808 Gods

[Desiderato Chouinard]

Adeity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over the universe, nature or human life.[1][2] The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine.[3] C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".[4]

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, heroic in outlook and actions, yet tied up with emotions and desires.[42][43] In other cases, the deity is a principle or reality such as the idea of "soul". The Upanishads of Hinduism, for example, characterize 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.[44][45][46]

Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more deities.[47][48] Polytheism is the belief in and worship of multiple deities,[49] which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, with accompanying rituals.[49] In most polytheistic religions, the different gods and goddesses are representations of forces of nature or ancestral principles, and can be viewed either as autonomous or as aspects or emanations of a creator God or transcendental absolute principle (monistic theologies), which manifests immanently in nature.[49] 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.[9][50][8][51] Monolatry is the belief that many deities exist, but that only one of these deities may be validly worshipped.[52][53]

Monotheism is the belief that only one deity exists.[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][excessive citations] A monotheistic deity, known as "God", is usually described as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and eternal.[61] However, not all deities have been regarded this way[14][16][62][63] and an entity does not need to be almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent or eternal to qualify as a deity.[14][16][62]

Deism is the belief that only one deity exists, who created the universe, but does not usually intervene in the resulting world.[64][65][66][page needed] Deism was particularly popular among western intellectuals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[67][68] Pantheism is the belief that the universe itself is God[38] or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent deity.[39] Pandeism is an intermediate position between these, proposing that the creator became a pantheistic universe.[69] Panentheism is the belief that divinity pervades the universe, but that it also transcends the universe.[70] Agnosticism is the position that it is impossible to know for certain whether a deity of any kind exists.[71][72][73] Atheism is the non-belief in the existence of any deity.[74]

Scholars infer the probable existence of deities in the prehistoric period from inscriptions and prehistoric arts such as cave drawings, but it is unclear what these sketches and paintings are and why they were made.[77] Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals.[78] It was once common for archaeologists to interpret virtually every prehistoric female figurine as a representation of a single, primordial goddess, the ancestor of historically attested goddesses such as Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Cybele, and Aphrodite;[79] this approach has now generally been discredited.[79] Modern archaeologists now generally recognize that it is impossible to conclusively identify any prehistoric figurines as representations of any kind of deities, let alone goddesses.[79] Nonetheless, it is possible to evaluate ancient representations on a case-by-case basis and rate them on how likely they are to represent deities.[79] The Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted by some as an exemplar of a prehistoric female deity.[78] A number of probable representations of deities have been discovered at 'Ain Ghazal[79] and the works of art uncovered at atalhyk reveal references to what is probably a complex mythology.[79]

Diverse African cultures developed theology and concepts of deities over their history. In Nigeria and neighboring West African countries, for example, two prominent deities (locally called rṣ)[80] are found in the Yoruba religion, namely the god Ogun and the goddess Osun.[80] Ogun is the primordial masculine deity as well as the archdivinity and guardian of occupations such as tools making and use, metal working, hunting, war, protection and ascertaining equity and justice.[81][82] Osun is an equally powerful primordial feminine deity and a multidimensional guardian of fertility, water, maternal, health, social relations, love and peace.[80] Ogun and Osun traditions were brought into the Americas on slave ships. They were preserved by the Africans in their plantation communities, and their festivals continue to be observed.[80][81]

In Germanic languages, the terms cognate with 'god' such as Old English: god and Old Norse: gu were originally neuter but became masculine, as in modern Germanic languages, after Christianisation due their use in referring to the Christian god.[119]

Ilah, ʾIlāh (Arabic: إله; plural: آلهة ʾālihah), is an Arabic word meaning "god".[171][172] It appears in the name of the monotheistic god of Islam as Allah (al-Lāh).[173][174][175] which literally means "the god" in Arabic.[171][172] Islam is strictly monotheistic[176] and the first statement of the shahada, or Muslim confession of faith, is that "there is no ʾilāh (deity) but Allah (God)",[177] who is perfectly unified and utterly indivisible.[176][177][178]

The term Allah is used by Muslims for God. The Persian word Khuda (Persian: خدا) can be translated as god, lord or king, and is also used today to refer to God in Islam by Persian, Urdu, Tat and Kurdish speakers. The Turkic word for god is Tengri; it exists as Tanrı in Turkish.

The classical presentation of Judaism has been as a monotheistic faith that rejected deities and related idolatry.[179] However, states Breslauer, modern scholarship suggests that idolatry was not absent in biblical faith, and it resurfaced multiple times in Jewish religious life.[179] The rabbinic texts and other secondary Jewish literature suggest worship of material objects and natural phenomena through the medieval era, while the core teachings of Judaism maintained monotheism.[179][180][page needed]

According to Aryeh Kaplan, God is always referred to as "He" in Judaism, "not to imply that the concept of sex or gender applies to God", but because "there is no neuter in the Hebrew language, and the Hebrew word for God is a masculine noun" as he "is an active rather than a passive creative force".[181]

In Mandaeism, Hayyi Rabbi (lit=The Great Life), or 'The Great Living God',[182] is the supreme God from which all things emanate. He is also known as 'The First Life', since during the creation of the material world, Yushamin emanated from Hayyi Rabbi as the "Second Life."[183] "The principles of the Mandaean doctrine: the belief of the only one great God, Hayyi Rabbi, to whom all absolute properties belong; He created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into the human body. So He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman."[184] Mandaeans recognize God to be the eternal, creator of all, the one and only in domination who has no partner.[185]

Anitism, composed of an array of indigenous religions from the Philippines, has multiple pantheons of deities. There are more than a hundred different ethnic groups in the Philippines, each having their own supreme deity or deities. Each supreme deity or deities normally rules over a pantheon of deities, contributing to the sheer diversity of deities in Anitism.[186]The supreme deity or deities of ethnic groups are almost always the most notable.[186]

For example, Bathala is the Tagalog supreme deity,[187] Mangechay is the Kapampangan supreme deity,[188] Malayari is the Sambal supreme deity,[189] Melu is the Blaan supreme deity,[190] Kaptan is the Bisaya supreme deity,[191] and so on.

Devas or deities in Hindu texts differ from Greek or Roman theodicy, states Ray Billington, because many Hindu traditions believe that a human being has the potential to be reborn as a deva (or devi), by living an ethical life and building up saintly karma.[200] Such a deva enjoys heavenly bliss, till the merit runs out, and then the soul (atma = gender female) is reborn again into Saṃsāra. Thus deities are henotheistic manifestations, embodiments and consequence of the virtuous, the noble, the saint-like living in many Hindu traditions.[200]

Shinto is polytheistic, involving the veneration of many deities known as kami,[201] or sometimes as jingi.[202] In Japanese, no distinction is made here between singular and plural, and hence the term kami refers both to individual kami and the collective group of kami.[203] Although lacking a direct English translation,[204] the term kami has sometimes been rendered as "god" or "spirit".[205] The historian of religion Joseph Kitagawa deemed these English translations "quite unsatisfactory and misleading",[206] and various scholars urge against translating kami into English.[207] In Japanese, it is often said that there are eight million kami, a term which connotes an infinite number,[208] and Shinto practitioners believe that they are present everywhere.[209] They are not regarded as omnipotent, omniscient, or necessarily immortal.[210]

3a8082e126