God
God
is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. God is most
often held to be incorporeal, and to be without gender, yet the concept of God
actively creating the universe has
caused many religions to describe God using masculine terminology, using such
terms as "Him" or "Father". Furthermore, some religions
(such as Judaism) attribute only a purely grammatical "gender" to
God. Incorporeity and corporeity of God are related to conceptions of
transcendence (being outside nature) and immanence (being in nature, in the
world) of God, with positions of synthesis such as the "immanent
transcendence" of Chinese theology.
God
has been conceived as either personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the
creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, but
not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself.
In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or
unknowable within the context of agnosticism. God has also been conceived as
the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable
existent". Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and
against the existence of God.
There
are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural
ideas about God's identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of
Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was
called Aten, premised on being the one "true" Supreme Being and
creator of the universe.
The
many different conceptions of God, and competing claims as to God's
characteristics, aims, and actions, have led to the development of ideas of
omnitheism, pandeism,or a perennial philosophy, which postulates that there is
one underlying theological truth, of which all religions express a partial
understanding, and as to which "the devout in the various great world
religions are in fact worshipping that one God, but through different,
overlapping concepts or mental images of Him."The concept of God as
described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience, infinite
knowledge, omnipotence, unlimited power, omnipresence, present everywhere,
divine simplicity, and as having an eternal and necessary existence. Many
theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent, perfectly good and all
loving.
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