God

The term God is used to refer to a specific monotheistic or henotheistic concept of a supernatural Supreme Being. In these context, the word capitalized in the English language as a proper noun (the uncapitalized spelling is used to refer to an individual member of members of polytheistic pantheons). Typically, God is described as omniscient, omnipresent and immutable, though some recent theologies have brought this into question. Often God is held responsible for the creation of the world. The notion of such a supreme being exists in virtually all world religions, even those which deny the existence not of a god-figure such as Buddhism. However, the precise definition varies greatly between religions and even within specific denominations of religions.

Etymology

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Earliest attestation of the Germanic word in the 6th century Codex Argenteus (Mt 5:9)

The word God continues from the Old English/Germanic terms god (guþ, gudis in Gothic, gud in modern Scandinavian and Gott in modern German). The original meaning and etymology of the Germanic word god has been widely disputed, though most agree it takes root in a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word *khutóm. *Khutómis a passive perfect participle from the root *khu-, which likely meant "libation" or "sacrifice". Evidence for this theory is provided by comparisons of the Sanskrit hu- ("to sacrifice"), the Greek khu-, kheu- ("to pour") as well as the Common Germanic strong verb *geutan (Anglo-Saxon gēotan) "to pour", and the English in-got. The connection between these terms likely derives from the meaning "pour a libation". Another possible meaning of *khutóm is "invocation", related to the Sanskrit term hūta. The word God was first used in the Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas to represent the Greek term Theos, (Latin Deus) in translations of theBible .

Definition

Common traits attributed to most conceptualizations of God are absoluteness and other superlative qualities. In much religious and philosophic thought, God is considered the creator of the universe. However, many other definitions of the word exist. Some concepts of God center on a view of God as ultimate, immanent, transcendent, eternal Reality which exists beyond the malleable multiplicities of the sensible world. In many cases, god is attributed these qualities while also bearing some anthropomorphic traits, such as a particular gender, name, and sometimes even ethnic background. In other cases, God may be Supreme but not necessarily a Being, instead conceived of as an ambiguous impersonal force or philosophical concept. For example, the concept of God is sometimes embedded in definitions of abstractions such as truth, where the sum of all truth is equated to God.

Also included with definitions of God are questions concerning the dynamic of relationship between humans and god, or similarly, god and the physical world. Many traditions hold that the creator is also the sustainer active in the maintenance of worldly affairs through revelation and divine intervention, a position generally characteristic of classical theism. In contrast, others argue that God created the world but is no longer involved in it after creation, a position known as deism.

God is often considered the singular spiritual force in the universe. This conception is characteristic of monotheism, but monotheism varies greatly between religions rendering a universal definition impossible. For instance, many believers in these monotheistic faiths allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings, and give them names such as angels, saints, Djinn, demons, and devas. In contrast, God is considered the only entity in the universe, and the acknowledgement of any other such beings is considered polytheism. In other cases, the primary God exists in relation to other gods, rising to supremacy above the others (as in henotheism). Additionally, god may exist seperately from forces outside of His/Her purview as omnibenevolent, such as evil. With that said, not all systems hold that God is solely morally good. Whilse some conceptions hold that God is the very definition of moral goodness, others maintain that God is beyond morality.

Clearly, not all combinations of attributes function to coherently describe God, and this has been cause for much debate among theologians in many traditions. For example, if God is the Creator, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and the Ultimate Judge who is infinitely good, then he created all people, including those who would become atheists and pagans, knowing very well what kind of people they would be. If He then punishes such individuals with eternal damnation, this God cannot also be labelled as "good". Some faiths overcome such difficulties by making god responsible for good as well as evil, as in Zoroastrianism. In other cases, no claim is made that God is fully perfect, as in Process philosophy, where god's identity is continually unfolding.

Despite all of these possible traits, some philosophers do not so readily attribute definitions and characteristics to God. Negative theology, sometimes called apophatic theology, argues that no true statements about attributes of God can be made at all. Instead hegative theologians choose to speak in terms of what cannot be said about God. Similarly, Agnostic positions argue that limited human understanding precludes any possibility for conclusive statements to be made about God.

There are definitions of god which actually deny his existence, such as Paul Tillich's theology which states that god is the essence of all being, but can therefore not be said to exist in same the context of all finite beings in existence. There are also atheistic explanations for the recurrent existence of the concept of God within the human imagination. These often explain God as a function of psychological and/or sociological factors. Thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach claim that God is merely a psychological projection of what humans want themselves to be, placed in the context of religion. Others, such as sociologist Emile Durkheim claim that the purpose of a supreme being and its the representative totem which is so often paired with it is to bond groups around communal worship of the totem. According, this totem is again a projection which actually serves to symbolize the tribe. Therefore, God is merely the collective projection of the entire clan, and so the clan worships itself.

Names of God

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YHWH, the name of God or Tetragrammaton, in Phoenician (1100 B.C.E. to AD 300), Aramaic (10th Century B.C.E. to 0) and modern Hebrew scripts.

The noun God is the proper English name used for the deity of monotheistic faiths. Names of God, however, are innumerable, varying with religious traditions. The Bible frequently uses the term Yahweh, from the Hebrew: 'YHVH' (יהוה) in order to refer to God. YHVH, also known as the Tetragrammaton, provides an unpronouncable string of consonants, consistent with the Israelite belief that the true name of god should not be spoken. Other Biblical terms for god include Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, Amanuel, and Amen. When Moses asked God "What is your name?" he was given the answer Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, commonly translated "I am that I am", referring to His unconditional self-existence. Yahweh is also the most popular name for God in the established Jewish tradition, and remains so today. When written or typed as a proper noun, some observant Jews will use the form "G-d" to prevent the written name of God from becoming desecrated later on.

God is of course the most common moniker for the supreme deity in Christianity. However, other terms are used, such as The Holy Trinity (meaning the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit/"Holy Ghost") which is used in almost all mainstream Christianity to refer to the plenitude of God. Other churches use other definitions. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, God is called Igzi'abihier (or the "Lord of the Universe"). Some churches such as the United Church of Canada and Religious Science) are using the term "the One" alongside "God" as a more gender-neutral means by which to refer to God.

Allah is the term most commonly used in (Islam, not as "God's personal name", but the equivalent of the Hebrew word El. "Allah" is Arabic for "the God", and is also used by non-Muslim Arabs. Many linguists believe that the term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic words al (the) + ilah ("male deity"). In addition, one of the main pagan goddesses of pre-Islamic Arabia, Allāt (al + ilāh + at, or 'the female deity'), is cited as being etymologically (though not synchronically) the feminine linguistic counterpart to the grammatically masculine Allah. If so, the word Allāh is an abbreviated title, meaning 'the deity', rather than a name. If this theory is correct, then explains why Allah is by no means exclusive to Islam, and is commonly used by Arab Christians, Arab Jews, and Malteste Catholics in order to refer to the monotheist deity.

In India, Ishvara is the term used for God among the Hindus. In Sanskrit, it means the Supreme Lord. Most Hindus worship the personal form of God or Saguna Brahman, as Vishnu, Shiva, or directly as the Supreme Cosmic Spirit Brahman. A common prayer for Hindus is the Vishnu sahasranama, which is a hymn describing the one thousand names of God. Ishvara should not be confused with the numerous deities of the Hindu pantheon. In modern Hindi, Ishvara is also called Bhagwan. Sikhs worship God with the name Akal (the Eternal) or Onkar (See Aum). Help of the gurus is essential to reach God. Buddhism, in contrast can be described as atheistic or agnostic: When asked about a supreme God, Buddha remained silent on the subject. Buddha believed the more important issue was a way out of suffering. Enlightened beings are called Arhats or Buddha. However, popular Buddhism of China has venerated the Bodhisattva, an enlightened being that has chosen to forego entering into nirvana until all beings are enlightened. Buddhism also teaches about the devas, or heavenly beings who temporarily dwell in states of great happiness. Jains, meanwhile, do not recognize any Supreme Omnipotent creator God, though they commonly invoke the five paramethis: Siddha, Arahant, Acharya, Upadhyaya and Sadhu.

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KJV of 1611 (Psalms 23:1,2): Occurrence of "Lord" (and "God" in the heading)

The name of God is consistently capitalized in English writings. The development of English orthography was dominated by Christian texts. In early English bibles, the Tetragrammaton was rendered in capitals: "IEHOUAH" in William Tyndale's version of 1525. The King James Version of 1611 renders YHWH as "The Lord", Elohim as "God", Adonay YHWH and Adonay Elohim as "Lord God", and kurios ho theos as "Lord God" (in the New Testament). Capitalized "God" was first used to refer to the Judeo-Christian concept, and may now signify any monotheistic conception of God, including the translations of the Arabic Allāh and the African Masai Engai. The use of capitalization, as for a proper noun, has persisted to disambiguate the concept of a singular God from pagan deities for which lowercase god has continued to be applied. Pronouns referring to God are also often capitalized and are traditionally in the masculine gender, i.e. "He", "His" etc. However, in more recent times, some people have referred to God in feminine terms, such as "She" and "Her".

Classifications for Beliefs in God

Since the beginning of human religious thought, there have been virtually innumerable ways in which to explicate, express and experiene god. Therefore, religious scholars and theologians alike have created a number of classificatory terms in order to better describe the various types of belief in God. Some of the terms most applicable to the current discussion are given below.

• Theism describes the belief that God is both transcendent and immanent. Thus, God is simultaneously infinite and in some way also present in the affairs of the world. Catholic theology, for example, holds that God is infinitely simple and is not involuntarily subject to time. God's immanence may also be explained through revelations to humanity (for example, holy scriptures) or miracles whereby god takes initiative in contacting humanity. Even everyday human experiences such as those of "love", "goodness", or "truth" can be interpreted as affirmations of God's involvement in creation. Typically, God in theism is personalistic, having human form and emotionality. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, although this belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. To remedy this difficulty, some theists ascribe to God a self-conscious or purposeful limiting of omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence. Open Theism, by contrast, asserts that, due to the nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean he can predict the future. "Theism" is sometimes used to refer in a more general sense to any belief in a god or gods such as monotheism or polytheism.

• Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent, exists in direct counterpoint to theism. For deists, God exists as a First Cause, but does not intervene in the world beyond creation. In this view, God is not anthropomorphic, and does not literally answer prayers or cause miracles to occur. Rather, god is simply the entity which created the universe, setting in motions all its physical laws and processes. After this, god steps out of the picture, allowing the universe to be operated by physical laws. In this way, deism is highly reconcilable with scientific thought. Common in deism is a belief that God has no interest, and even no awareness in humanity.

• Henotheism is the academic classification placed upon religious belief systems which have accepted or do accept the existence of many gods, but worship one particular deity as supreme. This may take the form of a system in which one god rises to supremacy over others in a process of mythological succession (as did Zeus among the Greeks). However, it may also refer to systems where various gods exist in order to illustrate aspects of a greater, supreme being or essence, such as in Vedic Hinduism. Henotheistic beliefs are very often the precursor to full-fledged monotheism, as gradually the inferior gods fall away and the supreme god or universal principle beyond the gods becomes recognized as the sole divinity.

• Monotheism holds that there is only one God. This has led some traditions to espouse an exclusionist view, holding to one sole definition of God. Exclusionist monotheists of one religion can, and often do, consider the God or gods of a different religion to be false. For instance, many Christian fundamentalists consider the and that all gods of other religions are actually demons in disguise, including the monotheistic God of Islam (Allah). Others hold an inclusionist view, accepting the possibility of more than one definition of God to be true at the same time and/or that the one true God is worshipped in different religions under different names. Eastern religious believers and Liberal Christians are more likely to assume those of other faiths worship the same God as they, albeit with different attributes due to cultural influences. Unlike other religious classifications, monotheism has been conceived of by many religions as an with an "ideal" for which all spiritual endeavour should strive, hence it is the classification which plays the most significant role in discussions of God such as this.

• Pantheism refers to the belief that God is the universe and the universe is God. In this system, god is fully immanent, rendering a spiritual basis to all reality, and typically not seen as transcendent. All of Natural law, existence, and the sum total of all that is, was, and ever will be, is represented in the theological principle of 'God.' This means that every object, as well as each individual human, is part of God. Most pantheists conceives of God in non-personalistic terms, instead conceiving it as the unconscious, non-sentient universe which is in own majesty holy and beautiful.

• Panentheism holds that God contains the Universe but is not identical to, existing beyond it. Panentheism is often compared to pantheism, however, the panentheist God is both immanent and transcendent, as in Theism. Unlike theism, the panentheist conceptualization of God is less likely to be personalistic, since God is tantamount to the universe while also existing as more than it. Pantheistic sentiments are actually quite common in religious movements, such as the Jewish mystic sect Kabbalah, the Liberal Catholic Church, Theosophy, and many branches of Hinduism.

Conceptions of God

Ancient Conceptualizations

Many of the earliest conceptualizations of God, it seems, were actually of goddesses. Archaelogical findings suggest that small female figures and cave paintings of females were the dominant modes for worship in the Paleolithic times (35000-10000 B.C.E.) and later. These depictions typically focus upon the reproductive parts, specifically emphasizing large breasts, the pregnant womb, and the vagina. These parts represented women's creative and preservative traits, such as the production of new life and provision of nourishment. Extrapolating upon these figures, it seems that the female was connected to teh earth as the source of the life cycle. The frequent appearance of these figures in archaeological finds, and the lack of comparable male forms, hs lead some archaeologists and religious scholars to suggest that earliest human conception of the deity was as a goddess with male as the subordinate partner. Some thinkers, such as Sjoo and Mor, brazenly cliam that God was conceived as female for the first 200 000 years of human life upon the earth as we know it, perhaps having been carried on from later Cro-Magnon beliefs.

Later findings from Catal Huyuk in what is now Turkey suggest that settlements existing between 6500 and 5500 B.C.E. also held the goddess in highest esteem. Certain rooms in living quarters exclusively show paintings of Goddess, suggesting the importance of women and fertility in providing sustenance for life. Some rooms even feature pictures of female vulture near headless bodies, perhaps suggesting that it is the female principle which takes life back into herself in order to create life new. Buildings and artifacts suggest that in the Indus Valley of modern day north India, a religious system that would wield some influence on later Hinduism, the goddess was also of particular importance. This civilization, which flourished from 2500-1800 C.E., seems to have placed the Goddess and Mother in primacy, evident from the number of female depictions found. They were no doubt revered due to their place as source of fertility and life. Many of these themes disappeared when the militaristic Aryans invaded the Indus Valley. The goddess virtually disappears in the Vedas, which were composed by the invading Aryans, suggesting the Goddess was supplanted by the god in this region. Marja Gimbutas has extended these findings to argue that there was once an agrarian culture centred in Europe in ancient times which worshipped the goddess. These peaceful people were, in theory, overtaken by patrilineal Russian invaders who assimilated the European goddess worshippers into their patriarchal culture. However, the reconstruction of such evidence is largely conjectural and in need of further evidence.

Early monotheism

The religions that are monotheistic today are often thought of as having been of relatively recent historical origin — although efforts at comparison are usually beset by claims of most religions to being very ancient or eternal. The worship of polytheistic gods, on the other hand, is seen by many to predate monotheism. Today, monotheistic religions are dominant, though other systems of belief still exist.

Ancient Egyptian

The notion of one god, transcendent to the entire universe grew in several instances out of henotheism. One example comes from the iconoclastic cult of the Egyptian solar god Aten, which was promoted by the pharoah Akhenaten (Amenophis IV), who ruled between 1358 and 1340 B.C.E. Upon inheriting the throne, Akhenaten brought Aten from relative obscurity among the other gods and made Him synonymous with the sun, which was viewed as the single most powerful entity among Egyptians. Furthermore, Aten came to represent a more personal conception of the divine than the other gods that had been primarily the focus of public ritual in temples. As these other gods in the pantheon came to be perceived as inferior to Aten, their idols were destroyed. Even though such works as Akhenaten's hymn to Aten offers strong evidence that Akhenaten considered Aten to be the sole, omnipotent creator, Akhenaten's program to enforce this monotheistic worldview ended with his death. The worship of gods other than Aten never fully ceased outside Akhenaten's court, and the older polytheistic cults soon regained precedence. However, the Aten cult could still be classified one of the earliest known examples of monotheism, and it is claimed by some scholars to have possibly been a formative influence on early Judaism, due to the presence of Israelite slaves in Egypt.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism provides another example of early monotheistic belief. Zarathushstra founded Zoroastrianism sometime between the eighteenth and sixteenth centuries B.C.E. as a reacion against Indo-Iranian polytheism and ritualism. He merged the various notions of divinity found within these faiths into one all-encompassing deity called Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord"). Zarathushtra set his teachings apart from contemporary Iranian traditions by insisting that worship be dedicated solely to the Wise Lord. Although Ahura Mazda is the supreme power in the universe, he cannot, however, be considered completely all-powerful. Ahura Mazda is described as inherently good, just and moral, and as such creates only good thing, a seeming limitation to His power. Zoroastrians attribute the existence of evil to two subsidiary moral spirits who Ahura Mazda is said to have fathered: Spenta Manyu is the good one, while Angra Manyu is evil. Although such a conception limitis Ahura Mazda's power, he is consistently portrayed as victorious over evil, which marks him as the supreme entity. Later Zoroastrianism also includes some other polytheistic elements, such as the existence of angelic beings called the Amesha Spentas, who are seen as emanations of Ahura Mazda which put in place the supreme god's will in the physical world.

Greek definitions of God

While Greek religion is known for its polytheisitic religion, the notion of God in more singular or unified form was entertained my numerous thinkers. Early thinkers suggested various natural elements which seemed to provide the pantheisitic essence for the universe such as Anaximenes (who claimed the essence to be air) or Thales (who thought the substance was water). Eventually these concepts came to be more abstract and beyond the physical world. Anaximander, for instance, proposed an uncreated and indestructible being which could not itself be considered a thing, yet was responsible for the existence of all things, ruling them all. For Pythagoreans, all things were ruled by mathematics and geometry. Xenophanes propounded the idea of a changeless, undestroyable and unity which possessed infinite intelligence as was present in all things, which he called the "All-One" . He claimed this notion of unity and oneness to be the highest and most reasonable form of religious thought.

These ruminations no doubt culminated in the later philosophical monotheism of Plato and Aristotle. Plato construed god as representative of the single good which existed in contrast to the physical world evil, which was in constant flux and therefore evil. This "Form of the Good" exists beyond specific instances of good in the world, because each of these particulars was also subject to mutability and therefore not eternal. The point of life was to rise up from all that is ugly, evil and fallacious and realize the true Good. Plato also believed their exists a demiurge who brings the transient appearances of the Form of the Good into existence. Likewise, Aristotle, the famous student of Plato, believed that truth can be found within a proper understanding of the natural world, which is attributable to its ultimate source. This source, also known as the First Mover is immutable and indivisible, and represents the ultimate ground of truth as to why all things exist with the characteristics they do and how they came into being. In searching for truth, humans are therefore participating in god. Both Plato and Aristotle's conception of the highest entity in the universe would go on to wield massive influence on the conceptions of God in the Abrahamic faiths.

Abrahamic conceptions

Michelangelo's view of God in the painting Creation of the Sun and Moon in the Sistine Chapel)

Judaism, Christianity and Islam conceive of God as a being who created the world and rules over the universe. God is usually held to have the properties of holiness (in that He is separate from sin and incorruptible), justness (being fair, right, and true in all His judgments), sovereignty (unthwartable in His will), omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), omnibenevolence (all-loving), omnipresence (everywhere-present), and immortality (eternal and everlasting). Moreover, this god is seen as deeply involved in history rather than detached from it, often appearing at various junctures through time in order to alter the fate of the physical world. In this way, Jews, Christians and Muslims often conceive of God as a personal God, possessing with an explicit will and personality. Even God's physiognomy is marked by anthropomorphic traits, as is evident in the Book of Genesis 1:27 where it is stated "God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Also, God is almost always referred to in the masculine sense. Many medieval rationalist philosophers in each of these religions put forth the view that one should not conceive of God as personal in the literal sense, as such perceptions limit His transcendent majesty. Rather, they claimed that such personal descriptions of God should only be intended as metaphors. Some within these three faiths still accept such a view as valid, although the majority of the laity today do not have a wide awareness of them. Despite the Abrahamic God's similarity to these worldly forms of humans, each of these faiths are also highly dualistic, and God is wholly seperate from the world.

Biblical definition of God

The Hebrew Bible contains no systematic theology, in that no attempt is made to give a philosophical or rigorous definition of God. In fact, God's nature seems to be left ambiguous in order to render His nature mysterious. This is exemplified by God's assertion in Exodus that "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live". God's traits, therefore, are portrayed as existing beyond human comprehension. Furthermore, nowhere in the Hebrew Bible are the words omnipotent, omniscient, or omnibenevolent used to define God in a systematic sense. Although Scripture does not describe God systematically, it does provide a poetic depiction of God and His relationship with people. Biblical texts make evident that God that cares about people, and also that He cares about whether people care about Him.

God according to the Bible is characterized not just as Creator, but also as the "Heavenly Father". As this title would imply, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) he is marked by a number of personalistic traits. Exodus 34:6-7 describes him suchly : "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." Here was see god described as being capable of a wide variety of moods ranging from loving and gentle to irascible and vengeful.

Like the Old Testament, the New Testament contains little systematic theology. No philosophical or rigorous definition of God is given, nor of how God acts in the world; however the first of John's letters states: "God is light" (1 John 1:5), before he states: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). This seems to insinuate god's existence beyond the world yet his action within it to sustain it. The New Testament also seems to provide an implicit theology as it teaches that God interacted and connected directly with people, in the person of Jesus, and that he subsequently sent the Holy Spirit to maintain this link. Through the person of Jesus, God becomes someone that can be seen and touched, and may speak and act in a manner easily perceived by humans, while also remaining transcendent and invisible to the naked eye. This appears to be a radical departure from the concepts of God found in Hebrew Bible. The New Testament's statements regarding the nature of God were eventually developed into the doctrine of the Trinity.

God as Trinity

In 325, the Council of Nicaea declared that Jesus Christ, as the son of God, is consisted of the same substance as the Father. This was extended with the addition of the Holy Spirit, the worldly manifestation of God within human beings, into the formulation that god was three persons composed of one substance. God, therefore, is a single Being who consists, simultaneously and eternally, of three persons. Since the 4th Century AD, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three Persons," all three of whom share a single Divine essence. Supporting the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism. Trinitarians hold that the three persons have the same purpose, holiness, and sovereignty, and therefore each can be worshipped as God, without violating the idea that there is only one God to which worship belongs. Christianity readily adopted the doctrine of the trinity as a mainstream belief, and other views of god were considered heretical. As such, the majority of Christians today are still trinitarian.

Some alternative views have been provided, however, such as Arianism, founded by the early Christian theologian Arius (256-336 C.E.),who claimed that the Son, while still divine, was subordinate to the Father. A similar view is held by the contemporary Jehovah's Witnesses. Sabellius, a third century theologian, claimed that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are actually different modalities of one God as perceived by humans, rather than three distinct persons spawned from the essence of the one God. Mormons believe that the three personas are in reality three separate divine personages. One of these personages is a spirit without a body referred to as the Holy Ghost. The other two personages, Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, are resurrected beings with perfected or celestial bodies . Mormons hold that God is a Holy Man who advanced to his divine status through a repeatable process of progression. They believe that by following their religion's teachings, humans can literally become gods at some point after their own death and resurrection, a process called Exaltation.

Muslims, Jews, and a small fraction of Christians are unitarian monotheists, referring to the fact that they believe in god as an undivided one and nothing else. Unitarian monotheists hold that there is only one "person" (so to speak), and often consider Trinitarian beliefs to reflect a form of polytheism. As well, not all non-Christian religions disavow multiplicities consisted from a supreme god. Hasidic Jews holds that there are ten Sefirot (emanations) of God, each of which is more distinct than a mere characteristic of god, but less distinct than a separate personage. Some sects of Hinduism also recognize the Trimurti, a conception of three major gods (see below).

Binitarianism

Binitarianism is an alternative view within Christianity that there were originally two beings in the Godhead. These two are most commonly held to be the Father and the Word that became the Son (Jesus the Christ). Binitarians normally believe that God is a family, currently consisting and the Son and the Father to whom he is subordinate. Some binitarians believe that others will ultimately be born into that divine family. Binitarians, claim their views were held by the original New Testament Church, and consider the trinity to be a fabrication of later Christian hegemony. Scholars of early Christian theology suggest that binitarianism developed out of circles existing during the Apostolic era which worshipped (Jesus) in a manner that in Judaism would be reserved for God alone, while still affirming the Judaic notion that God is one.

In modern times, this view is most commonly associated with some branches of the Worldwide Church of God. Unlike most unitarians and trinitarians who tend to identify themselves by the given terms applied to them, binitarians normally do not refer to their belief in the duality of the Godhead, with the Son subordinate to the Father, as binitarianism, and the term is commonly bestowed upon them by scholars and theologians to place them in contrast to trinitarian theology. Although some critics prefer to use the term ditheist or dualist instead of binitarian, those terms suggests that God is not one, rather than representing the more accurate binitarians belief that God is one family. For early Christian binatarians, Jesus remained consistently subordinate to the Father, seeminlgy in order to avoid ditheism of two entities.

Kabbalistic and Hasidic definitions of God

Mainstream Orthodox Judaism teaches that although God is the creator of both matter nor spirit, he is himself neither. This teaching has raised questions among some as to how can there be any interaction between the Creator and the created if God is so different from it. In response, early Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) envisioned two aspects of God, firstly, God himself, who in the end is unknowable, and secondly, the revealed aspect of God who created and preserves the universe, interacts with mankind in a personal way. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but complement one another.

This view has been developed further in Hasidic and anti-nomian circles, however. Kabbalah teaches that in order to create the universe, God "withdrew," and created the universe within the space from which "He" contracted. It is taught in the Zohar that God, at the beginning of creation, shattered ten ספירות ("sephiroth") or כלים ("kaylim" or "vessels") scattering their fragments throughout the universe. The sephiroth — represented by the so-called עץ חיים ("Etz Hayim" or "Tree of Life") — are comprised of different vessels embodying various emanations of God's being. Each of these sephiroth is more distinct than a mere characteristic of god, but less distinct than a separate personage, thereby precluding the perception that such a doctrine is polytheistic. Over time, this view evolved into the belief that all of existence was in fact God itself, and that humanity is imbued with an inherent Godliness which we must grapple to come to terms with it. The standing view in neo-Hasidism, currently, is that there is nothing in existence other than God, as is stated in the ancient Kabbalistic incantation, אין עוד מילבדו ("Ain od milvado") — "There is nothing but God." Thus, it has become understood that God used God's self to form the universe.

Islamic definitions of God

Muslims conceive God as One, with monotheism forming the cornerstone to their faith. Just as in the other Abrahamic faiths, Muslims claimed the worship of one god to be the only acceptable form of religious faith, and place themselves in direct opposition to polytheists and idolators. Allah is all truth and the source of all creation, therefore Allah alone is the sole entity for worship, and no other gods are to be acknowledged or worshipped without exceptions. With this in place, Muslims deny all forms of polytheism, as well as the Christian notion of the Trinity, which they also claim to be polytheistic. There is no existence or supernatural powers to be worshipped other than Allah. To attribute the traits of Allah upon any other god is considered by Muslims to be the only unforgiveable sin.

The Qu'ran speaks 99 names of God in order to describe Allah. Most of these "names" found in the Qur'an are not actually epithets, but rather attributes which Allah embodies. Many of these names portray Allah in highly personalistic terms, often claiming Allah as having the abilities to "see" and "hear", which has sparked controversy among Muslim theologians scholarship, some of whom claim that such passages insinuate God has a particular form, limited by senses. In general, the conclusion has been reached that if God does see and hear, he does so in a manner unworth of comparison to human sensations as they are known. One, however, Al Haq, meaning The Truth, seems to equate to Allah absolute truth as that which cannot be negated. Al Haq is more than a reflection of faith in the existence of The God, and links the concept of God to all creation forever. Thus Allah transcends the prophetic origins of Islam and is thus universal in all time and applies to all existence in the past, present, and future. These traits speak to the the fact that Allah is completely transcendent and therefore wholly separate from humanity. However, he is said to immanent within the world, as well, a process which is carried out through the revelation given to prophets, the most important of which is Mohammed.

Negative theology

Some Jewish, Christian and Muslim medieval philosophers developed what is termed as negative theology (sometimes called apophatic theology), the idea of approaching knowledge of God through negative attributes rather than positive statements. In negative theology, it is assumed that human language can never truly express the purview of God. Instead, that person who wishes to understand god must go beyond words. In this sense, negative theology is not a denial of what god is, but rather an exploration of what the Divine might be. For example, a negative theologian might claim that we should not say that God exists in the usual sense of the term. Rather, we would be better off claiming that God is not nonexistent. We should not say that God is wise, but we can say that God is not ignorant. We should not say that God is One, but we can state that there is no multiplicity in God's being. Rather than asserting what god is, negative theologians discuss what God is not. This kind of theology is often allied with or expressed in tandem with mystical traditions, which commonly focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion. As well, mystical experiences are described as exceeding the boundaries of human language, therefore, only statements about mystical experience of god may be better suited for such a theology of negation.

Conceptions of God in Hinduism

Although the vast varieties of traditions labelled labelled under the heading of Hinduism feature numerous conceptions of the divine, god in Hinduism can be conceived of most simply in two forms. Firstly as Brahman, which is (at best) described as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, incorporeal, transcedent and immanent Reality that is the diving ground of all Being in this universe, as well as non-being itself. Secondly, God can be conceived of as Ishvara, the personalistic manifestation of god. The Sanskrit and Hindi word for God, that is used most commonly, is Ishvara, lit., the Supreme Lord, pronounced as "îshvərə". Hindus generally believe that Ishvara is only One. This must not be confused with the numerous deities or demi-gods of the Hindus known as Devas, which have been reported as numbering as high as 330 million.

Vedic Henotheism

Hinduism of the early Vedas in largely characterized by polytheism or henotheism, with elaborate ritualism and sacrifice prescribed for appeasing various gods. However, these various gods seem to serve the purpose of honouring a greater, more pantheistic or monistic essence underlying the entire universe. These various gods rise to supremacy at various times in Vedic myth, as well as in ritual. Often this supreme God was called Indra, cosmic forces such as Agni, god of fire, Varuna, keeper of the celestial waters, and Vac, speech, each enjoyed places at the top of the Vedic pantheon. The interchangable nature of the supreme god suggests that Vedic henotheism was merely a heuristic activity for a greater, more nebulous reality, with gods and goddesses personalizing various aspects of the supreme divinity in order to render it more accessible. Rig Veda 1:164:46 is famous for making the existence of some divinity beyond the numerous gods explicit, stating that "Truth is One, though the sages know it as many." Such a statement may be interpreted a suggestion of deeper monism or even monotheism, guaging from the later schools of Hinduism that were seemingly on a search to define god as ultimately one; even within these early texts, it seems clear that the Vedic seers were unsatisfied with the idea of their polytheistic pantheon serving as the sole conception of divinity. Although the various gods were invoked in their various departments during ritual and sacrifice, it was evident the seers recognized them as manifestation which underlies all perceived multiplicities. By the time of the Upanishads, early commentaries upon the Vedas, the notion of an ineffable, indescribable Supreme Cosmic Spirit which served as grounds for the entire universe called Brahman had been developed.

Vedanta Schools

The schools of Vedantic (or "end of the Vedas) are responsible for the further development of this a notion of Brahman. Advaita (or "non-dualistic") Vedanta, founded by mystic philosopher Shankara (700-750 C.E.) , served as the fertile grounds from which one of the first monistic philosophies of God was developed. According to Shankara, Brahman is the only true reality in this world, and everything else is based in illusion (or maya). Maya is that complex illusionary power which causes the Brahman to be perceived as the distinct material world. Also, Shankara differentiated between Nirguna Brahman (Brahman without qualities) and Saguna Brahman (Brahman with qualities). When human beings attempt to understand the attributeless Brahman with their minds, ever under the influence of Maya, Brahman becomes God, or Ishvara as described as above. Therefore, God in the traditional form with positive attributes (Saguna Brahman) is Brahman conditioned by Maya. He is omniscient, omnipresent, incorporeal, independent, Creator of the world, and also its destroyer, ruling the world with his Maya. However, while God is the Lord of Maya and she (ie, Maya) is always under his control, living beings (jîva, in the sense of humans) are the servants of Maya, in the form of their ignorance, which is the cause of the widespread unhappiness in the mortal world. The Advaita Vedanta philosophy continues with the view that once one comes to fully realize that the distinction between Brahman and all particular things, including the human soul (Atman), are merely an illusory, they will recognize their own inherent unity with the Brahman and thereby liberate themselves from the material realm.

Visistadvaita (or "qualified non-dualistic"), the second of the major Vedanta schools founded by mystic saint Ramanuja (1017-1137 C.E.) , holds that while the self is still connected to Brahman, it is only an incomplete part and not the same as the whole. While god is infinite and represents the cause and effect of the universe, individual atman are limited and considered to be inferior to Brahman. Brahman, while still remaining ultimately non-dual, is typically perceived by Visistadvaitas as almost or equally important in personalistic Ishvara form. Belief in this deity was claimed by Ramanuja to be of indispensible for purposes of reaching the non-dual Brahman. Individual atman form the body of God, while God forms their soul. Simple realization of the soul's true identity will not suffice for attaining libertion, then, since Brahman and atman are not fully equivalent. Rather, Ramanuja prescribed that one should dedicate and surrender themsevles to Ishvara in a process called bhakti (or loving devotion). The end result of successful devotion is not a complete merger of the soul with Brahman, but similarly an oppurtunity to share in the nature of God. Madhva's (1238-1317 C.E.) Dvaita (or "dualism") Vedanta, in contrast, denies any connection between brahman and atman. Instead, God is conceived of in wholly personal terms as Ishvara, and is considered totally seperate from the universe and souls within it, displaying significant overlap with Western notions of theism. Nirguna Brahman is rarely acknowledged within this school, which considers the notion of a deity without characteristics to be an intellectual abstraction with no appeal to everyday practices of religion among the laypeople.

Emanational Monotheism

Just as with the Vedic tradition, many outside observers interpret the practices of some Hindu sects to be polytheistic in nature. However, just as in the Vedic tradition, describing these Hindus as polytheistic is ultimately an innacurate portrayal of the traditions. Many members of the Hindu faith take the view that it is only through conception of a multiplicity of divine beings that humans can find for themselves what this transcendent, indescribeable force really is. God is made up of innumerable aspects, a consequence of its infinite nature. Therefore, like the Vedic deities, the numerous deities of Hinduism, which have been, reported as numbering as high as 330 million, are necessary to provide personalized emphasis upon certain traits of god. The acknowledgement of many many gods seems to be a heuristic device for probing the nature of one, supreme god which is ultimately inexplicable. One such example is the Hindu Trimurti, which acknowledges three aspects of God in the personae of Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer). These three gods are simply different aspects of the one and the same Ishvara, who is ultimately inconceivable. In this manner, such beliefs are similar to the Sabellian interpretations of the Christian Trinity. Such forms of worship are very much alive in many contemporary Hindu traditions, such as the Smarta school, which believes worship through meditation upon icons (murti) representing an unlimited number of gods in order to connect with the greater power Brahman which transcends the iconic form. All gods, then, reduce to the same principle which does not exist as a plurality. Such schools of Hinduism are better described as emanational monotheism, where the one monistic principle is perceived as having many emanations or iterations and is given worship through these forms, rather than polytheism proper. Other forms of Hinduism are more explicitly polytheistic. For example, the Mimamsa school recognizes the devas (celestial spirits) as the rulers over the forces of nature, with no particular deva rising above the others as the supreme deity.

Devotional Monotheism

Because the many Hindu conceptualizations of gods serve a practical purpose, some remain popular based on their features or mythologies, while other fall out of significance. For some Hindus, the practical polytheism of the many gods has become non-essential as a means to consider one god, and hence there has developed significant devotional monotheistic movements which acknowledge one personalized god as supreme. Such is the case with the popular movements of Vaishnavism, which worships Vishnu and his avatars, and Saivism, which worships Shiva, the two largest branches of Hinduism today. In each of these movements it is believed that Ishvara and Brahman are identical. Thus, these movements more closely resemble traditional Western monotheism in that each sect considers their chosen god to be the sole and supreme deity. However, unlike the Western traditions, as well as Hindu interpretations such as Dvaita Vedanta, the devotional sects generally do not interpret the relation between God and the universe as one of dualism. Rather, they maintain a monistic view which conceives their personalistic god as the supreme entity of the universe, embodying the indescribable and supreme power of the traditional Brahman without qualities. The personalistic attributes of Vishnu and Shiva are not perceived to be limitations upon their power. In fact, it is these very characteristics which are thought to render Vishnu or Shiva superior over Nirguna Brahman.

God, whether in the form of Shiva or Vishnu has several major attributes. The number six is invariably given, but the individual attributes listed vary the actual number of auspicious qualities of God, are said to be countless. One set of attributes (and their common interpretations) are: Jnana, the power to know about all beings simultaneously; Bala, the capacity to support everything without any fatigue; Virya, the power to retain immateriality as the supreme being in spite of being the material cause of mutable creations; Tejas (Splendour), which expresses self-sufficiency and the capacity to overpower everything by way of spiritual effulgence; and Aishvarya (or Sovereignty), unchallenged rule over the sixth attribute, Shakti the energy which renders the impossible possible. Shakti itself is the focus of worship in Shaktism, another popular devotional school. Followers of Shaktism conceive of the divine power of the Ishvara as a female goddess, called Devi or Durga who is worshipped as the Divine Mother.

Other Eastern Conceptions

Sikhism

Many scholars attribute the formation of Sikhism to geographical and social pressures which engendered the merger of elements of Hindu and Islamic faith. With that said, Sikhism features numerous aspects from both religions, such as the notion that God is essentially One (Ek Onkar). Numerous passages within the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh holy book) assert the importance of this fact, including the very first stanza, known as the Mool Mantra. It reads: "One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth (...) Self-Existent." As in the Islamic faith, this monotheistic assertion is a strict one, as Sikhs reject any division of God, including the notion that god can produce avatars or human incarnations. Generally, God is described as the creator of the universe, singular, supreme, timeless, omnipresent, and perfectly moral. Sikhs claim that God's very essence is unchanging Truth (Sat Namm). In addition, He is also described in seemingly anthropomorphic terms, which right from the outset describes Him as "Creative Being Personified." Although Sikhs, like Muslims, bestow many names upon to describe God's various traits, they most commonly refer to Him as Wahiguru.

Sikhism also features elements of pantheism or panentheism. Stories attributed to Guru Nanak suggest that he believed god to be everywhere in the physical world as in pantheism, in contrast to contemporaneous Muslims who believed God to be centered around the Kaaba in Mecca. Similarly, the Sikh tradition typically describes God as the preservative force within the physical world, present in all material forms. Each of these worldly forms was created as a manifestation of God These ideas, taken together with the prevalent Sikh belief that God transcendent creator who exists independent of the world could be interpreted to suggest panentheism in the Sikh fold.

Chinese Religion

The concept of Tian came into currency within China during the Zhou dynasty (1122-255 B.C.E.). The world and its rulers were judged by this force, which featured both personal and impersonal characteristics. It is still under debate among scholars as whether or not Tian was a personal agent or an impersonal force which set in motion the natural forces. Generally, Tian oscillates between both meanings. Evidence suggests that under the Zhou, Tian was actually a personalistic force, representing an all-powerful entity which guarenteed peace and justice within the kingdom so long as the rules maintained order and justice, and meted out punishment through natural and social disasters if not. In this way, Tian was seen as a force in support of or against the political leaders. The way in which the ruler had to rule his empire in order to please Tian was known as Tian-Ming, or "the Mandate of Heaven." The Mandate was seen as being passed on from fallen empires to those which rose to conquer them. The ruler, then, was the most important link between Tian and the common people. In fact, only the ruler called upon Tian in the process of ritual and sacrifice. In this way, the people were detached from Tian, and eventually came to see the ruler as a sort of deified human as the concepts of the ruler and communication with Tian became inextricably linked. Eventually, the ruler came to be known as Tian-zi, the "Son of Heaven," the embodiment of Tian on Earth. The ruler, then, had to maintain rituals to Tian as well as to ancestors. In the Han dynasty, Tian became an item of even more reverence, as humans and earth were seen as deeply interrelated along with it. Tian, then, did not remain separate from creation. All actions were ideally undertaken with regard toward Tian. Of course, Tian came to be questioned as the actions of just rulers came to coincide with natural disasters and other seemingly undeserved fates.

Although Confucius' teachings may seem closer to atheistic than theistic, the notion of the Mandate of Heaven still influenced his work. Confucius delved into the practical questions of how one could live in order implement the will of heaven, upholding peace, harmony and justice within society. In order to do so, he stressed the concept of "li" which had previously referred to ritual, but was nuanced with his influence in order to refer to "customs". By bringing personal, familial and societal roles into harmony, one could acheive li, which puts into action the Mandate of Heaven. Tian is the foundation for all of which is good, the ultimate aid in attaining a life of ren or "humanity." The ideal person always keeps Tian in mind. Mozi would expand upon Confucius' teachings, claiming Tian to be the absolute source of goodness, providing the prescription for what is right and what its wrong. Tian brings what is recognized as beneficial and pleasing for all people in the world, particularly through those people who seek its goodness through ritual activities such as sacrifice and prayer.

Laozi, author of the Daodejing, provided a more pantheistic concept to describe the principle which creates and sustains the world, that being the Dao. The Dao is the way, the ultimate, ineffable principle, containing the entirety of the universe, yet also bodying nothingness as its nature. It is all things, but it is also no particular thing. Further, it is a natural law and a system of self-regulating principles. Thus, the Dao, in its totality, represents the central unifying metaphysical and naturalistic principle pervading the entire universe. While the Dao is indescribable and incapable of full human understanding, it is not altogether indiscernable. That is, if one can look beyond the surface of things, they can potentially begin to see the Way of the universe, and come to a realization of their own place as a product and participant within this Way. In order to produce from itself, the Dao oscillates between two contrasting creative energies which exist in diametric opposition, the yin and the yang, which are responsible for dualities in the physical world. In the Daoist tradition which followed, Laozi himself came to be viewed as the incarnation of the Dao, and was venerated as a personal god. As well, numerous other xians or "immortals" were acknowledged as heavenly figures who each held supremacy, such as Ba Xian and the Eight Immortals, humans whou followed the Dao and henceforth attained heaven. The highest level were the Tian-xian, those who have reached heaven, any of whom were approachable as a supreme god.

Atheism

Also necessary within a discussion of conceptions of god is atheism, which refers most generally to a lack of belief in god. However, the term has a variety of meanings ranging from ignorance or lack of proof towards the existence of god, to full-fledge denial that god exists. Also, it may entail a denial of certain conceptions of god, such as the personalistic variation. Such ideas have been present since aniquity. In the Far East during the 6th century B.C.E. , both Buddha and his contemporary Lao Tzu promoted a contemplative life not centered on the idea of personal gods. The Carvaka school, which flourished in India for a period of time which may have been as long as two milleniums between 600 B.C.E. and 1400 C.E., held that the only entities in existence were material, and that all the pleasures of life should be indulged since there was no god or afterlife to speak of. Similarly, in Greece during the 4th century B.C.E. Among the Greeks, Epicurus put forth view that people should disavow faith in god and the notion of an afterlife in order to enjoy the immediate sensory pleasures. In Europe during the Middle Ages, Pope Boniface VIII suggested that Christianity was a fully human invention, while still insisting on the political primacy of the Catholic Church.

During the Age of Enlightenment, the concept of atheism re-emerged as an accusation against those who questioned the religious status quo, such as Thomas Hobbes and Christopher Marlowe. However, by the late 18th century it had become the philosophical position of a rapidly growing minority, headed by the openly atheistic works of Paul Baron d'Holbach. In the 19th century, atheism became a powerful political tool through the writings of Ludwig Feuerbach, who claimed God was a fictional projection fabricated by humanity. This idea greatly influenced economist Karl Marx, the founding father of Communism, who believed that labourers turn to religion in order to dull the pain caused by the reality of their social opression. Religion, Marx claimed, subsequently renders the working class amenable to social control and exploitation. Friedrich Nietzsche summed up the 19th century popularity of atheism when he coined the aphorism "God is dead". By the 20th century, along with the spread of rationalism and secular humanism, atheism had become common, particularly among scientists. By the late 20th century, atheism also became a staple of the various Communist states.

Modern views

Process Theology

Process theology is a modern school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947 C.E.). In process philosophy, God is not omnipotent in the classical sense of a coercive being. Nor is reality composed of material substances that endure through time. Rather, reality (or more accurately, realities) is made up of serially-ordered events, transitory units of psychic phenomena which are experiential in nature. These units are linked with actual occassions which have already occured by means of a backward looking physical pole. These units they are also affected by future-looking, mental pole which apprehends all the possible outcomes of the future and actualizes one outcome in the present. Each unit of experience, then, is both physical and mental, and is linked to all other occassions, which form the totality of the universe. Those things experienced in the world are created because all occassions are located in the mind of god and link together according to patterns determined by god rather than at random. God cannot force anything to happen, but rather only influence the exercise of this universal free will by offering probabilities. In this way, God allows free will to humans as well as everything within the universe, while maintaining a power of persuasion over individual wills as opposed to explicit force. Therefore, the universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of free will, and therefore, both God and his creatures co-create the universe. Because all events are contained in the mind of god, any entity at any given moment can be said to be subsumed within god. Because God contains a universe which is in a constant state of flux, God is also considered to be changeable. However, the abstract elements of God, such as benevolence, wisdom, and so forth, remain constant. A similar view is held by Open theism, a theological movement that began in the 1990s, is similar, but not identical, to Process theology.

Posthuman God

Similar to Process philosophy is the belief or aspiration that humans will create a God entity, which will emerge from artificial intelligence. This view is upheld by Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction writer, who has claimed that creating a God may actually be the true aim of all religion, rather than providing worship to it. Clarke's friend and colleague, the late Isaac Asimov, postulated in his story "The Last Question" a merger between humanity and machine intelligence that ultimately produces a deity capable of reversing entropy. This deity subsequently initiates a new Creation trillions of years in the future when the Universe is in the last stage of heat death. Another variant on this hypothesis is that humanity or a segment of humanity will create or evolve into a posthuman God by itself; a view upheld by followers of cosmotheism and transhumanism, among others.

God as Dead

A number of quasi-atheistic definitions of God have developed with describe god as "dead." While Nietzsche glibly commented regarding god's death in order to summarize the intellectual climate of his time, some theologians believe god to have actually existed at one time in a metaphysical sense, but to have ceased to exist. Within the Jewish tradition, this position was held by Conservative rabbi Richard Rubinstein, who was imprisioned in Auschwitz concentration camp during his youth. Having witnessed firsthand the attrocities engineered by the Nazis, Rubinstein made the brazen claim that "God died at Auschwitz, dissolving the covenant between God and the Jews. Within the Christian fold, Thomas Altizer put forth the idiosyncratic view that God has died, not metaphorically but literally, in a process of self-annihilation. Differentiating his position from that of both Nietzsche and theological non-realists, Altizer refers to the death of God as an actual event happened in both a historical and cosmological sense. God alienated himself to the world through Christ, according to Altizer and in order to be emancipated from the potential the emptiness of a transcendent realm left vacuous without God, Christians must confess the fact God is indeed dead. Theologies such as Altizer and Rubinstein's are highly unorthodox, and due to the extremely pessimistic implications of their ideas, as well as the theological difficulties that arise with the claim that an entity regarded as transcendent and immutable can somehow cease to exist, these theologies have not been readily accepted.

God as non-existent

For Protestant theologian and existentialist Paul Tillich, finite beings such as humans, which are theoretically infinite in variation, cannot be sustained or caused by another finite or existing being. The only entity, he claimed, which can create or preserve finite beings is being itself, which he referred to as the "ground of being", or God. According to Tillich, god should no be conceived of as a being which is limited to time and space, as such limitations underestimate the divine ground of being, and thereby render it as finite. Since God is the creator and sustainer of all finite things, god cannot be a finite being. Tillich attempts to eliminates these difficulties by claiming that "God does not exist. He is being itself beyond essence and existence. Therefore to argue that God exists is to deny him." While some accused Tillich of atheism, he instead suggests that since god is beyond the common understanding of being and existence, and therefore must considered non-existent for all intents and purposes. To call God a being is a gross oversimplification, as God, according to Tillich, is more precisely the essence of all being. For Tillich, God does not exist except as a concept or category for the aid of human understanding.

Extraterrestrials

Some comparatively new belief systems portray God as Extraterrestrial life. Many of these theories hold that beings from another world who are highly advanced both spiritually and intellectually have been visiting Earth for many thousands of years, and have influenced the development of our religions. Examples of these beliefs, such as Raelianism, posit that prophets or messiahs have been sent throughout history in order to teach morality to the human race and encourage the development of civilization. In some cases, these intelligent extraterrestrial beings are said to have planted the seeds of life on earth, thereby making them responsible for the creation of humanity as well as all other biological organisms. One famous espouser of such a view was the late Francis Crick, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA. Confronted with the statistical improbability of the origin of self replicating and purposeful life timeframe physicists allot for the creation of planet earth, which he alleged was miniscule, Crick suggested life on earth originated far away.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
• Bowker, John. God: A Brief History. New York: DK Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-7894-8050-6
• Hurtado, Larry W. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0802860702
• Miles, Jack. God : A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1995.
• Pickover, Cliff. The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience. New York: Palgrave/St Martin's Press, 2001.
• Sjoo, M. & Mor, B. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991.
• Tapasyananda, Swami. Bhakti Schools of Vedanta. Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press and Catalog, 1991. ISBN 81-7120-226-8

See also

• Atheism
• Agnosticism
• Arguments for the existence of God
• Arguments against the existence of God
• Deism
• Existence of God
• God and gender
• God complex
• God in Buddhism
• God realm
• List of appearances of God in fiction
• Natural theology
• Nontheism
• Pantheism
• Polytheism
• The Higgs boson, the God particle
• Theism
• Transtheism
• Planes of existence

External links

• Dwyer, Francis (2005). "Theologian Elections"
• Draye, Hani (2004). Concept of God in Islam. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Aish HaTorah (2003).
• Binitarian View: One God, Two Beings from Before the Beginning Updated 10/05
• Jewish Literacy. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Preston, Gregory (2005). Seeking Divine Guidance & Concepts of God.
• Nicholls, David (2004). DOES GOD EXIST?. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Salgia, Amar (1997)Creator-God and Jainism Retrieved October 18 2005.
• shaivam.org (2004). Hindu Concept of God. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Schlecht, Joel (2004). The God Particle. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2004). Moral Arguments for the Existence of God. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2005). God and Other Necessary Beings. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Students of Shari'ah (2005). Proof Of Creator. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• The Freethought Zone (2000). Arguments for Atheism. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• All About God (2002). God - Scientific & Philosophical Arguments for God. Retrieved September 9 2005.
• Journal of Religion and Society (2005). Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies: A First Look

af:God bg:Бог bn:ঈশ্বর br:Doue ca:Déu cs:Bůh da:Gud de:Gott et:Jumal es:Dios eo:Dio fr:Dieu ko:하느님 id:Tuhan ia:Deo is:Guð it:Dio he:אל lv:Dievs hu:Isten ms:Tuhan nl:God ja:神 no:Gud nn:Gud pl:Bóg pt:Deus ro:Zeu ru:Бог simple:God sk:Boh sl:Bog sr:Бог fi:Jumala sv:Gud tl:Diyos vi:Thiên Chúa uk:Боги zh:神 ig:Chineke

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