In monotheistic thought, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and the principal object of faith. The concept of God, as described
by theologians, commonly includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, and as having an
eternal and necessary existence. Many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving.
God is most often held to be incorporeal, although many religions describe God using masculine terminology, using such terms as
"Him" or "Father" and some religions attribute only a purely grammatical "gender" to God. Incorporeity and corporeity of God are
related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the "immanent transcendence" of
Chinese theology.
God has been conceived as either personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism,
God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to
exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. God has also been conceived as the source of all
moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent". or a perennial philosophy, which postulates that there is one underlying
theological truth, of which all religions express a partial understanding, and as to which "the devout in the various great world religions
are in fact worshipping that one God, but through different, overlapping concepts or mental images of Him."
There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about God's identity and attributes. In the
ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the
one "true" Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, "He Who Is", "I Am that I Am", and the
tetragrammaton YHWH are used as names of God, while Yahweh and Jehovah are sometimes used in Christianity as vocalizations of
YHWH. In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, the latter of which is believed by some scholars to
descend from the Egyptian Aten. In Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In
Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the
universe, intrinsic to it and constantly ordaining it. Other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Bahá'í Faith,
Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.
Etymology and usage
The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is
derived from the Proto-Germanic ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form was likely based on the root, which meant
either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for God were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process
of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the words became a masculine syntactic
form.
In the English language, capitalization is used for names by which a god is known, including 'God'. Consequently, the capitalized form
of god is not used for multiple gods or when used to refer to the generic idea of a deity.
The English word God and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant
differences between religions, the term remains an English translation common to all. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism,
God is also given a proper name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh.
In many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton.
Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning "The God", while "ʾilāh"
is the term used for a deity or a god in general. God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which
emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari.
Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå,
reflects Proto-Iranian Mazdāh . It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means
"intelligence" or "wisdom". Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European
mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning "placing one's mind ", hence "wise".
Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means "Wonderful Teacher" in the Punjabi language. Vāhi means
"wonderful" and guru is a term denoting "teacher". Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all
descriptions. The most common usage of the word "Waheguru" is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other:
Baha, the "greatest" name for God in the Baha'i faith, is Arabic for "All-Glorious".
General conceptions
There is no clear consensus on the nature or even the existence of God. The Abrahamic conceptions of God include the monotheistic
definition of God in Judaism, the trinitarian view of Christians, and the Islamic concept of God.
The dharmic religions differ in their view of the divine: views of God in Hinduism vary by region, sect, and caste, ranging from
monotheistic to polytheistic. Many polytheistic religions share the idea of a creator deity, though having a name other than "God" and
without all of the other roles attributed to a singular God by monotheistic religions. Jainism is and non-creationist. Depending on one's
interpretation and tradition, Buddhism can be conceived as being either atheistic, non-theistic, pantheistic, panentheistic, or polytheistic.
Oneness
Monotheists hold that there is only one god, and may claim that the one true god is worshiped in different religions under different
names. The view that all theists actually worship the same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in Hinduism and
Sikhism. In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity describes God as one God in three persons. The Trinity comprises The Father, The
Son, and The Holy Spirit. Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhid . God is described in the Quran as: "Say: He is Allah, the One
and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." Muslims repudiate the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or
equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, and are not expected to visualize God.
Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities.
Theism, deism and pantheism
Theism generally holds that God exists realistically, objectively, and independently of human thought; that God created and sustains
everything; that God is omnipotent and eternal; and that God is personal and interacting with the universe through, for example,
religious experience and the prayers of humans. Theism holds that God is both transcendent and immanent; thus, God is simultaneously
infinite and, in some way, present in the affairs of the world. Not all theists subscribe to all of these propositions, but each usually
subscribes to some of them .Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent: God exists, but does not intervene in the world beyond what
was necessary to create it. Pandeism is proposed to explain as to Deism why God would create a universe and then abandon it, and as to
Pantheism, the origin and purpose of the universe.
Pantheism holds that God is the universe and the universe is God, whereas Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to,
the Universe. It is also the view of the Liberal Catholic Church; Theosophy; some views of Hinduism except Vaishnavism, which
believes in panentheism; Sikhism; some divisions of Neopaganism and Taoism, along with many varying denominations and
individuals within denominations. Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, paints a pantheistic/panentheistic view of God—which has wide
acceptance in Hasidic Judaism, particularly from their founder The Baal Shem Tov—but only as an addition to the Jewish view of a
personal god, not in the original pantheistic sense that denies or limits persona to God.
Other concepts
Dystheism, which is related to theodicy, is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a
consequence of the problem of evil. One such example comes from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, in which Ivan Karamazov
rejects God on the grounds that he allows children to suffer.
In modern times, some more abstract concepts have been developed, such as process theology and open theism. The contemporaneous
French philosopher Michel Henry has however proposed a phenomenological approach and definition of God as phenomenological
essence of Life.
God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable
existent". and Al-Ghazali, respectively.
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. The nineteenth-century English atheist Charles Bradlaugh
declared that he refused to say "There is no God", because "the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation";
he said more specifically that he disbelieved in the Christian god. Stephen Jay Gould proposed an approach dividing the world of
philosophy into what he called "non-overlapping magisteria" . In this view, questions of the supernatural, such as those relating to the
existence and nature of God, are non-empirical and are the proper domain of theology. The methods of science should then be used to
answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and
moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events
makes science the sole player in the natural world.
Another view, advanced by Richard Dawkins, is that the existence of God is an empirical question, on the grounds that "a universe with
a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference." Carl Sagan argued
that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that
could disprove the existence of a Creator would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old.
Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their book, The Grand Design, that it is reasonable to ask who or what
created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors
claim however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.
Agnosticism and atheism
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.
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities, or a God. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the
position that there are no deities.
Anthropomorphism
Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings
tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites
examples from Greek mythology, which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems.
Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics'
epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries.
Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of the world because it makes
those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father.
Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include
supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups,
they may have created gods as a means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip
or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by
including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more
cooperative groups.
Existence
Arguments about the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Different views include that: "God
does not exist" ; "God almost certainly does not exist" ; "no one knows whether God exists" ;"God exists, but this cannot be proven or
disproven" ; and that "God exists and this can be proven" . Some of the most notable arguments are the Five Ways of Aquinas, the
Argument from desire proposed by C.S. Lewis, and the Ontological Argument formulated both by St. Anselm and René Descartes.
St. Anselm's approach was to define God as, "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Famed pantheist philosopher Baruch
Spinoza would later carry this idea to its extreme: "By God I understand a being absolutely infinite, i.e., a substance consisting of
infinite attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence." For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe is made
of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature. His proof for the existence of God was a variation of the Ontological argument.
Scientist Isaac Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.
Nevertheless, he rejected polymath Leibniz' thesis that God would necessarily make a perfect world which requires no intervention
from the creator. In Query 31 of the Opticks, Newton simultaneously made an argument from design and for the necessity of
intervention:St. Thomas believed that the existence of God is self-evident in itself, but not to us. "Therefore I say that this proposition,
"God exists", of itself is self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject.... Now because we do not know the essence of God,
the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their
nature—namely, by effects."
St. Thomas believed that the existence of God can be demonstrated. Briefly in the Summa theologiae and more extensively in the
Summa contra Gentiles, he considered in great detail five arguments for the existence of God, widely known as the quinque viae .
# Motion: Some things undoubtedly move, though cannot cause their own motion. Since there can be no infinite chain of causes of
motion, there must be a First Mover not moved by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
# Causation: As in the case of motion, nothing can cause itself, and an infinite chain of causation is impossible, so there must be a First
Cause, called God.
# Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not
everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to
suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause for other things to exist.
# Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative that
is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God .
# Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without
awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God .
Some theologians, such as the scientist and theologian A.E. McGrath, argue that the existence of God is not a question that can be
answered using the scientific method. Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argues that science and religion are not in conflict and do not
overlap.
Some findings in the fields of cosmology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience are interpreted by some atheists as evidence that God
is an imaginary entity only, with no basis in reality. These atheists claim that a single, omniscient God who is imagined to have created
the universe and is particularly attentive to the lives of humans has been imagined, embellished and promulgated in a trans-generational
manner. Richard Dawkins interprets such findings not only as a lack of evidence for the material existence of such a God, but as
extensive evidence to the contrary.
Specific attributes
Different religious traditions assign differing 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.
Names
The word God is "one of the most complex and difficult in the English language." In the Judeo-Christian tradition, "the Bible has been
the principal source of the conceptions of God". That the Bible "includes many different images, concepts, and ways of thinking about"
God has resulted in perpetual "disagreements about how God is to be conceived and understood".
Throughout the Hebrew and Christian Bibles there are many names for God. One of them is Elohim. Another one is El Shaddai,
translated "God Almighty". A third notable name is El Elyon, which means "The High God".
God is described and referred in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman, meaning
"Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful" .The Brahma Kumaris use the term "Supreme Soul" to refer to God.
They see God as incorporeal and eternal, and regard him as a point of living light like human souls, but without a physical body, as he
does not enter the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. God is seen as the perfect and constant embodiment of all virtues, powers and values
and that He is the unconditionally loving Father of all souls, irrespective of their religion, gender, or culture.
Vaishnavism, a tradition in Hinduism, has list of titles and names of Krishna.
Gender
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 role in sexual
intercourse.
Biblical sources usually refer to God using male words, except,, and ;,,,,, ; ; and and .
Relationship with creation
Prayer plays a significant role among many believers. Muslims believe that the purpose of existence is to worship God. He is viewed as
a personal God and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God. Prayer often also includes supplication and asking
forgiveness. God is often believed to be forgiving. For example, a hadith states God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned
but still asked repentance. Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that there are good reasons to suggest that a "personal god" is
integral to the Christian outlook, but that one has to understand it is an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine
ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe."
Adherents of different religions generally disagree as to how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind, if there is one.
There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view is taken by exclusivists, who
believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine,
which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism. A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right
one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism, i.e., the
belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism, where everybody is seen as
equally right; an example being universalism: the doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is
syncretism, mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement.
Jews and Christians believe that humans are created in the likeness of God, and are the center, crown and key to God's creation,
stewards for God, supreme over everything else God had made ; for this reason, humans are in Christianity called the "Children of
God".
Depiction
God is defined as incorporeal, In some samples of Jewish Art, however, sometimes God, or at least His Intervention, is indicated by a
Hand Of God symbol, which represents the bath Kol or Voice of God;.
Christianity
Early Christians believed that the words of the Gospel of John 1:18: "No man has seen God at any time" and numerous other statements
were meant to apply not only to God, but to all attempts at the depiction of God.
However, later depictions are found. Some, like the Hand of God, are depiction borrowed from Jewish art.
The beginning of the 8th century witnessed the suppression and destruction of religious icons as the period of Byzantine iconoclasm
started. The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 effectively ended the first period of Byzantine iconoclasm and restored the honouring of
icons and holy images in general. However, this did not immediately translate into large scale depictions of God the Father. Even
supporters of the use of icons in the 8th century, such as Saint John of Damascus, drew a distinction between images of God the Father
and those of Christ.
Prior to the 10th century no attempt was made to use a human to symbolize God the Father in Western art.
By the 12th century depictions of God the Father had started to appear in French illuminated manuscripts, which as a less public form
could often be more adventurous in their iconography, and in stained glass church windows in England. Initially the head or bust was
usually shown in some form of frame of clouds in the top of the picture space, where the Hand of God had formerly appeared; the
Baptism of Christ on the famous baptismal font in Liège of Rainer of Huy is an example from 1118 . Gradually the amount of the
human symbol shown can increase to a half-length figure, then a full-length, usually enthroned, as in Giotto's fresco of c. 1305 in
Padua. In the 14th century the Naples Bible carried a depiction of God the Father in the Burning bush. By the early 15th century, the
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry has a considerable number of symbols, including an elderly but tall and elegant full-length figure
walking in the Garden of Eden, which show a considerable diversity of apparent ages and dress. The "Gates of Paradise" of the
Florence Baptistry by Lorenzo Ghiberti, begun in 1425 use a similar tall full-length symbol for the Father. The Rohan Book of Hours of
about 1430 also included depictions of God the Father in half-length human form, which were now becoming standard, and the Hand of
God becoming rarer. At the same period other works, like the large Genesis altarpiece by the Hamburg painter Meister Bertram,
continued to use the old depiction of Christ as Logos in Genesis scenes. In the 15th century there was a brief fashion for depicting all
three persons of the Trinity as similar or identical figures with the usual appearance of Christ.
In an early Venetian school Coronation of the Virgin by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, The Father is depicted using the
symbol consistently used by other artists later, namely a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful countenance and with long white hair and
a beard, a depiction largely derived from, and justified by, the near-physical, but still figurative, description of the Ancient of Days.
. ...the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the
fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
In the Annunciation by Benvenuto di Giovanni in 1470, God the Father is portrayed in the red robe and a hat that resembles that of a
Cardinal. However, even in the later part of the 15th century, the symbolic representation of the Father and the Holy Spirit as "hands
and dove" continued, e.g. in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ in 1472.
In Renaissance paintings of the adoration of the Trinity, God may be depicted in two ways, either with emphasis on The Father, or the
three elements of the Trinity. The most usual depiction of the Trinity in Renaissance art depicts God the Father using an old man,
usually with a long beard and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular halo, or with a papal crown, specially in Northern
Renaissance painting. In these depictions The Father may hold a globe or book . He is behind and above Christ on the Cross in the
Throne of Mercy iconography. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit may hover above. Various people from different classes of society,
e.g. kings, popes or martyrs may be present in the picture. In a Trinitarian Pietà, God the Father is often symbolized using a man
wearing a papal dress and a papal crown, supporting the dead Christ in his arms. They are depicted as floating in heaven with angels
who carry the instruments of the Passion.
Representations of God the Father and the Trinity were attacked both by Protestants and within Catholicism, by the Jansenist and
Baianist movements as well as more orthodox theologians. As with other attacks on Catholic imagery, this had the effect both of
reducing Church support for the less central depictions, and strengthening it for the core ones. In the Western Church, the pressure to
restrain religious imagery resulted in the highly influential decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563. The Council of
Trent decrees confirmed the traditional Catholic doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them
was paid to the person, not the image.
Artistic depictions of God the Father were uncontroversial in Catholic art thereafter, but less common depictions of the Trinity were
condemned. In 1745 Pope Benedict XIV explicitly supported the Throne of Mercy depiction, referring to the "Ancient of Days", but in
1786 it was still necessary for Pope Pius VI to issue a papal bull condemning the decision of an Italian church council to remove all
images of the Trinity from churches.
God the Father is symbolized in several Genesis scenes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, most famously The Creation of Adam
.God the Father is depicted as a powerful figure, floating in the clouds in Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in the Frari of Venice, long
admired as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art. The Church of the Gesù in Rome includes a number of 16th century depictions of
God the Father. In some of these paintings the Trinity is still alluded to in terms of three angels, but Giovanni Battista Fiammeri also
depicted God the Father as a man riding on a cloud, above the scenes.
In both the Last Judgment and the Coronation of the Virgin paintings by Rubens he depicted God the Father using the image that by
then had become widely accepted, a bearded patriarchal figure above the fray. In the 17th century, the two Spanish artists Velázquez
and Murillo both depicted God the Father using a patriarchal figure with a white beard in a purple robe.
While representations of God the Father were growing in Italy, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries, there was resistance elsewhere
in Europe, even during the 17th century. In 1632 most members of the Star Chamber court in England condemned the use of the
images of the Trinity in church windows, and some considered them illegal. Later in the 17th century Sir Thomas Browne wrote that he
considered the representation of God the Father using an old man "a dangerous act" that might lead to Egyptian symbolism. In 1847,
Charles Winston was still critical of such images as a "Romish trend" that he considered best avoided in England.
In 1667 the 43rd chapter of the Great Moscow Council specifically included a ban on a number of symbolic depictions of God the
Father and the Holy Spirit, which then also resulted in a whole range of other icons being placed on the forbidden list, mostly affecting
Western-style depictions which had been gaining ground in Orthodox icons. The Council also declared that the person of the Trinity
who was the "Ancient of Days" was Christ, as Logos, not God the Father. However some icons continued to be produced in Russia, as
well as Greece, Romania, and other Orthodox countries.
Theological approaches
Theologians and philosophers have attributed to God such characteristics as omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect
goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of
all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent.
Many philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,
The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God's existence raised by such philosophers
as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response
has been either to contend, as does Alvin Plantinga, that faith is "properly basic", or to take, as does Richard Swinburne, the
evidentialist position. Some theists agree that only some of the arguments for God's existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not
a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God's existence were as solid as the laws of
logic, a position summed up by Pascal as "the heart has reasons of which reason does not know."
Many religious believers allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings such as angels, saints, jinn, demons, and devas.
Thank you
Malla vidyasagar
by theologians, commonly includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, and as having an
eternal and necessary existence. Many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving.
God is most often held to be incorporeal, although many religions describe God using masculine terminology, using such terms as
"Him" or "Father" and some religions attribute only a purely grammatical "gender" to God. Incorporeity and corporeity of God are
related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the "immanent transcendence" of
Chinese theology.
God has been conceived as either personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism,
God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to
exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. God has also been conceived as the source of all
moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent". or a perennial philosophy, which postulates that there is one underlying
theological truth, of which all religions express a partial understanding, and as to which "the devout in the various great world religions
are in fact worshipping that one God, but through different, overlapping concepts or mental images of Him."
There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about God's identity and attributes. In the
ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the
one "true" Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, "He Who Is", "I Am that I Am", and the
tetragrammaton YHWH are used as names of God, while Yahweh and Jehovah are sometimes used in Christianity as vocalizations of
YHWH. In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, the latter of which is believed by some scholars to
descend from the Egyptian Aten. In Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In
Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the
universe, intrinsic to it and constantly ordaining it. Other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Bahá'í Faith,
Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.
Etymology and usage
The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is
derived from the Proto-Germanic ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form was likely based on the root, which meant
either "to call" or "to invoke". The Germanic words for God were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process
of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the words became a masculine syntactic
form.
In the English language, capitalization is used for names by which a god is known, including 'God'. Consequently, the capitalized form
of god is not used for multiple gods or when used to refer to the generic idea of a deity.
The English word God and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant
differences between religions, the term remains an English translation common to all. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism,
God is also given a proper name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh.
In many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton.
Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning "The God", while "ʾilāh"
is the term used for a deity or a god in general. God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which
emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari.
Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå,
reflects Proto-Iranian Mazdāh . It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means
"intelligence" or "wisdom". Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European
mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning "placing one's mind ", hence "wise".
Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means "Wonderful Teacher" in the Punjabi language. Vāhi means
"wonderful" and guru is a term denoting "teacher". Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all
descriptions. The most common usage of the word "Waheguru" is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other:
Baha, the "greatest" name for God in the Baha'i faith, is Arabic for "All-Glorious".
General conceptions
There is no clear consensus on the nature or even the existence of God. The Abrahamic conceptions of God include the monotheistic
definition of God in Judaism, the trinitarian view of Christians, and the Islamic concept of God.
The dharmic religions differ in their view of the divine: views of God in Hinduism vary by region, sect, and caste, ranging from
monotheistic to polytheistic. Many polytheistic religions share the idea of a creator deity, though having a name other than "God" and
without all of the other roles attributed to a singular God by monotheistic religions. Jainism is and non-creationist. Depending on one's
interpretation and tradition, Buddhism can be conceived as being either atheistic, non-theistic, pantheistic, panentheistic, or polytheistic.
Oneness
Monotheists hold that there is only one god, and may claim that the one true god is worshiped in different religions under different
names. The view that all theists actually worship the same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in Hinduism and
Sikhism. In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity describes God as one God in three persons. The Trinity comprises The Father, The
Son, and The Holy Spirit. Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhid . God is described in the Quran as: "Say: He is Allah, the One
and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." Muslims repudiate the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or
equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, and are not expected to visualize God.
Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities.
Theism, deism and pantheism
Theism generally holds that God exists realistically, objectively, and independently of human thought; that God created and sustains
everything; that God is omnipotent and eternal; and that God is personal and interacting with the universe through, for example,
religious experience and the prayers of humans. Theism holds that God is both transcendent and immanent; thus, God is simultaneously
infinite and, in some way, present in the affairs of the world. Not all theists subscribe to all of these propositions, but each usually
subscribes to some of them .Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent: God exists, but does not intervene in the world beyond what
was necessary to create it. Pandeism is proposed to explain as to Deism why God would create a universe and then abandon it, and as to
Pantheism, the origin and purpose of the universe.
Pantheism holds that God is the universe and the universe is God, whereas Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to,
the Universe. It is also the view of the Liberal Catholic Church; Theosophy; some views of Hinduism except Vaishnavism, which
believes in panentheism; Sikhism; some divisions of Neopaganism and Taoism, along with many varying denominations and
individuals within denominations. Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, paints a pantheistic/panentheistic view of God—which has wide
acceptance in Hasidic Judaism, particularly from their founder The Baal Shem Tov—but only as an addition to the Jewish view of a
personal god, not in the original pantheistic sense that denies or limits persona to God.
Other concepts
Dystheism, which is related to theodicy, is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a
consequence of the problem of evil. One such example comes from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, in which Ivan Karamazov
rejects God on the grounds that he allows children to suffer.
In modern times, some more abstract concepts have been developed, such as process theology and open theism. The contemporaneous
French philosopher Michel Henry has however proposed a phenomenological approach and definition of God as phenomenological
essence of Life.
God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable
existent". and Al-Ghazali, respectively.
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. The nineteenth-century English atheist Charles Bradlaugh
declared that he refused to say "There is no God", because "the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation";
he said more specifically that he disbelieved in the Christian god. Stephen Jay Gould proposed an approach dividing the world of
philosophy into what he called "non-overlapping magisteria" . In this view, questions of the supernatural, such as those relating to the
existence and nature of God, are non-empirical and are the proper domain of theology. The methods of science should then be used to
answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and
moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events
makes science the sole player in the natural world.
Another view, advanced by Richard Dawkins, is that the existence of God is an empirical question, on the grounds that "a universe with
a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference." Carl Sagan argued
that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that
could disprove the existence of a Creator would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old.
Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their book, The Grand Design, that it is reasonable to ask who or what
created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors
claim however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.
Agnosticism and atheism
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.
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities, or a God. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the
position that there are no deities.
Anthropomorphism
Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings
tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites
examples from Greek mythology, which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems.
Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics'
epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries.
Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of the world because it makes
those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father.
Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include
supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups,
they may have created gods as a means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip
or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by
including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more
cooperative groups.
Existence
Arguments about the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Different views include that: "God
does not exist" ; "God almost certainly does not exist" ; "no one knows whether God exists" ;"God exists, but this cannot be proven or
disproven" ; and that "God exists and this can be proven" . Some of the most notable arguments are the Five Ways of Aquinas, the
Argument from desire proposed by C.S. Lewis, and the Ontological Argument formulated both by St. Anselm and René Descartes.
St. Anselm's approach was to define God as, "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Famed pantheist philosopher Baruch
Spinoza would later carry this idea to its extreme: "By God I understand a being absolutely infinite, i.e., a substance consisting of
infinite attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence." For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe is made
of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature. His proof for the existence of God was a variation of the Ontological argument.
Scientist Isaac Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.
Nevertheless, he rejected polymath Leibniz' thesis that God would necessarily make a perfect world which requires no intervention
from the creator. In Query 31 of the Opticks, Newton simultaneously made an argument from design and for the necessity of
intervention:St. Thomas believed that the existence of God is self-evident in itself, but not to us. "Therefore I say that this proposition,
"God exists", of itself is self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject.... Now because we do not know the essence of God,
the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their
nature—namely, by effects."
St. Thomas believed that the existence of God can be demonstrated. Briefly in the Summa theologiae and more extensively in the
Summa contra Gentiles, he considered in great detail five arguments for the existence of God, widely known as the quinque viae .
# Motion: Some things undoubtedly move, though cannot cause their own motion. Since there can be no infinite chain of causes of
motion, there must be a First Mover not moved by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
# Causation: As in the case of motion, nothing can cause itself, and an infinite chain of causation is impossible, so there must be a First
Cause, called God.
# Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not
everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to
suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause for other things to exist.
# Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative that
is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God .
# Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without
awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God .
Some theologians, such as the scientist and theologian A.E. McGrath, argue that the existence of God is not a question that can be
answered using the scientific method. Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argues that science and religion are not in conflict and do not
overlap.
Some findings in the fields of cosmology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience are interpreted by some atheists as evidence that God
is an imaginary entity only, with no basis in reality. These atheists claim that a single, omniscient God who is imagined to have created
the universe and is particularly attentive to the lives of humans has been imagined, embellished and promulgated in a trans-generational
manner. Richard Dawkins interprets such findings not only as a lack of evidence for the material existence of such a God, but as
extensive evidence to the contrary.
Specific attributes
Different religious traditions assign differing 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.
Names
The word God is "one of the most complex and difficult in the English language." In the Judeo-Christian tradition, "the Bible has been
the principal source of the conceptions of God". That the Bible "includes many different images, concepts, and ways of thinking about"
God has resulted in perpetual "disagreements about how God is to be conceived and understood".
Throughout the Hebrew and Christian Bibles there are many names for God. One of them is Elohim. Another one is El Shaddai,
translated "God Almighty". A third notable name is El Elyon, which means "The High God".
God is described and referred in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman, meaning
"Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful" .The Brahma Kumaris use the term "Supreme Soul" to refer to God.
They see God as incorporeal and eternal, and regard him as a point of living light like human souls, but without a physical body, as he
does not enter the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. God is seen as the perfect and constant embodiment of all virtues, powers and values
and that He is the unconditionally loving Father of all souls, irrespective of their religion, gender, or culture.
Vaishnavism, a tradition in Hinduism, has list of titles and names of Krishna.
Gender
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 role in sexual
intercourse.
Biblical sources usually refer to God using male words, except,, and ;,,,,, ; ; and and .
Relationship with creation
Prayer plays a significant role among many believers. Muslims believe that the purpose of existence is to worship God. He is viewed as
a personal God and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God. Prayer often also includes supplication and asking
forgiveness. God is often believed to be forgiving. For example, a hadith states God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned
but still asked repentance. Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that there are good reasons to suggest that a "personal god" is
integral to the Christian outlook, but that one has to understand it is an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine
ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe."
Adherents of different religions generally disagree as to how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind, if there is one.
There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view is taken by exclusivists, who
believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine,
which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism. A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right
one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism, i.e., the
belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism, where everybody is seen as
equally right; an example being universalism: the doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is
syncretism, mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement.
Jews and Christians believe that humans are created in the likeness of God, and are the center, crown and key to God's creation,
stewards for God, supreme over everything else God had made ; for this reason, humans are in Christianity called the "Children of
God".
Depiction
God is defined as incorporeal, In some samples of Jewish Art, however, sometimes God, or at least His Intervention, is indicated by a
Hand Of God symbol, which represents the bath Kol or Voice of God;.
Christianity
Early Christians believed that the words of the Gospel of John 1:18: "No man has seen God at any time" and numerous other statements
were meant to apply not only to God, but to all attempts at the depiction of God.
However, later depictions are found. Some, like the Hand of God, are depiction borrowed from Jewish art.
The beginning of the 8th century witnessed the suppression and destruction of religious icons as the period of Byzantine iconoclasm
started. The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 effectively ended the first period of Byzantine iconoclasm and restored the honouring of
icons and holy images in general. However, this did not immediately translate into large scale depictions of God the Father. Even
supporters of the use of icons in the 8th century, such as Saint John of Damascus, drew a distinction between images of God the Father
and those of Christ.
Prior to the 10th century no attempt was made to use a human to symbolize God the Father in Western art.
By the 12th century depictions of God the Father had started to appear in French illuminated manuscripts, which as a less public form
could often be more adventurous in their iconography, and in stained glass church windows in England. Initially the head or bust was
usually shown in some form of frame of clouds in the top of the picture space, where the Hand of God had formerly appeared; the
Baptism of Christ on the famous baptismal font in Liège of Rainer of Huy is an example from 1118 . Gradually the amount of the
human symbol shown can increase to a half-length figure, then a full-length, usually enthroned, as in Giotto's fresco of c. 1305 in
Padua. In the 14th century the Naples Bible carried a depiction of God the Father in the Burning bush. By the early 15th century, the
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry has a considerable number of symbols, including an elderly but tall and elegant full-length figure
walking in the Garden of Eden, which show a considerable diversity of apparent ages and dress. The "Gates of Paradise" of the
Florence Baptistry by Lorenzo Ghiberti, begun in 1425 use a similar tall full-length symbol for the Father. The Rohan Book of Hours of
about 1430 also included depictions of God the Father in half-length human form, which were now becoming standard, and the Hand of
God becoming rarer. At the same period other works, like the large Genesis altarpiece by the Hamburg painter Meister Bertram,
continued to use the old depiction of Christ as Logos in Genesis scenes. In the 15th century there was a brief fashion for depicting all
three persons of the Trinity as similar or identical figures with the usual appearance of Christ.
In an early Venetian school Coronation of the Virgin by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, The Father is depicted using the
symbol consistently used by other artists later, namely a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful countenance and with long white hair and
a beard, a depiction largely derived from, and justified by, the near-physical, but still figurative, description of the Ancient of Days.
. ...the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the
fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
In the Annunciation by Benvenuto di Giovanni in 1470, God the Father is portrayed in the red robe and a hat that resembles that of a
Cardinal. However, even in the later part of the 15th century, the symbolic representation of the Father and the Holy Spirit as "hands
and dove" continued, e.g. in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ in 1472.
In Renaissance paintings of the adoration of the Trinity, God may be depicted in two ways, either with emphasis on The Father, or the
three elements of the Trinity. The most usual depiction of the Trinity in Renaissance art depicts God the Father using an old man,
usually with a long beard and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular halo, or with a papal crown, specially in Northern
Renaissance painting. In these depictions The Father may hold a globe or book . He is behind and above Christ on the Cross in the
Throne of Mercy iconography. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit may hover above. Various people from different classes of society,
e.g. kings, popes or martyrs may be present in the picture. In a Trinitarian Pietà, God the Father is often symbolized using a man
wearing a papal dress and a papal crown, supporting the dead Christ in his arms. They are depicted as floating in heaven with angels
who carry the instruments of the Passion.
Representations of God the Father and the Trinity were attacked both by Protestants and within Catholicism, by the Jansenist and
Baianist movements as well as more orthodox theologians. As with other attacks on Catholic imagery, this had the effect both of
reducing Church support for the less central depictions, and strengthening it for the core ones. In the Western Church, the pressure to
restrain religious imagery resulted in the highly influential decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563. The Council of
Trent decrees confirmed the traditional Catholic doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them
was paid to the person, not the image.
Artistic depictions of God the Father were uncontroversial in Catholic art thereafter, but less common depictions of the Trinity were
condemned. In 1745 Pope Benedict XIV explicitly supported the Throne of Mercy depiction, referring to the "Ancient of Days", but in
1786 it was still necessary for Pope Pius VI to issue a papal bull condemning the decision of an Italian church council to remove all
images of the Trinity from churches.
God the Father is symbolized in several Genesis scenes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, most famously The Creation of Adam
.God the Father is depicted as a powerful figure, floating in the clouds in Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in the Frari of Venice, long
admired as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art. The Church of the Gesù in Rome includes a number of 16th century depictions of
God the Father. In some of these paintings the Trinity is still alluded to in terms of three angels, but Giovanni Battista Fiammeri also
depicted God the Father as a man riding on a cloud, above the scenes.
In both the Last Judgment and the Coronation of the Virgin paintings by Rubens he depicted God the Father using the image that by
then had become widely accepted, a bearded patriarchal figure above the fray. In the 17th century, the two Spanish artists Velázquez
and Murillo both depicted God the Father using a patriarchal figure with a white beard in a purple robe.
While representations of God the Father were growing in Italy, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries, there was resistance elsewhere
in Europe, even during the 17th century. In 1632 most members of the Star Chamber court in England condemned the use of the
images of the Trinity in church windows, and some considered them illegal. Later in the 17th century Sir Thomas Browne wrote that he
considered the representation of God the Father using an old man "a dangerous act" that might lead to Egyptian symbolism. In 1847,
Charles Winston was still critical of such images as a "Romish trend" that he considered best avoided in England.
In 1667 the 43rd chapter of the Great Moscow Council specifically included a ban on a number of symbolic depictions of God the
Father and the Holy Spirit, which then also resulted in a whole range of other icons being placed on the forbidden list, mostly affecting
Western-style depictions which had been gaining ground in Orthodox icons. The Council also declared that the person of the Trinity
who was the "Ancient of Days" was Christ, as Logos, not God the Father. However some icons continued to be produced in Russia, as
well as Greece, Romania, and other Orthodox countries.
Theological approaches
Theologians and philosophers have attributed to God such characteristics as omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect
goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of
all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent.
Many philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,
The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God's existence raised by such philosophers
as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response
has been either to contend, as does Alvin Plantinga, that faith is "properly basic", or to take, as does Richard Swinburne, the
evidentialist position. Some theists agree that only some of the arguments for God's existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not
a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God's existence were as solid as the laws of
logic, a position summed up by Pascal as "the heart has reasons of which reason does not know."
Many religious believers allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings such as angels, saints, jinn, demons, and devas.
Thank you
Malla vidyasagar
