Category talk:Savior gods

Is this category really necessary or useful? -Sean Curtin 10:55, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Krishna

Does Krishna count? How about the Buddha? Not really "saviors" in the sense of salvation, but they do seem to have aspects in common with the overall theme. For that matter, what of Prometheus? --Dante Alighieri | Talk 08:40, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)

What is a savior god?

This is a very interesting concept. Christian apologists tend to make a lot of claims about the uniqueness of their religion, so it would be useful to have a resource to determine how unique and original their faith actually is. Such a resource would be helpful for religious scholars and critics and students of comparative religion.

It probably isn't very controversial to say that Rabbi Yeshua (lit. "YHWH is salvation") is the most famous of the savior deities. I don't think that the category list (and talk page) does a very good job of defending the various other candidates, or explaining why exactly they are categorized as such. Why is the Japanese sea-and-storm deity considered a "savior god"?

To be more specific, what exactly does a savior deity save from? A deity that offers its people protection from mere human enemies is better known as a war god, and they are a dime a dozen. A deity that saves its people from disease, illness, and premature death is a health, or healer, deity; and a deities that provide food, wealth, fertility, and prosperity are already accounted for under the appropriate categories.

In my opinion, for a savior deity to be analogous to the Christian (and, arguably, modern) idea of salvation, that savior needs protect humanity against malignant spirits, divine judgement and retribution, and karmic reactions from their own immoral/amoral actions. A savior deity is one that intercedes for clemency for mankind to a vengeance deity, or justice deity (or deities). A savior deity fights against various death and underworld spirits when they attempt to assert their rights over men. A savior deity will argue, beg, and bribe other deities and spirits to prevent humans from being punished with a thunderbolt from the sky, or sentenced to prison in the afterlife. The savior god is favorably inclined towards us, not because human goodness, merits, and accomplishments, but rather by his own compassion and mercy in response to human flaws and frailty.

In the Genesis account of the Deluge, the same deity who sends the flood warns Noah to prepare himself. However, in other flood mythologies, it is a council of deities who conspire to kill off mankind, and a dissenter god warns a man of the coming disaster. In those myths, the dissenter god who saves mankind from extinction is arguably a "savior god" comparable to the Christian tradition.

According to some dharmic traditions, a malignant spirit poisoned a river with the intention of killing off mankind. Krishna drank up the poison in the river, sparing us mortals the certain death, and the effect of the poison made his skin blue for all of eternity. That, in my opinion, is similar to Christian tradition of the suffering servant, and Jesus' hands being being scarred by the nails for all of eternity.

There are other examples of savior deities behaving in this manner. I would certainly be helpful, perhaps even inspirational, to have them listed somewhere.

Jim Jones

This person is surely just one of the many *human beings* who will have proclaimed themselves "savior gods". I think it's just misleading that this link is included in this category. 186.54.99.228 (talk) 23:10, 25 April 2023 (UTC)