Zeus is a godlike being. However, if God created Zeus with all of Zeus's godlikeness, Zeus wouldn't be a god. Zeus would merely be a godlike being. In the world where God created Zeus, Zeus would be infinitely more like us than like the highest being—namely, God—in that world. But in the world of Greek mythology, where there is no God, Zeus would be a god.
Being a god is, I think, partly a relational property. While one might imagine a hierarchy of gods, the gods will be approximately at least as similar to each other in respect of their divine attributes (intelligence, power, etc.) than to us. But God is a god, and Zeus is infinitely more like us than like God.
With this in the background, here is an interesting argument:
- Pruss couldn't be a god.
- If Pruss could exist in the absence of God, Pruss could be a god.
- So, Pruss couldn't exist in the absence of God. (1,2)
- Pruss exists.
- So, God exists. (3,4)
Premise (1) should be obvious to you. Premise (2) relies on the following line of thought. Surely if I could exist in the absence of God, I could grow to have all the superpowers that Zeus is said to have, and to exceed all other intelligent beings very, very far. I would be godlike, and would have nobody close to on par, and so—horrors!—I would be a god. And while premise (4) is obvious to me, it should be pretty plausible to you, too.
