God
n.
Supreme Being, creator and ruler of the universe (according to the tenets of monotheistic religions)
god
n.
being conceived to have supernatural powers and authority
God
This article is about the term "God" in the context of monotheism and henotheism. See
Deity,
god (male deity) or
goddess for details on polytheistic usages. For other uses, see
God (disambiguation)God (IPA English pronunciation: gɑd) most commonly refers to the
deity worshipped by followers of
monotheistic and
monolatrist religions, whom they believe to be the
creator and ruler of the
universe.
Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the various
conceptions of God. The most common among these include
omniscience,
omnipotence,
omnipresence, perfect
goodness, divine
simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being
incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all
moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent". These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early
Jewish,
Christian and
Muslim theologian philosophers, including
Augustine of Hippo,
Al-Ghazali, and
Maimonides. Many notable
medieval philosophers developed arguments for the
existence of God, attempting to wrestle with the apparent
contradictions implied by many of these attributes. Philosophers have developed many arguments for and against the
existence of God.
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Göd
God
n.
God, Supreme Being, creator and ruler of the universe; being conceived to have supernatural powers and authority
god
interj.
god! (exclamation of exasperation or irritation)
God
(v. t.)
To treat as a god; to idolize.
(n.)
The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah.
(n.)
Figuratively applied to one who wields great or despotic power.
(n.)
A person or thing deified and honored as the chief good; an object of supreme regard.
(n.)
A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol.
(a. & n.)
Good.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
God
God In its widest sense, the origin and root of all that is. Absolute being may be regarded perhaps as one equivalent expression, but even being itself may be regarded as a condition or attribute, and beyond it we must therefore postulate be-ness. The idea of a root or origin sometimes connotes supreme power and governance; but such conception of a rootless root or infinite origin does not exist, for whatever is, or has been, or ever will be, must ultimately spring from the womb of boundless infinitude, and we can speak only of a power and governance in connection with the subordinate or minor -- however supernal or sublime they may be -- which spring forth from the Boundless in virtually infinite numbers through beginningless and endless duration.
Monotheists recognize but one God, conceived as a supreme personality and usually endowed with attributes pertaining to human personality, this mental image of God therefore being but a reflection of the human mind, with its inherent limitations and biases; yet even monotheists tacitly recognize other gods under the name of natural forces. Polytheism recognizes hierarchies of divine beings, and pantheism discerns divine power as everywhere and eternally present. The human being also in essence is a divinity. The attribution of personality to God is justly regarded as an inadmissible limitation; but there is a lack of clearness as to the meaning of such words as personality, self, and individuality, which unfortunately leads some monotheistic minds to the fear that the denial of personality will reduce the conception of divinity to merely an empty abstraction.
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Deity
Deity or God. Intelligence and will superior to the human, forming the intelligent and vital governing essence of the universe, whether this universe be large or small. The principal views as to the nature of deity may be classed as
1) pantheistic,
2) polytheistic,
3) henotheistic, and
4) monotheistic.
Pantheism, which views the divine as immanent in all nature and yet transcendent in its higher parts, is characteristic of certain Occidental philosophical systems and of all Oriental systems. Polytheism implies the recognition of an indefinite number of deific powers in the universe, the plural manifestations of the ever immanent, ever perduring, and manifest-unmanifest One. Polytheism is thus a logical development of pantheism. Henotheism is the belief in one god, but not the exclusion of others, such as is found in the Jewish scriptures, where the ancient Hebrews frankly worshiped a tribal deity and fully recognized the existence of other tribal deities. Monotheism is the belief in only one god, as is found in Christianity and Islam. These religions, in inheriting the Jewish tradition, have confounded this merely personal and local conception with the First Cause of the universe, which in theosophy would be called the formative cosmic Third Logos, thus producing an inconsistent idea of a God who is both infinite, delimited, and personal in character, with an intuition, however, of the necessarily impersonal cosmic intelligent root of all.
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Gods
God(s) and Goddess(es) A generalizing term signifying all self-conscious entities superior to humankind, most often restricted to the three dhyani-chohanic kingdoms. The gods have differing places in nature's hierarchical scheme, running through innumerable grades of cosmic intelligences. Theosophy teaches that human beings who successfully reach the seventh round on this earth chain will pass, at the conclusion of this last round, into the kingdom superior to the human, that of the lowest dhyani-chohans.
One function of dhyani-chohans (gods or demigods of a lower type) is the watching over of all hierarchies below them, some being guardians of the human host, others guarding and protecting the less evolved kingdoms. The higher hierarchical ranges of gods or divinities in our universe "are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as Gods, and collectively -- God. . . . To the highest, we are taught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth; which progeny is indissoluble linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us" (SD 1:133).
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