I think these are valid questions that I feel are hard to explain. The reason why is that everyone wll have a different idea on what defines a god and what makes it real. You can only speak from your personal experience and view.
Throughout history humans have always put human emotions and faces on onpersonal things like deities, angels, demons, ghosts, even animals and aliens. It lies in our nature to do so, because we feel that that is the way to connect with those beings on a personal level, so we can relate to them. Disney has made a career of it to portray animals in their movies as beings with human emotions and needs. In sci-fi and fantasy we see a similar thing with creatures like Elves, Trolls, dragons, demons, vampires, etc…
So is it any surprise to anyone that people do the same with the divine? The philosophers have argued against the Homeric depiction of the gods. They are right in their opinion. The Homeric depiction does seem rather childlish and silly. Than again, those myths are not meant to be taken as dogma either. They are not part of some kind of bible. Myths are used as a device to tell something about the origins of the world, of society, of their relationship with the divine and their place in the world. I seriously doubt those philosophers were atheists or the first monotheists, but I think they most definitly believed in the Gods. They just saw a flaw in the theology that they wanted to correct or at least point out.
Having come from a Christian background, my ideas on what defines a god is influenced by Christian theology. I will make no excuse for it. It is what it is. Personally, I find this to be very challenging because it challenges me to think about a subject rarely discussed. What defines a god? Our minds is limited to how much information it can process. So our view will also be limited as well. It is impossible to know everything there is to know about the world, the universe, the divine. We are limited to what we can sense through touch, vision, hear. Our mind can only interpret the world through those senses and whatever theory we can theorize.
I feel that there is no easy answer. Is a deity all powerful, all knowing or is the power limited?
In polytheism one can assume that the gods share power, but they can also limit their power to a domain or two. To simplify it. Aphrodite`s power would be limited to the domain of love and sexuality, while her power could extend far beyond that as is prover with her epithets like “killer of Men”, “Warlike”. She could easily cross over to the domain of healing, art, etc… One could argue that the Gods chose to limit their power for the sake of unity amongst themselves, if they argue at all. I can imagine that the Gods could easily be allpowerfull and allknowing at the same time.I for one have no problem with this theory that they are allpowerfull and allknowing. This leads to another question. Why do they need us for?
The ancient Sumerians believed that mankind was created by the Gods as slaves to work for them, so they would not need to work. The ancient Greeks and Romans had a different idea. It seems that the Gods do not need or require our worship, but appreciate it if we do. One could describe the relationship between the Gods and mankind as one of friendship. We approach them not just because we want something, but also to establish a relationship with them in which we honor them for what they have done for us. And we do that through our worship of them. It works both ways. The thing is, the Gods have the right to chose if they want to answer our prayers. Even than, they do not answer it directly. In neoplatonism, it is said that agents of the Gods intermediate between heaven and Earth and I subscribe to that. You have Angels, who are messengers – who most likely are the ones who deliver the prayers to the Gods and the answers back to Earth. Demons on the other hand, can guide people in life and in death when they are crossing over to the other side. Than those Demons become what the Greeks called Psychopompe; guide of the souls. Kharon is one of them. I think we could classify those Psychopompes as Thanatoi.
On what makes them real? If you are being touched by the divine, you will know it. It is as real to any polytheist as it is to a Muslim or Christian. You get a sense of awe, peace and tranquility that washes over you. The feeling you get when you are connected with that source or sources is amazing. It is hard to explain something that almost can not be explained in words, but has to be experienced. It is like describing how sexual/ romantic love feels to someone who has not experienced it yet. You can describe it in detail to that person, but they would not know what it is like to experience that kind of love. The thing is, when you do experience it. It can be beautiful and all, but it can also be terrifying. I remember my contact with Nyx to be very terrifying, while my contact with Hekate was peacefull. From all the contacts i had with the Gods, the one with Nyx is the one that was the most terrifying of them all. And for good reason. Nyx is a obscure Goddess of the Night and personifies everything that makes us affraid of the night. As Halloween approaches, it is a good time to honor not just Hades and Hekate, but also Persephone and Nyx.
What defines a God? – Aidonian’s blog
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