Any other documented cases of people claiming to be God

[hvizsgyak]

I have read many threads here where atheists challenge our Catholic (or even Christian belief) in the existence of God. Many of the people who respond to these challenges usually use logic or scientific approaches to answer. I have read a few articles though that take the approach of proving that Jesus truly existed and truly was the Son of God. Once a person proves that there was a person who truly lived and made claims such as Jesus did you can prove there is a God, I feel. My question to anybody out there is: Did anybody else throughout any culture make the same claims that Jesus did and are these claims as well documented (such as how the Gospels detailed Jesus’ life)? This question may have been put forth on another thread but I tried different searches and came up empty. Thanks for any (name removed by moderator)ut you can give me.

 

[Mintaka]

Historical persons who’ve claimed to be God generally fall into one of the following categories:

1. Totally crazy whackjob who’s clearly considered mentally ill by everybody. In some cultures, people might believe such people were gods or possessed by gods or demons, but also that they were crazy.
2. Powerful leader, inspiring speaker, magician, conman, or rich person who claims to be a god – seriously, for gain, or as an attempt to create a civic religion. People may idolize him so much that they believe it, or they may fear him enough not to want to contradict him.
3. Civic/national religion which claims that all their kings are descended from gods, and/or are gods themselves. People may take it seriously or not. This is probably the most common in world history: the Pharaohs of Egypt, the non-Christian emperors of Rome, and the past emperors of Japan all went for this. In ancient Greece and many other Indo-European cultures, most clans seem to have tried to trace their descent from some sort of god or great hero; so it wasn’t just about kings, either.
4. Other people proclaim a person to be a god, and the supposed god goes along with it.

As for claiming to be not just a god, but the God… that’s not so common among men of power, though it’s still fairly common among whackjobs. People claiming to be Jesus or a relative seem to be fairly common among revolutionary movements in largely non-Christian countries, and no, I don’t know what that means.

For example, the leader of Japan’s Shimabara Rebellion, a young man named Amakusa Shiro, claimed to be the “Son of God” and the “Fourth Son of Heaven”. The leader of China’s Taiping Rebellion was a schoolteacher who claimed to be Jesus’ younger brother, the “Heavenly King of the Heavenly Kingdom’s Great Peace”.

Here’s a list of a good many people down the years who have claimed to be the Messiah or Jesus, if that interests you. Mostly they were conmen, or crazy but inspiring.

Wikipedia also has an extremely incomplete but interesting list of historical people who’ve been thought to be deities. Scroll down to “self deification” for info on your question.

 

[hvizsgyak]

Thanks for the websites, Mintaka. I knew there were some people claiming to be the Messiah or God but I didn’t realize to what extent their stories were preserved throughout history. After reading through both of the lists, I can see where you can eliminate alot of the so called gods because they were con-men (and women) or crazy or eccentric. Unfortunately, it still leaves a few that are somewhat convincing (the first one, Simon of P?). I can see why not to many people try to prove that there is a God by proving that Jesus was a real historic person. There are a few others who have made the same claims as Jesus did. I still find the information about Jesus to be the most complete and understandable and believable though. Thanks again, the info was enlightening.

 

[IHeartAquinas]

Grigori Grabuvoi in Russia is currently claiming to be the second coming of Jesus. Most tasteless and infuriating? He’s promised to resurrect the children that died at Beslan.

And when his probation is up, he’s planning on coming to America. Oh…what joy. Why does the West have to play asylum to these people?

 

[bingbang]

I have read many threads here where atheists challenge our Catholic (or even Christian belief) in the existence of God. Many of the people who respond to these challenges usually use logic or scientific approaches to answer. I have read a few articles though that take the approach of proving that Jesus truly existed and truly was the Son of God. Once a person proves that there was a person who truly lived and made claims such as Jesus did you can prove there is a God, I feel. My question to anybody out there is: Did anybody else throughout any culture make the same claims that Jesus did and are these claims as well documented (such as how the Gospels detailed Jesus’ life)? This question may have been put forth on another thread but I tried different searches and came up empty. Thanks for any (name removed by moderator)ut you can give me.

You can find cult leaders around the world making claims that they are God. Actually I believe that the history channel did a special on one such “prophet.”

 

[Petergee]

Unfortunately, it still leaves a few that are somewhat convincing (the first one, Simon of P?). I can see why not to many people try to prove that there is a God by proving that Jesus was a real historic person. There are a few others who have made the same claims as Jesus did. I still find the information about Jesus to be the most complete and understandable and believable though.

Actually many people ever since the Church started and still today firmly believe and teach the proof that there is a God by proving that Jesus was a real historic person. And that, in stark contrast to** all **the other claimants, the reports of His miracles and above all His Resurrection are credible as true facts of history.