Personal, under-construction definition of deity: any incorporeal being that, through recognition (naming) and sustained attention from others, gains a measure of influence over the "real" world (one of many, in my view). Whether they existed before, or sprung from the first seeds of thought, I can't claim to know -- and the point is moot, anyway. They are around now. For those representing natural forces that existed before humans, perhaps they were there as raw spirit energy, and names gave them identity. Of course, I can only speculate on human gods. Other creatures would see things differently. Examples of animal mythos (as envisioned by humans, but it's the closest we'll get): Skywater by Melinda Popham and Watership Down by Richard Adams.
This could have been an essay but I'm not sure what else to say. What are your thoughts?
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