Deism, Ever Present, and Nontheism
Last week we talked about how to break down religion into four main groups: Theism, Deism, “Ever-Present� and Nontheism. I then broke theism down into its various categories.
Today I’m going to do the same thing with deism, ‘ever-present’ and nontheism.
Deism is the belief that yes, god(s)/being(s) does exist, but god/gods does not interfere with the world/universe. The break down of this category is similar to the breakdown of theism but without quite the ‘black and white’ definitions.
In pandeism, you have the belief that the creator came before the universe, created the universe, and is now on the same level as or is the universe.
In polydeism, many gods came together to create the universe, but after it was created, they stopped interacting with it.
“Ever-present� – a term I made up – describes the broader belief that gods/beings are present in everything. This category can be broken down into four subcategories:
Pantheism takes away the division between god and the universe, making them equally one.
Panentheism, similar to pantheism, also believes that the universe and god are joined together. However, this belief puts god as greater than the universe.
Cosmotheism is a combination of both man and creator. This belief is that the cosmos and man are essentially one. What man wants, the cosmos want, and vice versa.
Animism, put simply, is the belief that everything has a soul and is thus important at some level.
Nontheism is broken down into Atheism and Agnosticism, which I have talked about before here
As you can see, there is a lot to religion even at a broader level than individual religions. That’s why I wanted to explore the broader categories before getting into the individual religions. In future posts, I will begin exploring individual religions.
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