Active imaginations; many gods: Over the millen­nia, humans have created thou­sands of supernatural belief sys­tems and have wor­ship­ped everything from the Egypt­ian scarab beetle to the Hindu elephant; from the Sun god to gods of the seasons, to mother Earth; from sex gods and goddesses to spirit trees, to scary mythical creatures, to everything being god. In fact, the idea of mono­­theism, one god, was a relatively recent invention in a very long his­tory.