How do you kill a God? | INFJ Forum

How do you kill a God?

Chessie

Chessie

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Apr 5, 2010
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Well, this is a weird question. I mean, I know most people will take it as a joke but I am trying to keep it at least semi-serious.

I'm not particularly interested in a specific God. There are plenty of gods that people thought utterly dead who've had a re-awakening of worship in the late 20th and early 21st century. Wicca managed to rebuild interest in Egyptian gods who haven't seen sacrifice since before Moses.

Honestly, I am interested in this for a more personal reason. I made a New Years Resolution last year in a moment of hubris to hunt down and actually kill a God. Kill in the traditional sense of...you know...ending. Big ending!

The issue in between hasn't so much been finding one. They're all over the place and I guess I could just pick one. It's the whole 'hunting' and 'killing' bits. Gods are, after all, just the creative brain establishing a reasoning mechanism for the operation of observed elements in the universe.

So I want to know! I mean, I want to really know. Bastet showed back up after literally EVERY follower who had knowledge of her rituals and the context of her spiritual worship was wiped out by time.

I want to know. We all must admit that Gods can be very troublesome. People interpreting them get into terrible trouble all the time and it would be nice if we could pick off the nasty ones if it came to being necessary. Like pets who decide they own the house, except with smitey-powers.

Give me your thoughts.

How would you kill a God?
 
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Find a god people like better. You can't really kill religion it just wont' go away.
 
how do you kill an idea? either discredit it completely using cold hard logic, clever propaganda, or replace it with an even more attractive idea. people are fickle~ loyalty to a god can be bought (that's probably overly cynical)
 
There is no way you can kill a God.

If He is God, He cannot be killed as He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.
If He is not a real God. It doesn't exist. You can't kill something that doesn't even exist.

:ranger:
 
All very nice answers, but I would like an example if one might be willing of a god you know of that has been killed. The Norse have a certain pleasurable tendency to regularly grease their deities.

Egyptians have a number of 'temporary' death situations for Gods. In fact, most groups suggest in one form or another that a 'god' can't actually be killed but can be put on cosmic hold. Loki suspended beneath the earth for instance.
 
The Jews and Pontius Pilate killed God by crucifying Him.

The prerequisite is, of course was that God assumed a nature that is capable of dieing. However, you missed your opportunity by about twenty centuries.
 
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Cease with the tiresome christianity, people: this could be an interesting thread.

How much of an universal does the god you want to kill need to be? Couldn't you create a god, and then create its destruction? To write it, for example. In the end gods are always ideas.
 
which god are you after? lets start from there.
 
Well, I'm not after a specific God. This started off as an academic exercise to see if a person could define, contain, and then bring an end to a pure abstract.

I always figured I might try for one of the smaller ones because there is plenty of theory to suggest that 'belief' fuels these creations. Belief seems like such a limited power source. It does allow people to do an immense number of things but so does cruelty and malice.

The problem I have with the 'belief fuels existence' idea is that most people, no matter how closely linked by psychology and ideology, believe in something different. Now, unless Gods exist within a certain belief based power-band, accepting all belief within a particular spectrum even if their followers believe essentially opposing ideas then there might be hundreds upon hundreds of 'Christian' and 'Muslim' Gods. Maybe even one for each person.

That's far too many for my purposes.
 
Stop believing. It seems to be a common need of gods to have attention of people. If people ignore/stop believing in them, it's as if the god will vanish.
 
mf said:
Stop believing. It seems to be a common need of gods to have attention of people. If people ignore/stop believing in them, it's as if the god will vanish.
Click to expand...

Yes, you stop any means of communication or spread of knowledge about such a notion.

Out of sight, out of mind.
 
"If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come."

Ironman 2
 
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Well, I can lay out what my research has told me about the actual acts involved in killing a God.

Firstly, poison is the only method with any consistent ability to incapacitate a god. Violence against a God doesn't seem to work.

Thor fought Jorrmagund and the serpent's venom was dangerous to him.

Shiva, the destroyer of Hindu myth swallowed the poison of Halahala, the great pot that came from the churning ocean. It damaged his throat, though he didn't swallow it for fear it would kill him.

In Christian mythology, the serpent is deceit and rebellion. Mose's staff was twined with a serpent when he raised it against Pharoh, who was considered a god by his people. This symbolizes rebellion and the wish for Pharoh to die. This gave great power to Moses who lead his people away while poisoning the first born of 'the god' (the pharoh) and bringing him to ruin.

Hercules, the half god son of Zeus was poisoned by Nessus the centaur who was a child of Ixion, son of Ares. Again, divine lineage inspiring the ability to poison. I know he wasn't technically a god but he was uplifted upon his death.

Osiris killed by Seth/Set. This is a big part of alchemical principles. Set is the destructive consequences of wishing to perform alchemy. He is symbolized as purification of the body and mind through the survival of poison. Osiris is killed by Set as retribution for removing his testicles in one story but in another, he is killed by Set out of jealousy. Jealousy, being one of the great poisons.

Loki is held beneath the world tree, Yggdrasil, by a great snake that drips poison into his eyes. His wife holds a bowl over his face and fills it with the poison which she pours into a great lake or estuary nearby, but as she is gone the poison seeps into Loki's face. He curses her forever until Ragnarok but he is essentially incapacitated. He was placed there for his immense mischief by vengeful gods of Valhalla.

All of this leads me to the idea that poison, specifically poison from a World Serpent or a jealous and vengeful divinity, is the best way to actually damage a God.
 
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