Most ancient cultures had their gods of fire, thunder and rain; elemental gods to who the people would pray for regulation of those elements and it is well documented that prayers for rain and rain dances often produced rain during or following the ceremony, however there is no way to measure or determine that the resulting rain was caused by prayer, or was just co-incidence. 

These gods served to provide some comfort and inspire confidence in the people, become more tangible as elements of divinity which are available to individuals as personal deities to support and develop divine qualities inherent within us. Here one prays to and contemplates the deity so that they may become more god like and this is a way of reducing God to more manageable portions.

Here we have gods for healing, for attaining specific knowledge and understanding of the universe and its elements.

While God is most often conceived of as the supernatural creator and overseer of the universe. His Divinity Swami Prakashanand Saraswati in The True History And The Religion Of India tells us that "the concept of God in Western religions is based either on the imagination of certain spirit gods of nature ( etc.), or one single spirit god (God) of the entire nature. Thus, in both ways, it is only on the mythological level and so it is purely mayic. It never relates to the Divinity of the omnipresent supreme God. Thus, in no way could there be any comparison of the western religions (which are based on mythologies) with the Hindu Vedic religion which is eternal, universal and is directly revealed by the supreme God".

Most theologians and believing Westerners would disagree as they believe in the One Creator God, although the concept of God may not be as broad as in Indian Theology.

Why Believe in God?
Belief is a personal choice, and it is found that by following the advice of God, that suffering is lessened and communities are made stronger.

His Divinity Swami Prakashanand Saraswati also says; "The aim of human life is to attain God realization while doing good in the world and striving to attain ‘God realization through bhakti’. The True History And The Religion Of India.

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