What are False Gods?

Are they figments of people's sinful and creative imagination? Or are is there something more sinister behind them?

There are several Biblical texts that indicate that false gods are often (if not always) fronts for demons. Leviticus 17:7 mentions idolatrous sacrifices to the goat-demons. Deuteronomy 32:17 speaks of the practice of "sacrificing to demons...to gods...new gods." The term "gods" is thus equated with "demons." Psalm 106:36-37 says the Israelites served idols and sacrificed their children to demons. This is probably a reference to sacrificing children to Molech through the fire (Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5, 2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 32:35). Paul reflects the OT teaching when he refers, in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21, to pagan sacrifices idol/demons. 1 Timothy 4:1 has "doctrines of demons" which seems to make the demons a bit more active in their false systems than just a plain-old idol. Finally, Revelation 9:20 teaches that some people did not repent of their demon-worship.

Whether we can say in every case that a false god is a creation of a demon, or whether it is fully a product of a human's sinful imagination, or whether the demon took advantage of the human's departure from the living God to become a "god" to that person, is hard to say. Suffice it to say that it is ultimately dangerous to dabble with false gods because of the demonic influence over them.