Conceptions of God in monotheist, pantheist, and panentheist religions – or of the supreme deity in henotheistic religions – can extend to various levels of abstraction:
- as a powerful, human-like, supernatural being, or as the deification of an esoteric, mystical or philosophical entity or category;
- as the "Ultimate", the summum bonum, the "Absolute Infinite", the "Transcendent", or Existence or Being itself;
- as the ground of being, the monistic substrate, that which we cannot understand; and so on.
Hellenistic philosophy and religion
Aristotelianism
In his Metaphysics, Aristotle discusses the meaning of "being as being". Aristotle holds that "being" primarily refers to the Unmoved Movers,
and assigned one of these to each movement in the heavens. Each Unmoved
Mover continuously contemplates its own contemplation, and everything
that fits the second meaning of "being" by having its source of motion
in itself, i.e., moves because the knowledge of its Mover causes it to
emulate this Mover (or should).
Aristotle's definition of God attributes perfection to this
being, and, as a perfect being, it can only contemplate upon perfection
and not on imperfection; otherwise perfection would not be one of his
attributes. God, according to Aristotle, is in a state of "stasis"
untouched by change and imperfection. The "unmoved mover" is very unlike
the conception of God that one sees in most religions. It has been
likened to a person who is playing dominos
and pushes one of them over, so that every other domino in the set is
pushed over as well, without the being having to do anything about it.
Although, in the 18th century, the French educator Allan Kardec brought a very similar conception of God during his work of codifying Spiritism, this differs from the interpretation of God in most religions, where he is seen to be personally involved in his creation.
Hermeticism
"The All" is the Hermetic version of God.
It has also been called "The One", "The Great One", "The Creator",
"The Supreme Mind", "The Supreme Good", "The Father" and "The Universal
Mother". The All is seen by some to be a panentheistic conception of God, subsuming everything that is or can be experienced. One Hermetic maxim states that "While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in All." The All can also be seen to be hermaphroditic, possessing both masculine and feminine qualities in equal parttext. These qualities are, however, of mental gender, as The All lacks physical sex.
According to The Kybalion, The All is more complicated than simply being the sum total of the universe.
Rather than The All being simply the physical universe, it is said
that everything in the universe is within the mind of The All, since The
All can be looked at as Mind itself. The All's mind is thought to be infinitely more powerful and vast than humans can possibly achieve, and possibly capable of keeping track of every particle in the Universe. The Kybalion states that nothing can be outside of The All or The All would not be The All.
The All may also be a metaphor alluding to the godhead
potentiality of every individual. "[God]... That invisible power which
all know does exist, but understood by many different names, such as
God, Spirit, Supreme Being, Intelligence, Mind, Energy, Nature and so
forth."
In the Hermetic Tradition, each and every person has the potential to
become God, this idea or concept of God is perceived as internal rather
than external. The All is also an allusion to the observer created
universe. We create our own reality; hence we are the architect, The
All. Another way would to be to say that the mind is the builder.
Freemasonry often includes concepts of God as an external entity,
however, esoteric masonic teachings
clearly identify God as the individual himself: the perceiver. We are
all God and as such we create our own reality. Although others believe
God to be abstract. Meaning he is not seen in reality, but understood
through deep contemplation. He is all around us every day, just hiding
in the miracles and beauty of our Earth.
Abrahamic religions
The Abrahamic God in this sense is the conception of God that remains
a common attribute of all three traditions. God is conceived of as eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and as the creator of the universe. God is further held to have the properties of holiness, justice, omnibenevolence and omnipresence. Proponents of Abrahamic faiths believe that God is also transcendent, meaning that he is outside space and outside time and therefore not subject to anything within his creation, but at the same time a personal God, involved, listening to prayer and reacting to the actions of his creatures.
Judaism
In Judaism, God has been conceived in a variety of ways. Traditionally, Judaism holds that YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the national god of the Israelites, delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at biblical Mount Sinai as described in the Torah. According to the rationalist stream of Judaism articulated by Maimonides, which later came to dominate much of official traditional Jewish thought, God is understood as the absolute one, indivisible, and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Traditional interpretations of Judaism generally emphasize that God is personal yet also transcendent, while some modern interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is a force or ideal.
Jewish monotheism is a continuation of earlier Hebrew henotheism, the exclusive worship of the God of Israel (YHWH) as prescribed in the Torah and practiced at the Temple of Jerusalem. Strict monotheism emerges in Hellenistic Judaism and Rabbinical Judaism. Pronunciation of the proper name of the God of Israel came to be avoided in the Hellenistic era (Second Temple Judaism) and instead Jews refer to God as HaShem, meaning "the Name". In prayer and reading of scripture, the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is substituted with Adonai ("my Lord").
Some Kabbalistic
thinkers have held the belief that all of existence is itself a part of
God, and that we as humanity are unaware of our own inherent godliness
and are grappling to come to terms with it. The standing view in Hasidism
currently, is that there is nothing in existence outside of God – all
being is within God, and yet all of existence cannot contain him.
Regarding this, Solomon stated while dedicating the Temple, "But will God in truth dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You."
Modern Jewish thinkers have constructed a wide variety of other
ideas about God. Hermann Cohen believed that God should be identified
with the "archetype of morality," an idea reminiscent of Plato's idea of the Good. Mordecai Kaplan believed that God is the sum of all natural processes that allow man to become self-fulfilled.
Christianity
Trinitarianism
"Baptism of Christ" by Guido Reni (circa 1623)
Within Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single being that exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a perichoresis of three hypostases (i.e. persons; personae, prosopa): the Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the Son (the eternal Logos ("Word"), manifest in human form as Jesus and thereafter as Christ); and the Holy Spirit (the Paraclete
or advocate). 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, as distinct and co-eternal "persons" or "hypostases", share a single divine essence, being, or nature.
Following the First Council of Constantinople, the Son is described as eternally begotten by the Father ("begotten of his Father before all worlds").
This generation does not imply a beginning for the Son or an inferior
relationship with the Father. The Son is the perfect image of his
Father, and is consubstantial
with him. The Son returns that love, and that union between the two is
the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is
consubstantial and co-equal with the Father and the Son. Thus, God
contemplates and loves himself, enjoying infinite and perfect beatitude within himself. This relationship between the other two persons is called procession.
Although the theology of the Trinity is accepted in most Christian
churches, there are theological differences, notably between Catholic
and Orthodox thought on the procession of the Holy Spirit (see filioque).
Some Christian communions do not accept the Trinitarian doctrine, at
least not in its traditional form. Notable groups include the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Christadelphians, Unitarians, Arians, and Adoptionists.
Unitarianism
5th century Arian Baptistry Chapel
Within Christianity, Unitarianism is the view that God consists of only one person, the Father, instead of three persons as Trinitarianism states. Unitarians believe that mainstream Christianity has been corrupted over history, and that it is not strictly monotheistic.
There are different Unitarian views on Jesus, ranging from seeing him
purely as a man who was chosen by God, to seeing him as a divine being,
as the Son of God who had pre-existence. Thus, Unitarianism is typically divided into two principal groups:
- Arianism, which believes in the pre-existence of the Logos, and holds that the Son was God's first creation.
- Socinianism, the view that Jesus was a mere man, and had no existence before his birth.
Even though the term "unitarian" did not first appear until the 17th century in reference to the Polish Brethren, the basic tenets of Unitarianism go back to the time of Arius
in the 4th century, an Alexandrian priest that taught the doctrine that
only the Father was God, and that the Son had been created by the
Father. Arians rejected the term "homoousios" (consubstantial) as a term describing the Father and Son, viewing such term as compromising the uniqueness and primacy of God, and accused it of dividing the indivisible unit of the divine essence. Unitarians trace their history back to the Apostolic Age, arguing, as do Trinitarians and Binitarians, that their Christology most closely reflects that of the early Christian community and Church Fathers.
Binitarianism
Binitarianism is the view within Christianity that there were
originally two beings in the Godhead – the Father and the Word – that
became the Son (Jesus the Christ). Binitarians normally believe that God is a family, currently consisting of the Father and the Son. Some binitarians believe that others will ultimately be born into that divine family. Hence, binitarians are nontrinitarian, but they are also not unitarian. Binitarians, like most unitarians and trinitarians, claim their views were held by the original New Testament Church. Unlike most unitarians and trinitarians
who tend to identify themselves by those terms, binitarians normally do
not refer to their belief in the duality of the Godhead, with the Son
subordinate to the Father; they simply teach the Godhead in a manner
that has been termed as binitarianism.
The word "binitarian" is typically used by scholars and
theologians as a contrast to a trinitarian theology: a theology of "two"
in God rather than a theology of "three", and although some critics
prefer to use the term ditheist or dualist instead of binitarian, those
terms suggests that God is not one, yet binitarians believe that God is
one family. It is accurate to offer the judgment that most commonly
when someone speaks of a Christian "binitarian" theology the "two" in
God are the Father and the Son... A substantial amount of recent
scholarship has been devoted to exploring the implications of the fact
that Jesus was worshipped by those first Jewish Christians, since
in Judaism "worship" was limited to the worship of God" (Barnes M.
Early Christian Binitarianism: the Father and the Holy Spirit. Early
Christian Binitarianism - as read at NAPS 2001). Much of this recent
scholarship has been the result of the translations of the Nag Hammadi and other ancient manuscripts that were not available when older scholarly texts (such as Wilhelm Bousset's Kyrios Christos, 1913) were written.
Mormonism
In the Mormonism represented by most of Mormon communities, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "God" means Elohim (the Father), whereas "Godhead" means a council of three distinct entities; Elohim, Jehovah (the Son, or Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.
The Father and Son have perfected, material bodies, while the Holy
Spirit is a spirit and does not have a body. This conception differs
from the traditional Christian Trinity;
in Mormonism, the three persons are considered to be physically
separate beings, or personages, but indistinguishable in will and
purpose. As such, the term "Godhead" differs from how it is used in traditional Christianity. This description of God represents the orthodoxy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(LDS Church), established early in the 19th century. However, the
Mormon concept of God has expanded since the faith's founding in the
late 1820s.
Islam
Islam's most fundamental concept is a strict monotheism called tawḥīd. God is described in the Quran
as: "Say: He is God, the One; God, the Eternal, the Absolute; He begot
no one, nor is He begotten; Nor is there to Him equivalent anyone." Muslims deny the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules
and are not expected to visualize God. The message of God is carried by
angels to 124,000 messengers starting with Adam and concluding with
Mohammad. God is described and referred in the Quran by certain names or
attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman, meaning "Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful" (see Names of God in Islam).
Muslims believe that creation of everything in the universe is brought into being by God's sheer command “‘Be’ and so it is.” and that the purpose of existence is to please God, both by worship and by good deeds. He is viewed as a personal God who responds whenever a person in need or distress calls Him. There are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God: “He is nearer to his creation than the jugular vein”
Allāh (Arabic: الله Allāh), without plural or gender is the divine name of the lord mentioned in the Quran, while "ʾilāh" (Arabic: إله ellāh) is the term used for a deity or a god in general.
Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'ís believe in a single, imperishable God, the creator of all things, including all the creatures and forces in the universe.
In Bahá'í belief, God is beyond space and time but is also described as
"a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all
Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty."
Though inaccessible directly, God is nevertheless seen as conscious of
creation, possessing a mind, will and purpose. Bahá'ís believe that God
expresses this will at all times and in many ways, including Manifestations, a series of divine "messengers" or "educators".
In expressing God's intent, these manifestations are seen to establish
religion in the world. Bahá'í teachings state that God is too great for
humans to fully comprehend, nor to create a complete and accurate image. Bahá'u'lláh often refers to God by titles, such as the "All-Powerful" or the "All-Loving".
Negative theology
Some Jewish, Christian and Muslim Medieval philosophers, including Moses Maimonides and Pseudo-Dionysius, as well as many sages of other religions, developed what is termed as apophatic theology or the Via Negativa, the idea that one cannot posit attributes
to God and can only discuss what God is not. For example, we cannot say
that God "exists" in the usual sense of the term, because that term is
human defined and God's qualities such as existence may not be
accurately characterized by it. What we can safely say is that it cannot
be proven empirically or otherwise that God is existent, therefore God is not non-existent.
Likewise God's "wisdom" is of a fundamentally different kind from
limited human perception. So we cannot use the word "wise" to describe
God, because this implies God is wise in the way we usually describe
humans being wise. However we can safely say that God is not ignorant.
We should not say that God is One, because we may not truly understand
Gods nature, but we can state that there is no multiplicity in God's
being. In the Quran it is stated that God possess no quality of God's
creation, which means that there cannot be a He or She used to describe
God. To say that God is angered or feels any kind of emotion is a
misunderstanding. Emotion is in common to all humans; it is what gives
them their essence, though to feel love, anger, jealousy, or happiness
clouds and misguides our judgment and may lead us to make a weak
decision or do something unfair. Therefore, One who sees all and can
feel all does not need any emotion to make a decision. God is beyond
emotion and other human biases.
The reason that this theology was developed was because it was
felt that ascribing positive characteristics to God would imply that God
could be accurately described with terms that were used to describe
human qualities and perceptions. As humans cannot truly comprehend what
kind of wisdom an eternal transcendent being might have, or what
infinity might be like, we cannot in fact know or characterize his true
nature. It is beyond human ability and would only mislead people. The
proponents of this theory often experienced meditation,
which they viewed as the only effective way of having a personal
relationship with God. It involved trying to reach beyond the words
commonly used to describe him and his more ineffable characteristics, and to comprehend in a mystical
manner the truths about him which could not be achieved through
religious language. Thus many sages and saints of both monotheistic and
other traditions described mystical trances, or raptures and stated they were unable to describe God or their visions fully.
Eastern religions
Jainism
Jainism does not support belief in a creator deity. According to Jain doctrine, the universe
and its constituents—soul, matter, space, time, and principles of
motion—have always existed. All the constituents and actions are
governed by universal natural laws.
It is not possible to create matter out of nothing and hence the sum
total of matter in the universe remains the same (similar to law of conservation of mass). Jain text claims that the universe consists of Jiva (life force or souls) and Ajiva (lifeless objects). Similarly, the soul of each living being is unique and uncreated and has existed since beginningless time.
The Jain theory of causation
holds that a cause and its effect are always identical in nature and
hence a conscious and immaterial entity like God cannot create a
material entity like the universe. Furthermore, according to the Jain
concept of divinity, any soul who destroys its karmas and desires,
achieves liberation/Nirvana. A soul who destroys all its passions and
desires has no desire to interfere in the working of the universe. Moral
rewards and sufferings are not the work of a divine being, but a result
of an innate moral order in the cosmos; a self-regulating mechanism whereby the individual reaps the fruits of his own actions through the workings of the karmas.
Through the ages, Jain philosophers have adamantly rejected and opposed the concept of creator and omnipotent God. This has resulted in Jainism being labeled as nastika darsana (atheist philosophy) by rival religious philosophies.
The theme of non-creationism and absence of omnipotent God and divine
grace runs strongly in all the philosophical dimensions of Jainism,
including its cosmology, concepts of karma and moksa and its moral code of conduct. Jainism asserts a religious and virtuous life is possible without the idea of a creator god.
Buddhism
The non-adherence to the notion of a supreme God or a prime mover is seen as a key distinction between Buddhism and other religious views. In Buddhism, the sole aim of the spiritual practice is the complete alleviation of distress (dukkha) in samsara, called nirvana. The Buddha neither denies nor accepts a creator, denies endorsing any views on creation and states that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. Some teachers instruct students beginning Buddhist meditation that the notion of divinity is not incompatible with Buddhism, but dogmatic beliefs in a supreme personal creator are considered a hindrance to the attainment of nirvana, the highest goal of Buddhist practice.
Despite this apparent non-theism, Buddhists consider veneration of the Noble Ones very important although the two main schools of Buddhism differ mildly in their reverential attitudes. While Theravada Buddhists view the Buddha as a human being who attained nirvana or arahanthood through human efforts, Mahayana Buddhists consider him an embodiment of the cosmic dharmakaya (a notion of transcendent divinity), who was born for the benefit of others and not merely a human being. In addition, some Mahayana Buddhists worship their chief Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara and hope to embody him.
Buddhists accept the existence of beings known as devas in higher realms, but they, like humans, are said to be suffering in samsara, and not necessarily wiser than us. In fact, the Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Despite this, there are believed to be enlightened devas on the path of Buddhahood.
In Buddhism, the idea of the metaphysical absolute is deconstructed
in the same way as of the idea of an enduring "self", but it is not
necessarily denied. Reality is considered as dynamic, interactive and
non-substantial, which implies rejection of brahman or of a divine substratum. A cosmic principle can be embodied in concepts such as the dharmakaya. Though there is a primordial Buddha (or, in Vajrayana, the Adi-Buddha, a representation of immanent enlightenment
in nature), its representation as a creator is a symbol of the presence
of a universal cyclical creation and dissolution of the cosmos and not
of an actual personal being. An intelligent, metaphysical underlying
basis, however, is not ruled out by Buddhism, although Buddhists are
generally very careful to distinguish this idea from that of an
independent creator God.
Hinduism
In Hinduism, the concept of god is complex and depends on the particular tradition. The concept spans conceptions from absolute monism to henotheism, monotheism and polytheism.
In vedic period monotheistic god Concept culminated in the semi
abstract semi personified form of creative soul dwelling in all god such
as Vishvakarman, Purusha, and Prajapathy . In majority of Vaishnavism traditions, He is Vishnu, god, and the text identifies this being as Krishna, sometimes referred as svayam bhagavan. The term isvara - from the root is, to have extraordinary power. Some traditional sankhya systems contrast purusha (devine, or souls) to prakriti (nature or energy), however the term for sovereign god, ishvara is mentioned six times in the Atharva Veda, and is central to many traditions. As per Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy the notion of Brahman
(the highest Universal Principle) is akin to that of god; except that
unlike most other philosophies Advaita likens Brahman to Atman (the true
Self of an individual). For Sindhi Hindus, who are deeply influenced by Sikhism, God is seen as the omnipotent cultivation of all Hindu gods and goddesses. In short the soul paramatma of all gods and goddesses are the omnipresent Brahman and are enlightened beings.
Brahman
Brahman
is the eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent
reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space,
being and everything beyond in this Universe.
The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and
impersonal by different philosophical schools. The word "Brahman" is
derived from the verb ((brh)) (Sanskrit: to grow), and connotes
greatness and infinity.
Brahman is talked of at two levels (apara and para). Para-Brahman is the
all inclusive - he is the head from which all concepts including the
alphabets emerge.
The honey of all knowledge (i.e. the universal set of all concepts like
mind, intellect, speech, alphabets, etc.) to denote this, a special
term - not originating from alphabets - called OM is used.
He is the fountainhead of all concepts but He Himself cannot be
conceived. He is the universal conceiver, universal concept and all the
means of concept. Apara-Brahman is the same Para Brahma but for human
understanding thought of as universal mind cum universal intellect from
which all human beings derive an iota as their mind, intellect etc.
Ishvara
Ishvara
is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the
Supreme controller (i.e. God) in a monotheistic or the Supreme Being or
as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought. Ishvara is a transcendent
and immanent entity best described in the last chapter of the Shukla
Yajur Veda Samhita, known as the Ishavasya Upanishad. It states "ishavasyam idam sarvam"
which means whatever there is in this world is covered and filled with
Ishvara. Ishvara not only creates the world, but then also enters into
everything there is. In Saivite traditions, the term is used as part of the compound "Maheshvara" ("great lord") later as a name for Siva.
Mahadeva
Lord
Shiva is more often considered as first Hindu God. Mahadeva literally
means "Highest of all god". Shiva is also known as Maheshvar, the great
Lord, Mahadeva, the great God, Shambhu, Hara, Pinakadhrik, bearer of the
axe and Mrityunjaya, conqueror of death. He is the spouse of Shakti, the goddess. He also is represented by Mahakala and Bhairava, the terrible, as well as many other forms including Rudra. Shiva is often pictured holding the damaru, an hour-glass shape drum, shown below with his trishula. His usual mantra is om namah shivaya.
This must not be confused with the numerous devas. Deva may be roughly translated into English as deity, demigod or angel, and can describe any celestial being or thing that is of high excellence and thus is venerable. The word is cognate to Latin deus for "god". The misconception of 330 million devas is commonly objected to by Hindu scholars. The description of 33 koti (10 million, crore in Hindi) devas is a misunderstanding. The word koti
in Sanskrit translates to 'type' and not '10 million'. So the actual
translation is 33 types and not 330 million devas. Ishvara as a personal
form of God is worshiped and not the 33 devas. The concept of 33 devas
is perhaps related to the geometry of the universe.
Bhagavan
Bhagavan literally means "possessing fortune, blessed, prosperous" (from the noun bhaga,
meaning "fortune, wealth", cognate to Slavic bog "god"), and hence
"illustrious, divine, venerable, holy", etc. In some traditions of
Hinduism it is used to indicate the Supreme Being or Absolute Truth, but
with specific reference to that Supreme Being as possessing a
personality (a personal God).
This personal feature indicated in Bhagavan differentiates its usage
from other similar terms such as Brahman, the "Supreme Spirit" or
"spirit", and thus, in this usage, Bhagavan is in many ways analogous to
the general Christian and Islamic conception of God.
Early Modern and new religious movements
Rosicrucian
The Western Wisdom Teachings present the conception of The Absolute
(unmanifested and unlimited "Boundless Being" or "Root of Existence",
beyond the whole universe and beyond comprehension) from whom proceeds
the Supreme Being at the dawn of manifestation: The One, the "Great Architect of the Universe". From the threefold Supreme Being proceed the "seven Great Logoi"
who contain within themselves all the great hierarchies that
differentiate more and more as they diffuse through the six lower Cosmic Planes.
In the Highest World of the seventh (lowest) Cosmic Plane dwells the
god of the solar systems in the universe. These great beings are also
threefold in manifestation, like the Supreme Being; their three aspects
are Will, Wisdom and Activity.
According these Rosicrucian teachings, in the beginning of a Day of Manifestation a certain collective Great Being, God, limits himself to a certain portion of space, in which he elects to create a solar system for the evolution of added self-consciousness.
In God there are contained hosts of glorious hierarchies and lesser
beings of every grade of intelligence and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an unconsciousness deeper than that of the deepest trance condition.
During the current period of manifestation these various grades
of beings are working to acquire more experience than they possessed at
the beginning of this period of existence. Those who, in previous
manifestations, have attained to the highest degree of development work
on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness. In the Solar
system, God's Habitation, there are seven Worlds
differentiated by God, within Himself, one after another. Mankind's
evolutionary scheme is slowly carried through five of these Worlds in
seven great Periods of manifestation, during which the evolving virgin spirit becomes first human and, then, a God.
Unitarian Universalism
Concepts about deity are diverse among UUs. Some have no belief in
any gods (atheism); others believe in many gods (polytheism). Some
believe that the question of the existence of any god is most likely
unascertainable or unknowable (agnosticism). Some believe that God is a
metaphor for a transcendent reality. Some believe in a female god
(goddess), a passive god (Deism), an Abrahamic god, or a god manifested
in nature or the universe (pantheism). Many UUs reject the idea of
deities and instead speak of the "spirit of life" that binds all life on
earth. UUs support each person's search for truth and meaning in
concepts of spirituality. Historically, Unitarianism was a denomination
within Christianity. The term may refer to any belief about the nature
of Jesus Christ that affirms God as a singular entity and rejects the
doctrine of the Trinity. Universalism broadly refers to a theological
belief that all persons and creatures are related to a god or the divine
and will be reconciled to a god (Universal Salvation).
Sikhism
The term for God in Sikhism is Waheguru. Guru Nanak describes God as nirankar (from the Sanskrit nirākārā, meaning "formless"), akal (meaning "eternal") and alakh (from the Sanskrit alakśya, meaning "invisible" or "unobserved"). Sikhism's principal scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, starts with the figure "1", signifying the unity of God. Nanak's interpretation of God is that of a single, personal and transcendental creator with whom the devotee must develop a most intimate faith and relationship to achieve salvation. Sikhism advocates the belief in one god who is omnipresent (sarav vi'āpak),
whose qualities are infinite and who is without gender, a nature
represented (especially in the Guru Granth Sahib) by the term Ek Onkar.
Nanak further emphasizes that a full understanding of God is
beyond human beings, but that God is also not wholly unknowable. God is
considered omnipresent in all creation and visible everywhere to the
spiritually awakened. Nanak stresses that God must be seen by human
beings from "the inward eye" or "heart" and that meditation
must take place inwardly to achieve this enlightenment progressively;
its rigorous application is what enables communication between God and
human beings.
Sikhs
believe in a single god that has existed from the beginning of time and
will survive forever. God is genderless, fearless, formless, immutable,
ineffable, self-sufficient, omnipotent and not subject to the cycle of
birth and death.
God in Sikhism is depicted in three distinct aspects: God as
deity; God in relation to creation; and God in relation to man. During a
discourse with siddhas (wandering Hindu adepts),
Nanak is asked where "the Transcendent God" was before creation. He
replies: "To think of the Transcendent Lord in that state is to enter
the realm of wonder. Even at that stage of sunn, he permeated all that
void" (GG, 940).
Brahma Kumaris
According to Brahma Kumaris, God is the incorporeal soul with the maximum degree of spiritual qualities such as peace and love.
Extraterrestrial
Some comparatively new belief systems and books portray God as extraterrestrial life.
Many of these theories hold that intelligent beings from another world
have been visiting Earth for many thousands of years and have influenced
the development of our religions. Some of these books posit that
prophets or messiahs were sent to the human race in order to teach
morality and encourage the development of civilization (see, for
example, Rael and Zecharia Sitchin).
Meher Baba
The spiritual teacher Meher Baba
described God as infinite love: "God is not understood in His essence
until He is also understood as Infinite Love. Divine Love is unlimited
in essence and expression, because it is experienced by the soul through
the soul itself. The sojourn of the soul is a thrilling divine romance
in which the lover, who in the beginning is conscious of nothing but
emptiness, frustration, superficiality and the gnawing chains of
bondage, gradually attains an increasingly fuller and freer expression
of love and ultimately disappears and merges in the Divine Beloved to
realize the unity of the Lover and the Beloved in the supreme and
eternal fact of God as Infinite Love."
Satanism
Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, espoused the view that "god" is a creation of man, rather than man being a creation of "god". In his book, The Satanic Bible,
the Satanist's view of god is described as the Satanist's true "self"—a
projection of his or her own personality—not an external deity. Satan is used as a representation of personal liberty and individualism. LaVey discusses this extensively in The Book of Lucifer,
explaining that the gods worshipped by other religions are also
projections of man's true self. He argues that man's unwillingness to
accept his own ego has caused him to externalize these gods so as to
avoid the feeling of narcissism that would accompany self-worship.
If man insists on externalizing his true self in the form of "God," then why fear his true self, in fearing "God,"—why praise his true self in praising "God,"—why remain externalized from "God" in order to engage in ritual and religious ceremony in his name?
Man needs ritual and dogma, but no law states that an externalized god is necessary in order to engage in ritual and ceremony performed in a god's name! Could it be that when he closes the gap between himself and his "God" he sees the demon of pride creeping forth—that very embodiment of Lucifer appearing in his midst?
— Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible, pp. 44–45
Modern philosophy
Process philosophy and open theism
Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), while open theism is a similar theological movement that began in the 1990s.
In both views, God is not omnipotent in the classical sense of a
coercive being. Reality is not made up of material substances that
endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential
in nature. The universe is characterized by process and change carried
out by the agents of free will.
Self-determination characterizes everything in the universe, not just
human beings. God and creatures co-create. God cannot force anything to
happen, but rather only influence the exercise of this universal free
will by offering possibilities. Process theology is compatible with panentheism, the concept that God contains the universe (pantheism) but also transcends
it. God as the ultimate logician - God may be defined as the only
entity, by definition, possessing the ability to reduce an infinite
number of logical equations having an infinite number of variables and
an infinite number of states to minimum form instantaneously.
Posthuman
A posthuman God
is a hypothetical future entity descended from or created by humans,
but possessing capabilities so radically exceeding those of present
humans as to appear godlike. One common variation of this idea is the
belief or aspiration that humans will create a God entity emerging from
an artificial intelligence. Another variant is that humanity itself will evolve into a posthuman God.
The concept of a posthuman god has become common in science fiction. Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke
said in an interview, "It may be that our role on this planet is not to
worship God, but to create him." 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 and subsequently initiates a new Creation trillions of years from the present era when the Universe is in the last stage of heat death. In Frank Herbert's science-fiction series Dune, a messianic figure is created after thousands of years of controlled breeding. The Culture series, by Iain M. Banks, represents a blend in which a transhuman society is guarded by godlike machine intelligences. A stronger example is posited in the novel Singularity Sky by Charles Stross,
in which a future artificial intelligence is capable of changing events
even in its own past, and takes strong measures to prevent any other
entity from taking advantage of similar capabilities. Another example
appears in the popular online novella The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
in which an advanced artificial intelligence uses its own advanced
quantum brain to resolve discrepancies in physics theories and develop a
unified field theory which gives it absolute control over reality, in a
take on philosophical digitalism.
Phenomenological definition
The philosopher Michel Henry defines God from a phenomenological
point of view. He says: "God is Life, he is the essence of Life, or, if
we prefer, the essence of Life is God. Saying this we already know what
is God the father the almighty, creator of heaven and earth, we know it
not by the effect of a learning or of some knowledge, we don’t know it
by the thought, on the background of the truth of the world; we know it
and we can know it only in and by the Life itself. We can know it only
in God."
This Life is not biological life defined by objective and
exterior properties, nor an abstract and empty philosophical concept,
but the absolute phenomenological life,
a radically immanent life that possesses in it the power of showing
itself in itself without distance, a life that reveals permanently
itself.
