“Windows To Spirituality”
Hinduism Hinduism is an Indian religion and dharma, or way of life, widely practised in the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, “the eternal tradition”, or the “eternal way”, beyond human history. Scholars regard Hinduism as a...
Evolutionary Psychology Of Religion The evolutionary psychology of religion is the study of religious belief using evolutionary psychology principles. It is one approach to the psychology of religion. As with all other organs and organ functions, the brain’s functional structure is argued to have a genetic basis and is therefore subject...
Evolutionary Origin Of Religions The evolutionary origin of religions and religious behavior is a field of study related to evolutionary psychology, the origin of language and mythology, and cross-cultural comparison of the anthropology of religion. Some subjects of interest include Neolithic religion, evidence for spirituality or cultic behavior in the...
God This article covers the definition and meaning of God. God is conceived of as the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheistic thought. The conceptions of God, as described by theologians, commonly include the attributes of omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful), omnipresence (all-present), and omnibenevolent (all-good) as well as having an eternal...
What Is Love? This article covers the answer to the question: “What Is Love?“ Love is the most essential element of every being, and it is the most radiant light, and it is the greatest power; able to resist and overcome all else. Love elevates every soul that absorbs it,...
What Is Happiness? Since the 1960s, happiness research has been conducted in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including gerontology, social psychology, clinical and medical research, and happiness economics. Happiness is used in the context of mental or emotional states, including positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense...
What Is Hell? In religion and folklore, Hell is an afterlife location, sometimes a place of torment and punishment. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations while religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations. Typically these traditions locate hell in...
Luciferianism Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer. The tradition, influenced by Gnosticism, usually reveres Lucifer not as the devil, but as a liberator, a guardian or guiding spirit, or even the true god as opposed to Jehovah. Lucifer as a literary and...
Azazel In the Bible, the name Azazel (עֲזָאזֵל ʿAzāʾzēl; عزازيل, ʿAzāzīl) appears in association with the scapegoat rite; the name represents a desolate place where a scapegoat bearing the sins of the Jews during Yom Kippur was sent. During the end of the Second Temple period, his association as a fallen angel responsible for introducing humans to forbidden knowledge emerged due to...
Ahriman Angra Mainyu (Avestan: Aŋra Mainiiu) is the Avestan-language name of Zoroastrianism‘s hypostasis of the “destructive spirit”. The Middle Persian equivalent is Ahriman (Angra Mainyu is Ahura Mazda’s adversary. In the Avesta In Zoroaster’s revelation Avestan angra mainyu “seems to have been an original conception of Zoroaster’s.” In the Gathas, which are the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and are attributed to the...
Hel (Being) In Norse mythology, Hel (Being) is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the dead. Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In addition,...
Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets. The scientific investigation began shortly after the advent of radio in the early 1900s, and focused international...
Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object observed in the sky that is not readily identified. Most UFOs are later identified as conventional objects or phenomena. The term is widely used for claimed observations of extraterrestrial spacecraft. Terminology The term “UFO” (or “UFOB”) was coined in 1953 by the...
Pentagram A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star. Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia, and are used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans, akin to the use of the cross by Christians and the Star of David by the Jews. The pentagram...
Devil In Christianity In mainstream Christianity, the Devil (or Satan) is a fallen angel who rebelled against God. Satan was expelled from Heaven and sent to Earth. The devil is often identified as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, whose persuasions led to the two corresponding Christian doctrines: the Original Sin and its cure, the Redemption of Jesus Christ. He is also identified as the...
Apep Apep (Apepi or Aapep) or Apophis was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos (ı͗zft in Egyptian) and was thus the opponent of light and Ma’at (order/truth). He appears in art as a giant serpent. His name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāp(ī), as it was written ꜥꜣpp(y) and survived...
War In Heaven The Book of Revelation describes a war in heaven between angels led by the Archangel Michael against those led by “the dragon”, identified as the devil or Satan, who is defeated and thrown down to the earth. Revelation’s war in heaven is related to the idea of fallen angels, and possible parallels have been proposed in the Hebrew...
God As The Devil In Christian heresiology, there have been historical claims that certain Christian sects worshipped God as the devil. This was especially an issue in the reaction of the early Church to Gnosticism and its dualism, where the creator deity is understood as a demiurge subordinate to the actual, transcendent God. See also:...
Prince Of Darkness (Manichaeism) Manichaean cosmology, the world of darkness, which invaded the world of light in a lustful desire to mingle with the light, is ruled by five evil Archons(demon, dragon, eagle, fish and lion), who together make up the Prince of Darkness. The Father of greatness parries the assault by evoking a number of entities, who sacrifice themselves...
Deal With The Devil A deal with the devil (also known as compact or pact with the devil) is a cultural motif, best exemplified by the legend of Faust and the figure of Mephistopheles, as well as being elemental to many Christian traditions. According to traditional Christian belief about witchcraft, the pact is between a person and Satan or a lesser demon. The person offers...
