In the book, all that is needed to turn someone into a god-like being is belief. To make them powerful they need a sacrifice.
On the plus side this means that somewhere Elvis, Jesus and Merlin are probably wandering around somewhere in the 'American Gods' Universe. Unfortunately, this also means that cult-figures may be wandering around somewhere as well. Like Stalin and Hitler.
Judging from the heightened levels of Neo-Nazism in some areas, it is possible that versions of Hitler are wandering around in some places. *Shudder*

Dont worry if you think of it from the brighter side there should be a god of hamburgers running around
Seriously if we think about the 'american gods' system anything is possible and your thought is a really scary one but, if we think there are even good gods out there (for example Winston Churchill) and lets just hope there better off then the bad ones, and again its the same all struggle again...

If the AG system is for real, then there's definatly a god of exams and coursework out there. Most students pray to it on a regular basis.

If that's true, then it's just a mirror of humanity.

There are people alive and in power now who are capable of doing the same things Stalin and Hitler did. I find that to be a lot more worrying than the idea that there might be facsimiles of dead men whose names and faces have been turned into shorthand for the atrocities that human beings are still capable of committing.

"If the AG system is for real..." Cut out the middle man. Find out for yourself. Go and ask one or more of the gods yourself and see what they say. I did.

In some sense any thought we have can become real, if we believe in it....I still believe there are pixies:-)

Your thought will be real for you, but will it be real for anyone else? Will it be objectively real? Believe me, there are perceivable differences between gods and the thought-forms conjured by humans.

I highly suggest you read or listen to the works of Joseph Campbell. He explains very well, i believe, in Sukhavati the need of duality from the beginning of man's mythos and how we create that duality. I can't really describe it the same way he could, so i again suggest Campbell's works to help you with these seemingly troubling ideas.

I would say that there is a lot of elemental energy out there and that when we conceive of Gods, we are giving that power a kind of form within which it can become manifested to us. The Gods are thus both incarnate in their own right but also our creations as they are sustained in those forms by our belief in them.

I say that this idea was cool when Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman used it (and it works good for videgames like Actraiser and Black & White), but the 'gods gain energy from belief' idea is becoming kinda... cliche and played out.

The Unknown Armies RPG has 333 Jungian archtypes that gain power from human belief, and these can be positive, negative, or neutral- the Dark Stalker Archtype is basically a serial killer.

What about the people who believe so strongly in themselves they become their own gods?



whatever

its all fiction, folks