Agnostic Atheism Agnostic atheism is a philosophical position that encompasses both atheism and agnosticism. Agnostic atheists are atheistic because they do not hold a belief in the existence of any deity, and are agnostic because they claim that the existence of a deity is either unknowable in principle or currently unknown in fact. The agnostic atheist may be...
Nontheism Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in a God or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subject of God and differs from an antithetical, explicit atheism. Nontheism does not necessarily describe atheism or disbelief in God; it...
Process Theology Process theology is a type of theology developed from Alfred North Whitehead‘s (1861–1947) process philosophy, most notably by Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) and John B. Cobb (b. 1925). Process theology and process philosophy are collectively referred to as “process thought”. For both Whitehead and Hartshorne, it is an essential attribute of God to affect and be...
Problem Of Religious Language The problem of religious language considers whether it is possible to talk about God meaningfully if the traditional conceptions of God as being incorporeal, infinite, and timeless, are accepted. Because these traditional conceptions of God make it difficult to describe God, religious language has the potential to be meaningless. Theories...
Aristotelian Theology Aristotelian theology and the scholastic view of God have been influential in Western intellectual history. Metaphysics Main articles: Metaphysics (Aristotle) and Unmoved movers In his first philosophy, later called the Metaphysics, (or “after the Physics”), Aristotle discusses the meaning of being as being. He refers to the unmoved movers (hyperagents), and assigns one to each movement in the...
Dying And Rising Deity A dying and rising deity, death and rebirth deity, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is resurrected. “Death or departure of the gods” is motif A192 in Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1932), while “resurrection of gods” is motif A193. Examples of gods...
God In Sikhism Sikhism is a monotheistic religion and hence, believes that “God” is One, and prevails in everything, as symbolized by the symbol Ik Onkar (one all pervading spirit). The fundamental belief of Sikhism is that God exists, indescribable yet knowable and perceivable to anyone who surrenders his egoism and Loves the Almighty. The Sikh...
Existence Of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God can be categorized as metaphysical, logical, empirical, or subjective. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God...
Theism Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with deism, the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to as classical theism) – or gods found in polytheistic...
What is Henotheism? Henotheism (meaning ‘one god‘) is the worship of a single god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks. Max Müller (1823–1900), a German philologist and orientalist, brought the term into wider usage in his...
Monotheism Monotheism is defined as the belief in the existence of only one god that created the world, is all-powerful and intervenes in the world. A broader definition of monotheism is the belief in one god. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive monotheism and pluriform (panentheistic) monotheism which, while...
Conceptions 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...
Argument From Free Will The argument from free will, also called the paradox of free will or theological fatalism, contends that omniscience and free will are incompatible and that any conception of God that incorporates both properties is therefore inherently contradictory. These arguments are deeply concerned with the implications of predestination. Omniscience and free will...
What Is Agnosticism? Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, of the divine, or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. The English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, and said “It simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no...
Divine Trinity This article covers the Divine Trinity. One of the first things that a Catholic mother teaches her young child in the way of prayer is the sign of the cross. She shows the young one how to bless himself, while at the same time pronouncing the names of...
What is Dualism? Dualism (from the Latin word duo meaning “two”) denotes a state of two parts. The term ‘dualism‘ was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can...
Negative And Positive Atheism This article covers the negative and positive Atheism. Negative atheism also called weak atheism and soft atheism is any type of atheism where a person does not believe in the existence of any deities but does not explicitly assert that there are none. Positive atheism also called strong atheism and hard atheism in the form...
What Is Apatheism? Apatheism (a portmanteau of apathy and theism) is the attitude of apathy towards the existence or non-existence of god(s). It is more of an attitude rather than a belief, claim, or belief system. An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods exist or do...