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Do not fill this in! ==Definitions== [[File:NASA-HS201427a-HubbleUltraDeepField2014-20140603.jpg|thumb|[[Pantheism|Pantheists]] believe that the universe itself and everything in it forms a single, all-encompassing deity.<ref name="Pearsall">{{cite book|last1=Pearsall|first1=Judy|title=The New Oxford Dictionary Of English|date=1998|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-861263-6|page=1341|edition=1st}}</ref><ref name="Edwards">{{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Paul|title=Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofph08edwa|url-access=registration|date=1967|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofph08edwa/page/34 34]}}</ref>]] There is no universally accepted consensus on what a deity is, and concepts of deities vary considerably across cultures.<ref name="OBrien2"/>{{rp|69–74}}<ref name="Encyclopedia of Linguistics">{{cite book|last1=Strazny|first1=Philipp|title=Encyclopedia of Linguistics|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-45522-4|page=1046|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JOMobauYAC|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=4 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604114946/https://books.google.com/books?id=27JOMobauYAC|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Huw Owen]] states that the term "deity or god or its equivalent in other languages" has a bewildering range of meanings and significance.<ref name="Owen"/>{{rp|vii-ix}} It has ranged from "infinite transcendent being who created and lords over the universe" (God), to a "finite entity or experience, with special significance or which evokes a special feeling" (god), to "a concept in religious or philosophical context that relates to nature or magnified beings or a supra-mundane realm", to "numerous other usages".<ref name="Owen"/>{{rp|vii–ix}} A deity is typically conceptualized as a supernatural or divine concept, manifesting in ideas and knowledge, in a form that combines excellence in some or all aspects, wrestling with weakness and questions in other aspects, [[hero]]ic in outlook and actions, yet tied up with emotions and desires.<ref name=Gupta>{{cite book|last1=Gupta|first1=Bina|last2=Gupta|first2=Professor of Philosophy and Director South Asia Language Area Center Bina|title=An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and Freedom|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=-WepAgAAQBAJ|page=21}}|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-65310-0|pages=21–25}}</ref><ref name="Gupta2012">{{cite book|last=Gupta|first=Bina|title=An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and Freedom|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=2mmpAgAAQBAJ|page=88}}|year= 2012|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-65309-4|pages=88–96}}</ref> In other cases, the deity is a principle or reality such as the idea of "soul". The [[Upanishad]]s of Hinduism, for example, characterize [[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]] (soul, self) as ''deva'' (deity), thereby asserting that the ''deva'' and eternal supreme principle ([[Brahman]]) is part of every living creature, that this soul is spiritual and divine, and that to realize self-knowledge is to know the supreme.<ref name="Cohen2008">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Signe|title=Text and Authority in the Older Upaniṣads|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=dUKwCQAAQBAJ|page=40}}|date=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-474-3363-7|pages=40, 219–220, 243–244}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Fowler|first1=Jeaneane|title=Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices|date=1997|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|location=Brighton|isbn=978-1-898723-60-8|pages=10, 17–18, 114–118, 132–133, 149|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=RmGKHu20hA0C|page=10}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Choon Kim|first1=Yong|last2=Freeman|first2=David H.|title=Oriental Thought: An Introduction to the Philosophical and Religious Thought of Asia|date=1981|publisher=Littlefield, Adams and Company|location=Totowa, NJ|isbn=978-0-8226-0365-8|pages=15–19|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=omwMQA_DUVEC|page=15}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> [[Theism]] is the belief in the existence of one or more deities.<ref>{{cite web|title=the definition of theism|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theism?|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=22 January 2018|archive-date=12 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212143951/http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=theism|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theism|website=[[Merriam-Webster]]|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=14 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514194441/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theism|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Polytheism]] is the belief in and worship of multiple deities,<ref name="Libbrecht"/> which are usually assembled into a [[pantheon (religion)|pantheon]] of gods and [[goddess]]es, with accompanying [[ritual]]s.<ref name="Libbrecht">{{cite book|last=Libbrecht |first=Ulrich|title=Within the Four Seas: Introduction to Comparative Philosophy|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=rmT3ZHGxJPgC|page=42}}|year=2007|publisher= Peeters Publishers|isbn=978-90-429-1812-2|page=42}}</ref> In most polytheistic religions, the different gods and goddesses are representations of forces of nature or [[ancestral worship|ancestral principles]], and can be viewed either as autonomous or as aspects or [[emanationism|emanations]] of a creator God or [[transcendence (religion)|transcendental]] [[Absolute (philosophy)|absolute principle]] ([[monism|monistic]] theologies), which manifests [[immanence|immanently]] in nature.<ref name="Libbrecht"/> [[Henotheism]] accepts the existence of more than one deity, but considers all deities as equivalent representations or aspects of the same divine principle, the highest.<ref name=ross73/><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism Monotheism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229113308/https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism |date=29 December 2017 }} and [https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism Polytheism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111205729/https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism |date=11 November 2020 }}, Encyclopædia Britannica;<br />{{cite book|author=Louis Shores|title=Collier's Encyclopedia: With Bibliography and Index|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2maKFG4CpMC|year=1963|publisher=Crowell-Collier Publishing|page=179|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002206/https://books.google.com/books?id=E2maKFG4CpMC|url-status=live}}, Quote: "While admitting a plurality of gods, henotheism at the same time affirms the paramount position of some one divine principle."</ref><ref name = routledge/><ref>{{cite book|author=Rangar Cline|title=Ancient Angels: Conceptualizing Angeloi in the Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-pZHD6JtR_sC|year=2011|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-19453-3|pages=40–41|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-date=27 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427062942/https://books.google.com/books?id=-pZHD6JtR_sC|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Monolatry]] is the belief that many deities exist, but that only one of these deities may be validly worshipped.<ref>{{cite book|last=Eakin|first=Frank Jr.|title=The Religion and Culture of Israel|location=Boston|publisher=Allyn and Bacon|date=1971|page=70}}, Quote: "Monolatry: The recognition of the existence of many gods but the consistent worship of one deity".</ref><ref>{{citation |author-link= Bruce R. McConkie |first= Bruce R. |last= McConkie |title= Mormon Doctrine |edition= 2nd |location= Salt Lake City, UT |publisher= Bookcraft |year= 1979 |page= 351|title-link= Mormon Doctrine }}</ref> [[Monotheism]] is the belief that only one deity exists.<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=[[Hutchinson Encyclopedia]] (12th edition) |title= Monotheism |page=644}}</ref><ref name="odccmono">Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]].</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Wainwright|first1=William|title=Monotheism|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/monotheism/|website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=22 January 2018|date=2013|archive-date=7 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407040931/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/monotheism/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Van Baaren|first1=Theodorus P.|title=Monotheism|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism|website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229113308/https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=monotheism|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/monotheism|website=Oxford Dictionaries|access-date=22 January 2018|archive-date=3 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903165202/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/monotheism|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=monotheism|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monotheism|website=[[Merriam-Webster]]|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=14 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114070404/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monotheism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=monotheism|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/monotheism|website=[[Cambridge English Dictionary]]|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109193832/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/monotheism|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=October 2021}} A monotheistic deity, known as "God", is usually described as [[Omnipotence|omnipotent]], [[Omnipresence|omnipresent]], [[Omniscience|omniscient]], [[Omnibenevolence|omnibenevolent]] and [[Immortality|eternal]].<ref name=Swinburne>[[Richard Swinburne|Swinburne, R.G.]] "God" in [[Ted Honderich|Honderich, Ted]] (editor). ''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', [[Oxford University Press]], 1995.</ref> However, not all deities have been regarded this way<ref name=Hood/><ref name="Murdoch"/><ref name="Beck2005">{{cite book|last1=Beck|first1=Guy L.|title=Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity|date=2005|publisher=State University of New York Press|location= Albany|isbn= 978-0-7914-6415-1| page=169, note 11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=George M.|title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology|date= 2008|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-533261-2|pages=24–35|edition=Reprint}}</ref> and an entity does not need to be almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent or eternal to qualify as a deity.<ref name=Hood/><ref name="Murdoch"/><ref name="Beck2005"/> [[Deism]] is the belief that only one deity exists, who created the universe, but does not usually intervene in the resulting world.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Manuel|first1=Frank Edward|last2=Pailin|first2=David A.|title=Deism|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/156154/Deism|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|date=1999|quote=In general, Deism refers to what can be called natural religion, the acceptance of a certain body of religious knowledge that is inborn in every person or that can be acquired by the use of reason and the rejection of religious knowledge when it is acquired through either revelation or the teaching of any church.|archive-date=1 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501053700/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/156154/Deism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Kohler|first1=Kaufmann|last2=Hirsch|first2=Emil G.|title=DEISM|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5049-deism|website=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=22 January 2018|date=1906|quote=DEISM: A system of belief which posits God's existence as the cause of all things, and admits His perfection, but rejects Divine revelation and government, proclaiming the all-sufficiency of natural laws.|archive-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109235415/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5049-deism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kurian|first1=George Thomas|title=The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization|date=2008|publisher=Blackwell|location=Malden, MA|isbn=978-0-470-67060-6|quote=Deism is a rationalistic, critical approach to theism with an emphasis on natural theology. The Deists attempted to reduce religion to what they regarded as its most foundational, rationally justifiable elements. Deism is not, strictly speaking, the teaching that God wound up the world like a watch and let it run on its own, though that teaching was embraced by some within the movement.}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2018}} Deism was particularly popular among western intellectuals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thomsett|first1=Michael C.|title=Heresy in the Roman Catholic Church: A History|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Co.|location=Jefferson|isbn=978-0-7864-8539-0|page=222|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=LDbhV7u1_yIC}}|access-date=22 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Ellen Judy|last2=Reill|first2=Peter Hanns|title=Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment|date=2004|publisher=Facts On File|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8160-5335-3|pages=146–158|edition=Revised|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=t1pQ4YG-TDIC}}|access-date=22 January 2018}}</ref> [[Pantheism]] is the belief that the universe itself is God<ref name="Pearsall"/> or that everything composes an all-encompassing, [[immanence|immanent]] deity.<ref name="Edwards"/> [[Pandeism]] is an intermediate position between these, proposing that the creator became a pantheistic universe.<ref>{{cite book|author = Sal Restivo|author-link = Sal Restivo|title = Society and the Death of God|year = 2021|isbn = 978-0-3676-3764-4|publisher = [[Routledge]]|chapter = The End of God and the Beginning of Inquiry|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ST4oEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|page = 123|quote = In the pandeism argument, an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God creates the universe and in the process becomes the universe and loses his powers to intervene in human affairs.|access-date = 25 April 2021|archive-date = 25 April 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210425040608/https://books.google.com/books?id=ST4oEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|url-status = live}}</ref> [[Panentheism]] is the belief that [[divinity]] pervades the universe, but that it also [[Transcendence (religion)|transcends]] the universe.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fahlbusch|first1=Erwin|last2=Bromiley|first2=Geoffrey William|title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity|date=2005|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0-8028-2416-5|page=21|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=sCY4sAjTGIYC|page=21}}|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en}}</ref> Agnosticism is the position that it is impossible to know for certain whether a deity of any kind exists.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Borchert|first1=Donald M.|title=The Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=2006|publisher=Macmillan Reference|location=Detroit|isbn=978-0-02-865780-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofph0000unse/page/92 92]|edition=2nd|quote=In the most general use of the term, agnosticism is the view that we do not know whether there is a God or not.|title-link=Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Craig|first1=Edward|last2=Floridi|first2=Luciano|title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-07310-3|page=112|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=VQ-GhVWTH84C|page=122}}|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|quote=In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, whereas an atheist disbelieves in God. In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. In so far as one holds that our beliefs are rational only if they are sufficiently supported by human reason, the person who accepts the philosophical position of agnosticism will hold that neither the belief that God exists nor the belief that God does not exist is rational.}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |dictionary=OED Online, 3rd ed. |entry=agnostic, agnosticism |publisher=Oxford University Press |date= 2012 <!--|access-date=22 July 2013--> |quote='''agnostic'''. : '''A'''. n[oun]. :# A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of immaterial things, especially of the existence or nature of God. :# In extended use: a person who is not persuaded by or committed to a particular point of view; a sceptic. Also: person of indeterminate ideology or conviction; an equivocator. : '''B.''' adj[ective]. :# Of or relating to the belief that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and (as far as can be judged) unknowable. Also: holding this belief. :# a. In extended use: not committed to or persuaded by a particular point of view; sceptical. Also: politically or ideologically unaligned; non-partisan, equivocal. '''agnosticism''' n. The doctrine or tenets of agnostics with regard to the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena or to knowledge of a First Cause or God.}}</ref> [[Atheism]] is the non-belief in the existence of any deity.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Draper|first1=Paul|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|year=2017|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|edition=Fall 2017|chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/#1|access-date=22 January 2018|chapter=Atheism and Agnosticism|archive-date=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211005616/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/#1|url-status=live}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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