Concept
God
Overview
A supreme deity, supreme being, supreme god, or simply just God (often with capital G), is a deity within theistic belief systems which is believed to be the cause of all things in existence. As such, it is seen as the creator, sustainer, and ruler of the universe. God is often thought of as incorporeal and independent of the material creation.
Conceptions of God vary considerably. Many notable theologians and philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God. In monotheistic religious belief systems, God is usually viewed as the principal foundation of faith. Atheism rejects the belief in God or any other deity. Agnosticism is the belief that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable. Some theists view knowledge concerning God as derived from faith. God is often conceived as the greatest entity in existence. God is sometimes seen as omnibenevolent, while deism holds that God is not involved with humanity apart from creation.
Some traditions attach spiritual significance to maintaining a relationship with God, often involving acts such as worship and prayer, and see God as the source of all moral obligation. God is sometimes described without reference to gender, but more often is referred to using gender-specific terminology. God is referred to by different names depending on the language and cultural tradition, sometimes with different titles of God used in reference to God's various attributes.
Under polytheistic beliefs, a God or god (with lesser case g), is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or to control some part of the universe or life, for which such a deity is often worshipped".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where God is discussed.
Usener agrees with the rival hypothesis in assuming that the exalted celestial deities were not the first of the higher beings who were feared or worshipped in a cult, but that there were other more temporary gods. Though these many temporary gods are described as demoniacal beings, they are nevertheless regarded as gods of a primitive sort. Usener distinguishes three stages in the development of gods. First, there…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; opens on it
are called gods, yet they are not called gods of gods, that is to say, gods of the men who constitute God's people, and to whom it is said, "I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you the children of the Most High." Hence the saying of the apostle, "Though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
names the idea; states what it is; the book is about it; author linked in the graph; opens on it
As we are wont to understand by the term God not merely an eternal nature, the operations of which are insensate and blind, but a Supreme Being, who is the free and intelligent author of all things, and as it is this latter view alone that can be of interest to humanity, we might, in strict rigour, deny to the deist any belief in God at all, and regard him merely as a maintainer of the existence of a primal being or…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
This is all could be inferred from the notion of a God, were it to be found universally in all the tribes of mankind, and generally acknowledged, by men grown to maturity in all countries. For the generality of the acknowledging of a God, as I imagine, is extended no further than that; which, if it be sufficient to prove the idea of God innate, will as well prove the idea of fire innate; since I think it may be…
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
If you believe a God, it must be meant That you conceive this God omnipotent. But God cannot do everything; for, if it were so, then a God could make snow black, and the fire cold, and him that is in a posture of sitting to be upright, and so on the contrary. The brave-speaking Plato pronounceth that God formed the world after his own image; but this smells rank of the old dotages, old comic writers would say; for…
Plutarch, Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3
names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed God
- George Berkeley
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Gilles Deleuze
- Heraclitus
- Lev Shestov
- John Hick
- Immanuel Kant
- Ibn Hazm
- Damascius
- Alexander of Aphrodisias
- Xenocrates
- Victor Cousin
- Anaximenes of Miletus
- Adam Ferguson
- David Ray Griffin
- Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- Siger of Brabant
- Pierre Gassendi
- Meister Eckhart
- Philo
- Joseph de Maistre
- Xenophanes
- Franz Rosenzweig
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Related ideas
- Belief
- E. O. Wilson
- Evangelicalism
- Reformed epistemology
- Jesus
- God in Christianity
- Faith
- Fresco
- Monad (Gnosticism)
- Avicenna
- Gospel of John
- Gnosis
- Hebrew language
- Hinduism
- The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Henotheism
- Isaac Newton
- Alister McGrath
- Al-Ghazali
- Chinese folk religion
- Iconoclasm
- Atheism
- Judaism
- Jainism
Opposing perspectives
- Joseph Campbell
- Transcendence (philosophy)
- Ontology
- Psychophysical parallelism
- Incorporeality
- Foundationalism
- Anthropomorphism
- Kalam
- Asher ben Jehiel
- Gilbert de la Porrée
- Theocentrism
Place in the tradition
Part of Absurdism.