(April 25, 2015 at 8:12 pm)robvalue Wrote: A generic deity just seems to imply a lot of power, and maybe being immortal. I'd be interested to know if there is any kind of consensus between people who regularly use the word as to what the minimum requirements are.
Resume qualification of deities is a good question. I doubt there's much consensus, see for instance
Forum I Love Philosophy: http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic...7fc550449f
Egyptians didn't even require immortality, just "millions of years." Distinguishing a race of gods from a race of advanced alien beings whose technology looks like magic to us might not be easy, as Arthur C. Clarke suggested. I would guess that ability to accomplish at least some end states without going through normal causal channels might be expected of any decent god. That would rule out aliens using tech to do it.
