The Eight Views of God
If we step back and look at how man has viewed God through history, we can see it comes down to 8 different views of God.
Many of these views are no longer held by the majority of people today. Today the dominant view is the one held by the major religions Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Hinduism shares a similar, yet "not quite the same" view as the three Abrahamic religions. And the Buddhist believes in nirvana.
More than likely you hold one of these eight views of God, whatever you believe.
At any rate, the "big picture" idea of God includes these 8 views:
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in a single all-powerful god, as opposed to religions that believe in multiple gods. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are
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Accordingly, the whole work of creation and grace is seen as a single operation common to all three divine persons, in which each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, so that all things are "from the Father", "through the Son" and "in the Holy Spirit".
Polytheism
Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals.
Polytheism is the view that there are many gods. Polytheism is an ancient view found in some of the earliest religions and tribes. Abraham lived in a culture in which polytheism thrived. The ancient Egyptian religion held to multiple gods as did many of the tribes of Africa. Ancient Greek mythology is known for its pantheon of gods. Although the many thousands of Hindu gods are often viewed as manifestations of the one Brahman, Hinduism is rightly considered a polytheistic
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This perspective has been found in several Native American religions.
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that God is nature and nature is God. With this perspective, there is no personal God who exists apart from the universe. Instead, with pantheism, God is inseparably united with nature. Thus, any statement about nature is a statement about God, and vice versa. Some of the ancient pagan religions, and groups such as Wicca, have tended toward pantheism. The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza promoted a form of pantheism in which all reality was viewed as being that of a single substance (monism).
Deism
Deism is the view that an extremely intelligent and powerful being created the universe, but this being no longer has any contact with the universe. Nor does this being respond to the prayers and concerns of people. With deism, this cosmic creator is akin to a watchmaker who makes a watch, winds it up, and then walks away from it forever. Deism was popular among American and European elites during the time of the American Revolutionary War in the eighteenth century. Thomas Jefferson was a
Thomas Jefferson is most closely associated with deism than any other of America’s founders. The rise of deism began during a season of new discoveries, inventions, and beliefs that challenged the social norm. Deism was influenced by the enlightenment period and was a rational, law-governed faith that believed in a world created by a “watchmaker” (Onuf). Thomas Jefferson was so involved in deism that he even created his own Bible. Deism was its strongest during the mid-seventeenth centuries through the mid-nineteenth centuries, but there are still some Deists today.
Ancient Hebrews believed in Monotheism, its acceptance in Mesopotamia was a gradual transition in that era. The god of the ancient Hebrews was Yahweh. There were two belief systems in India, Hinduism and Buddhism. The people who followed Hinduism worship one main god, Indra who was a war god. Indra guided the people through wars, and was responsible for the weather. There were also a number of gods that were responsible for one’s personal behaviors and the morals they believed to be important. Those were the gods who determined if the person was to go to heaven or to hell. In Buddhism there wasn’t a god they worship, rather people tried to reach holiness following the practices of Buddha. Buddha was a man named Siddhartha Gautama, who developed Buddhism through meditation, fasting and praying. Acrobatiq.
Many people believe Hinduism to be a polytheistic religion. This is due to the fact that there is so many gods that they can worship in. But in all actuality it is really a monotheistic religion that spawns off of one god to form many different gods or ideas to worship. The entire religion of Hinduism is based off of Brahman. Brahman is the idea that all reality is a unity. I will explain the concept of Brahman and four others and hopefully make Hinduism easier to comprehend.
A majority of all religions believe in creationism. Creationism is the belief that everything that we see around us today was created by a God or Gods in order for people to live ...
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God. There are three of the most influential monotheistic religions in world history today known as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These three religions share both vast similarities and differences. One significant similarity they share is the belief in one deity. The belief of one God gave many people guidance and purpose in their lives. For this reason, these three religions gained many followers and believers who had faith in God. Through faithfulness in God, many were promised eternal paradise. In the following paragraphs, I will explain the similarities and differences between the rituals, holy scripts, and salvation that these religions shared.
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that there is only one True and Living God and apart from Him there are no other Gods (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10,11; 44:6,8; 45:21,22; 46:9; Mark 12:29-34).
In our world today, many people are either born and raised into a religion or eventually grow into becoming part of one. Two different types of religions are: monotheism and polytheism. Monotheism is the doctrine or belief that there is only one god. Well-known Monotheistic religions are: Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic. Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. Most religions throughout history have been noted to have been Polytheistic.
The Aboriginal spirituality believes in many Gods, which makes it a polytheistic religion. Aboriginals believe in multiple Gods because they believe that they have multiple needs in nature. An example of this would be a farmer. A farmer wants to be on good terms with the spirit of rain and sun so that he can have a successful harvest. There are different Gods for different purposes, and Aboriginals believe that Gods connect the spiritual and physical world together.
The conception of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is monotheism, the belief in the existence of a single indivisible God. The three of religions maintains that there is only one God, who is active in and concerned about the world. These religions are also patriarchal, male-dominated, which has resulted in God being described as “He.” However, how Christians, Judaism and Islam conceptualize God in their respective theologies is actually quite different. In Christianity, God is the supreme creator and ruler of the universe. Christians believe God is infinite, omnipotent, all-powerful, perfect, personal, eternal, unchanging, holy, all-knowing, and all-loving. Their idea of God is shown in the belief of the Trinity. God is one, but with three aspects: God is Father, the creator, ruler, and sustainer of all life, and divine judge; God is the Son, who is Jesus, God made incarnate and savior of humanity; and the Holy Spirit, who is God working in the world. Both Muslims and Christians love and respect Jesus, however, the major difference between Islam and Christianity is the Christians insistence on the supposed divinity of Christ. In Christian scriptures, God never claimed divinity while the emphasis in the Islamic theology of God is “absolute unity;” God is sublimely one. Muslims think that by believing in the Trinity, Christians believe in three Gods. For them, God is One God. Judaism views the existence of God as a necessary prerequisite for the existence of the universe, and the existence of the universe is sufficient proof of the existence of God.
There are many religious groups throughout the world and the three largest religious groups are Christianity, Islam, and Nonreligious people who claim no religion at all. Under these three religions are other religions that basically having the same belief, but their belief may differ slightly. They all worship God, but in their own way, each having their own belief of salvation of how man is saved.
One common perception of God is that God is not so much a being, but according to seventeenth century philosopher Benedict Spinoza, that "God is everything, identical to the universe itself." That is to say that God is a part of all humans, all animals, all objects, and all matter in the universe. This particular view is called pantheism, which is literally defined to mean that there is no God, but only the combined forces and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. According to Spinoza, we are each and all an integral part of God, not as individuals or even humanity as a whole but as an integral part of what Spinoza called the "One Substance." He also believed that we are each and all components of some greater being, a being so unimaginably large that we are each nothing more than tiny parcels of matter in that being's blood.
Human beings have always been curious about the meaning and purpose of life. Religions try to answer the curiosity people have about there being a higher source, typically identifying this greater domination as God. Some beliefs teach that there is only one G-d this is defined as a monotheistic religion. Some examples of monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Although each sect has a different perspective on teachings and beliefs they have one common thread; the belief in a singular deity.
The belief in one God, monotheism is a common practice in today’s world for many religions but when God made his covenant with Abraham, monotheism was practically new and an unpracticed view in the world. Muslims, Christians, and Jews are three religions that have this common belief in monotheism. But while these three religions are monotheistic and have the same belief, each of these religions have essentially different views and ideas on what monotheism is and what it means to their religion.
In Hinduism there is one ultimate God, Brahman, who lives within each individual. Hinduism is a belief system that is followed to help one find Atman, which is your personal part of Brahman inside of you. There are 330 million God/Goddesses that people can choose...
In Hinduism some of the things I found most fascinating is that the idea of God in Hindu is compounded and how they worship. There is one Supreme God and his form is unlimited. The Supreme God’s qualities and forms are represented by the numerous deities that stem from him. The deities God can form can be either male or female, allowing Hindus to pray to a god or goddess.