase "I am who I am" in Exodus is written YHWH, which has multiple interpretations (thus Yahweh and Jehovah, both possible interpretations). The Canaanite "God of the Mountain" was El-Shaddai, a title which is used in the Old Testament to refer to the Hebrew deity (along with Elohim ["Lord"], El-Elyon ["Most High God"], El-Olam ["Everlasting God"], and other name/titles).

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2002-11-01 06:33pm

By the way, Yahweh isn't a Canaanite name. It originates in Hebrew originally not using vowels, and the phrase "I am who I am" in Exodus is written YHWH, which has multiple interpretations (thus Yahweh and Jehovah, both possible interpretations). The Canaanite "God of the Mountain" was El-Shaddai, a title which is used in the Old Testament to refer to the Hebrew deity (along with Elohim ["Lord"], El-Elyon ["Most High God"], El-Olam ["Everlasting God"], and other name/titles).

I already knew about the name, I didn't say Yahweh was his original name.

El-Shaddai, otoh, I haven't heard. Do you have a source for that? Never would have thought his Jewish titles resembled his Canaanite name (or is that merely coincidental? There was also El, or Bull-El in Canaanite myth. Has that anything to do with the 'El' in El-Shaddai, Alohim, etc?).

Tosho · Post by **Tosho** » 2002-11-01 06:47pm

kojikun wrote:Master Yoda, buddhism has no gods, buddhism is an atheist "religion" as said by buddha himself.

Actually if I remember correctly the Buddha was silent on the subject of dieties.

Tosho · Post by **Tosho** » 2002-11-01 06:50pm

kojikun wrote:Master Yoda, buddhism has no gods, buddhism is an atheist "religion" as said by buddha himself.

Actually if I remember correctly the Buddha was silent on the subject of dieties.