Real God - vs - made-up gods

 

Can we all agree that most of the gods, past and present, were made-up? Most gods were inventions of humans, based on ancient (and more modern) myths - can we all (even Christians) agree on that?  

Even if you believe in a god, believe that your god is real, you very likely believe that all of the other gods that have been believed in over thousands of years, were made-up by people.

Can we at least agree on that?

We know that people in ancient civilizations made up gods.  Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, (Hebrews?), Inca's, Mayans, Native Americans, etc, all worshiped gods that were based on ancient mythical beings, creatures, celestial objects, and earthly objects, folklore, traditions, which means all these "other" gods were the product of their imaginations or the imaginations of their ancestors.

What does the bible say about "other" gods?

Exodus 20:3-5:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them . . .

This is the first of the "Ten Commandments" listed in Exodus 20.  It is not completely clear that the author of this passage (Moses?) believed that the "other gods" were actual living gods, or were just made-up gods.  But based on other biblical passages, it seems clear that these ancient peoples, the Hebrews, believed that the "other gods" that were being worshiped, were not simply man-made gods, but were actual living gods, though lesser gods than the God of the Hebrews.  There is every indication that the Hebrew God saw these "other" gods as real, and a genuine threat to his authority.

The book of Psalms is littered with indications that there were many gods, but that the God of the Hebrews was the most powerful god:
86:8 - Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

96:4 - For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.

135:5 - For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.

In Exodus we find more confirmation that the bible authors considered the other gods to be real:

12:12 - For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night . . . and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment . . .

And in Numbers:

33:4 - For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.

Clearly, when the bible talks about "other" gods, the bible considers those gods to be actual, real, living gods, not just forbidden figments of the human imagination.  Those gods, according to the bible, could perform "works", but their works were not like Yahweh's works.  They were to be feared, but just not feared as much as Yahweh is to be feared, and Yahweh would eventually judge all these "other" or lesser gods.

My question here is for the Christian, the one who believes in, and worships Yahweh, the God of the bible, the Christian God:  

Can you offer any attributes or evidences that makes belief in your God more reasonable than a belief in any of the "other" gods that you would consider to be man-made?

You, Christian, believe that Yahweh is real and that Thor, Zeus, and Brahma are all "made-up" gods, mere inventions of ancient humans.

Can you offer any evidence that makes it reasonable to believe that your God (unlike Thor, Zeus, and Brahma) is the real God, not a man-made god?

In other words:

How can I tell the difference between your god, the Christian god, which you believe is real, and any other god, which you believe is made-up?

bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com