Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Religion and God

Atheism
Atheism: As an explicit position, either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism.When defined more broadly, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, alternatively called nontheism.
Although atheism is often equated with irreligion, some religious philosophies, such as secular theology and some varieties of Buddhism such as Theravada, either do not include belief in a personal god as a tenet of the religion, or actively teach nontheism.

Theism
Theism: The belief that gods or deities exist and interact with the universe.
Some theistic religions are: Bahá'í Faith, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism.

Monotheism
Monotheism: The belief in and worship of a single god.
Misotheism: the belief that God exists, but is actually evil

Polytheism
Polytheism: The belief in and worship of multiple gods or deities.
Henotheism: The belief that there may be more than one deity, but one is supreme.
Monolatry: The belief that there may be more than one deity, but only one should be worshiped.
Kathenotheism: The belief that there is more than one deity, but only one deity at a time should be worshiped. Each is supreme in turn.

Deism
Deism: The belief that a god or gods exists, but does not intervene within the universe.
Pandeism: The belief that God preceded the universe and created it, but is now equivalent with it.
Polydeism: The belief that multiple gods existed, but do not intervene with the universe.

Deities present in everything
Pantheism: The belief that the physical universe is equivalent to God, and that there is no 'division'.
Panentheism: Like Pantheism, the belief that the physical universe is joined to God. However, it also believes that God is greater than the universe.
Cosmotheism: The belief that man is The Creator. Man and the cosmos are one, thus the will of man is the will of the cosmos and the will of the cosmos is the will of man.
Animism: The belief that everything has a soul.
An example of a semi-theistic religion is Shintoism.

Nontheism
Atheism: An absence of belief that gods exist;a rejection of theism
Agnosticism: The belief the nature and existence of gods is unknown and cannot be known or proven.
Agnostic theists make the claim that knowledge of God or gods is not possible, but have a personal faith in God or gods, thus making it a theistic system of belief.

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