Why are you an atheist?

[DodosAreDead]

I don't pay close attention to it, obviously, but from what I gather he's a reincarnation of god. Hinduism has one aatma/god/ultimate deity or whatever you choose to call it, and crores of reincarnations. There's the Destroyer, the Creator, and a third other important one, and then several other smaller ones. There's an adorable potbellied elephant, for example. (He loves food, travels the world on a mouse roughly 1/40th of his size, and has very large flappy ears. My spirit animal, except the ears.). Then there's a flying monkey. There's a blue skinned yogurt stealer. 
Basically, this guy was believed to be another such reincarnation of god. He supposedly wasn't pretending. For all we know he could be a rapist who liked fucking pigs in his spare time. But it's not one of those modern day guys who pretend to be god and have a large following. This was thousands of years ago.

Oh, so it's a statue or something. It's not a real human being.

The one I'm talking about is a real human being. There is a lot of idol worship in Hinduism too, though. The monkey and elephant are obviously examples. 

Tbh you could paint a rock the holy saffron color, build a sacred looking building around it's pedestal, and you have a new god. Get ready to rake in money in the thousands. 

@vulcanlogician, exactly. There are way too many of those in Hinduism and it sickens me completely. A few of them recently got arrested for sexual assault. They also found secret tunnels in their ashrams (holy encampments) leading to the women's quarters. Good times, these.