Conceptions of God
Main articles: Conceptions of God and Image of God
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.
General conceptions about God
The first recordings that survive of monotheistic conceptions of God, borne out of henotheism and (mostly in Eastern religions) monism, are from the Hellenistic period. Of the many objects and entities that religions and other belief systems across the ages have labeled as divine, the one criterion they share is their acknowledgement as divine by a group or groups of human beings.
Specific conceptions
God is absolutely other than His creation. The Creator cannot by any means be the same kind of being as that which He created. Although this is self-evident to sense and reason, some people still ask why we cannot directly see God.
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.
Atheism and Non-theistic views
Non-theist views about God also vary. Some non-theists avoid the concept of God, whilst accepting that it is significant to many; other non-theists understand God as a symbol of human values and aspirations.
General atheism conceptsAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.
Related positionsAnthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Agnosticism is the view that the truth values of certain claims – especially metaphysical and religious claims such as whether God, the divine or the supernatural exist – are unknown and perhaps unknowable. |
History of atheismWhat type of thing is atheism?
Types of atheism
Atheism publicationsPersons influential in atheism |

Snowy, foggy forrest
God’s Attributes
Different religious traditions assign differing (though often similar) attributes and characteristics to God, including expansive powers and abilities, psychological characteristics, gender characteristics, and preferred nomenclature. The assignment of these attributes often differs according to the conceptions of God in the culture from which they arise. For example, attributes of God in Christianity, attributes of God in Islam, and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in Judaism share certain similarities arising from their common roots.
Main articles: The Attributes of God
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- Essence
- What are Essence and Attributes of God, Can We Describe Him?
- Attributes of God in Christianity
- Grace in Christianity
- Mission of God
- The Attributes Of God According To The Old Testament
- Thirteen Attributes of Mercy
- Divine Providence in Judaism
- Attributes of God in Islam
- God, His Essence And Attributes
The philosophy of religion recognizes the following as essential attributes of God:
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Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Gender of God
The gender of God may be viewed as either a literal or an allegorical aspect of a deity who, in classical western philosophy, transcends bodily form. Polytheistic religions commonly attribute to each of the gods a gender, allowing each to interact with any of the others, and perhaps with humans, sexually. In most monotheistic religions, God has no counterpart with which to relate sexually. Thus, in classical western philosophy the gender of this one-and-only deity is most likely to be an analogical statement of how humans and God address, and relate to, each other. Namely, God is seen as begetter of the world and revelation which corresponds to the active (as opposed to the receptive) role in sexual intercourse.
- Gender and Religion
- Gender of God in Judaism
- Shekhinah (the presence of God is feminine)
- Gender of God in Christianity
- Jesus Christ
- Holy Wisdom (feminine)
- Christ the Logos
- Trinity (implicitly invoke masculine sex)
- God the Father (masculine)
- God the Son (masculine)
- God the Holy Spirit (feminine and masculine)
- Heavenly Mother (Mormonism)
- Gender of the Holy Spirit
- God and gender in Hinduism
- Gender of God in Sikhism
- God in Islam
- (Allah is gender-neutral )
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