Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1820614-20150731024240/@comment-1820614-20150826223625

Nausiated wrote: Why Stark and Pym would discount their claims is as you pointed out, there are plenty of mortals out there with similar abilities, there are also characters who are immortal or long lived that are also not classified as gods, there are beings more powerful than the gods themselves who make no such claim to such titles.

An atheist is one who does not believe in supreme being(s).

The problem I have is it has never been about power alone. On the surface The Eternals have the same basic abilities as gods yet always draw a difference between themselves and gods. Galactus has never claimed to be a god and in one older story said it was a common mistake of mortal beings to think power alone makes a god.

A duck is a duck when it meets all the traits of a duck. A god is a god when it meets all the traits of a god. Unlike Eternals or other standard superpowered beings gods like Thor or Hercules have been depicted as having godly traits such as hearing prayers (different from standard telepathy) that other superpowered beings do not have.

And atheism does not necessarily apply only to a supreme being. Many atheists reject the idea of any god which is what Tony Stark and Hank Pym seem to be doing. Since Marvel gods meet the common criteria of small letter god and their stories and own creations stories are treated as "true" as the scientific ones then it sounds like Pym and Stark are being deliberately stubborn by trying to force their own definition above the commonly accepted one for no other reason then they do not like what the commonly accepted version means.

Sort of like the time Fraction had Reed Richards tell his children there is no heaven or hell despite afterlives being well documented among the heroes.