In H2G2 the Rain God had neither worshipers nor creations. It just rained everywhere he went. He was the Rain God. Douglas Adams said so.
What makes a God to me is that, according to whatever faith you belong to, the world only functions because of the gods. In every religion, there are gods. And they all do something critically important for the world. I already mentioned several Greek gods. Look at Norse. Loki is the god of tricks. Thor is the god of thunder. Hel is the goddess of the underworld. Egyptian. Ra is the god of the sun. Nut is the goddess of night. Osiris is the god of the dead. Hindu. Kali is the goddess of revolution. Radha of romance. Parvati of marriage. In Christianity, God controls everything good. When something positive happens, they thank God. When something bad happens, they blame Satan. So to me, it's all about control.
Echoes my point-- he was a rain god. He literally made it rain. If he didn't make rain, would he still be a god?
He wasn't aware of the rain god status, he just knew it was always raining. He did not make the rain, the rain happily followed him around.
Yes Back at a keyboard. Felt like forever! lol. I like your posts. Well for one. I usually have an opinion when I ask things. Because I usually have an opinion. I ask because I am curious. I like you guys. I want to see how you think. What conclusions you reach. Which ones I already thought of and which ones I haven't. Plus I don't come to the argument with this solid or rigid statement like "My mind will not be changed!" I look forward to finding things that change my mind about things. It means I learned and grew as a person. Though on reflection. I may have phrased that poorly. It is hard for me to say my exact opinion on god-hood. I suppose my position here is that practically speaking since so many people have a different definition of god that the term god-like and term god are pretty much the same thing. I will admit you make a pretty decent case on your thoughts of what a god is. Also a new one. No one else here or in real life that I know has argued that point. . Then again. My argument was that I call her a god because I believe it is the natural word people in the media would call her. Just like if superman was flying around we would probably call him a god too. I mean on the superman note. His story is often referred to as "A god trying to fit in amongst mortals." Which tells a fairly accurate statement. I suppose "A god-like alien trying to fit in amonst humans" is pretty much the same but then again that was a point I attempted to argue just now that in the grand scheme the difference between god and god-like seems very minimal. I mean a friend of my is very rigid in his position that a god has to be powerful enough to affect an entire planet in one action and immortal. Which is a lot different than many positions here. Which I suppose makes sense. Plenty of stories of gods and each have there own attributes. There doesn't seem to be a real standard here. Oh and my girl can control the elements. Though it is a common power in my world. She can do so much better but that is only because her godhood or like boast increases her abilites. Also she isn't immortal. She does command order! It would be fair to call her a god of order. Except she doesn't command it by super natural ability. She just takes actions with the desire of causing order. No different than how a cop might in all honesty. lol
It's one thing to already have an opinion -- it's another thing to ask for suggestions then discard them right away, which is what I feel you're doing here. While only four people commented, three of the four disagree that she is a god, and one agrees. But for some reason, you latch onto the one person that agrees with you, then debate with those who don't. I feel like this post is just you trying to get validation for your idea, not asking for general opinions that you'll use to make your story better. I don't believe the media would call her a god. They'd call her an alien, a superhero, possibly god-like. But "god-like" and "god" are not the same... hence the "like" added at the end. It means the person is NOT a god, but has godly attributes. I agree with your friend -- a god has to be powerful and immortal. But being powerful and immortal doesn't automatically make one a god. For example, to be a tennis ball, it must be yellow and bouncy. But not all yellow bouncy balls are tennis balls. She's not a god. If it's common for characters in your world to control the elements, then her controlling the elements is irrelevant to her "god" status, despite how powerful she may be. If she isn't immortal, again, she isn't a god. Find me one single mythological story in which a god isn't immortal, and we may be able to argue that more. But as I said above, a god must be powerful and immortal to be a god. And since your girl can die, she isn't a god. If she doesn't command order in a supernatural way, then again, she isn't a god. She's a superhero. She's Spiderman. She's Wonderwoman. She's Superman. But she's not a god. You can't just call someone a god because you want to. There are standards. It's like calling someone a vampire just because they have pale skin. It doesn't work that way. A god is many things, but there is still a standard. Here's what I believe that standard is: 1. They are immortal. I've never read a story in which a God dies. Ever. Evvverrr. ETA: Alright, I take the "god never dies" part back. There are plenty of stories about gods dying, but they are resurrected. So still, they live eternally. 2. They and they alone control something important in the world. In Greek mythology, Zeus is the only one that controls lightning bolts. Demeter is the only one that can change the seasons. Apollo is the only one who rides the sun chariot. Hades is the only one that rules the Underworld. Nyx is the only personification of night. Catch my drift? 3. They are powerful. That's a given. If a human can defeat them (not saying this happens in your story), then they aren't strong enough to be called a god. 4. This one is more of an opinion, but gods in mythology don't live among humans. In Greek, they lived on Mt. Olympus. In Norse, they lived on an entirely different plane. In Egyptian, they were literally a part of the world (for example, Isis wasn't only the Goddess of the Nile River, she was the Nile River). Your character only fits the third. Because she isn't immortal, she doesn't exclusively control anything, and she lives among humans. So to me, she's not a god. She's a superhero.
Perhaps I can offer another thought on the God subject that hasn't been discussed. A God to one person, may not be a God to the next person. For example take the Christian God, and ask the opinion of an Atheist. Your main character could very well be seen as a god to some of the people in your story, and not at all to others. Or to highlight it in terms of Superman, he isn't a god, just an alien who gains extraordinary powers from our yellow sun. There are people in the Superman world that know those facts, and never treat him like a god (I.E. Lex Luthor). But there are others in Superman's world that DO believe he is a god, just take a look at the trailer for the new Batman vs. Superman movie coming out. I think it adds a lot to a setting if you used that. The fact that your character is not really a good, but get's treated as such by some, but maybe not all, of her surrounding world. Just my two cents
Did I phrase my original post poorly. Looking back I said that I was randomly curious of your guys opinion. Which is true. I will grant you I do tend to seek validation often but this was not one of those times. I meant I didn't explain my case and ask if it was fitting. I actually explained the concept and asked how you guys handled it or would handle it. Plus there was two questions. I was pretty torn about the second question. Though everyone seemed to agree with that one. @Jaro helped with the phrasing of my argument. Which is while even if objectively we admit she isn't a god. How would the media of her world know that? Going back to god-like and god being practically the same thing in context. Off the top of my head Bolder comes to mind to for a non immortal god. Bolder is the Norse god of light who was killed as a child by a sharpened piece of mistle toe. Technically she gets 2 of your conditions. The second being the living alone part. What do you mean by ETA? My mind only thinks, estimated time of arrival. lol. I suppose again @Jaro reminded me of something. I suppose it is actually fair to say she isn't a god. Because my argument was people would call her that. Which I think is still a fair assumption. Yet I see my mistep. Being call one doesn't make her one. Yet that doesn't resolve the phrasing of my question because I asked when is it correct to use. lol. Which it seems to still be correct. lol. Reminds me of this other character I have. I call her/him(I don't know there gender.) a true god. I suppose that is sort of me realizing inside that my girl isn't a true god. Yet the true god(doesn't have a name. I usually refer to it as "Mother") fills a lot more attributes of yours. From lives alone, to can command things;technically in the same way as my girl but I think this one does fill your condition because this one ability moves into the territory of yours because there command is so high that others can't replicate it. As in the true god at a point can reshape the laws of physics. Yet they still aren't immortal. Nothing in my universe is capible of being immortal. The true god in my lore dies reshaping the laws of reality. The implication being that they used all of there power in one moment to add 2 new laws to physics making the universe more healthy. So does someone like that who still misses a point on your scale still not deserved to be called a god? Thanks for the very nice discussion.
