Beliefs about the exact nature of the Divine, and the nature of the relationship between the Divine and humanity are defining elements of any particular religion, and the controversy about which religion holds the truth has endured from the beginning of history up to the present, and shows no sign of abating.
There are a number of different theories about God.
Jews, Muslims and some Christians are unitarian monotheists, while most Christians are trinitarian monotheists. Trinitarian monotheists believe in one god, but believe that this one god exists as three distinct persons who share one divine essence; this belief is called the Trinity. Unitarian monotheists by contrast believe there to be only one person in God; they consider trinitarianism to be in reality a form of tri-theism, not monotheism. Many unitarian monotheists (many Muslims, a few Jews) do not view trinitarianism as monotheism. Mormons hold that the trinity is made of three separate gods, one of whom is a spirit, and two of whom live on other planets in our galaxy; they hold that by following Church rule, human men can literally become gods of their own world. This belief is mainly held in the largest Mormon branch, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, "God" (usually capitalized) is especially used to refer to the single such being held to rule over the universe. There is an ancient monotheistic tradition that began with the first Prophet of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham (or instead, for believers, that began with Adam), according to which there is one god, a Spirit who is the Creator Of The World and possesses the superhuman qualities of Omnipotence? (being all-powerful), Omniscience? (being all-knowing), and (according to the majority of Monotheists?) a concept which might be called Omnibenevolence? (being all-loving). This basic concept is shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, though, of course, it is much embellished by each religion and sects within each religion.
A number of Arguments for the existence of God have been offered; an argument for the thesis that God does not exist is the problem of evil, with the project of Theodicy as a response.
Arguably, Eastern conceptions of The Ultimate (this, too, has many different names) are not conceptions of the divine, though certain Western conceptions of what is at least called "God" (e.g., Spinoza's? pantheistic conception and various kinds of mysticism?) resemble Eastern conceptions of The Ultimate.
The term god is traditionally used to refer to a deity of the male gender, a belief especially common in the Judeo-Christian tradition. (Christianity, Islam and Judaism). Traditionally the term used for a female deity is goddess, a term used today by such faiths as Wicca and Neopaganism. Others view the deity to be neither male nor female, in which case often "god" is used also.
Religions, and often different people within each religion, differ in what gender they believe God to be. One view, which is increasingly common today in Western religions, is that the deity is neither male nor female. This has also been the view of many within traditional Judaism and Christianity.
In Judaism it is a fundamental heresy to say that God has a gender; nonetheless, most of the names for God used by Jews are masculine. Most Orthodox and many Conservative Jews argue that it would be wrong to apply female pronouns to God, not because God is of the male gender, but because the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) uses mainly male names. In Christianity, one person of God, the Son, is believed to have descended as a human male; however the gender of the other two persons of God is not so clear. Like in Judaism, the other two persons (the Father and the Holy Spirit) have traditionally been referred to using male pronouns and have primarily been associated with male imagery; but some Christians today, especially those inspired by feminism, do not consider this tradition to be binding.
Most Neopagan traditions, such as Wicca, believe in both male and female Deities. A few (especially Dianic Wicca) see the Divine as entirely feminine, and call her the Goddess.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam hold that God can communicate His will to mankind; this process is called revelation. The recipient of revelation is termed a prophet. The books of the Tanakh (The Hebrew Bible; aka Old Testmanet) are held to be the product of revelation by Jews; Both the Tanakh and the New Testament are held to be the product of divine revelation by Christians; Muslims consider the Tanakh and the New Testament to be deliberately corrupted and falsified works; Muslims affirm that the Koran is the only work that represents divine revelation. How revelation works, and what precisely one means when one says that a book is "divine" is a matter of some dispute.
Discussions about God between people of different faiths, or indeed even between people of the same faith, are often unproductive, in no small amount due to the fact that people use the same words but assign them different meanings. This situations occurs when when monotheists, such as Christians, Muslims or Jews, state that God is omnipotent. In practice one finds that the term "omnipotent" has been used to connote a number of different positions.
(I) God cannot only supersede the laws of physics and probability, but God can also rewrite logic itself (for example, God could create a square circle, or could make one equal two.)
(II) God can intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics and probability (i.e., God can create miracles), but it is impossible--in fact, it is meaningless--to suggest that God can rewrite the laws of logic.
(III) God originally could intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics (i.e., create miracles); in fact God did do so by creating the Universe. However, God then self-obligated Himself not to do so anymore in order to give mankind free will. Miracles are rare, at best, and always hidden, to prevent man from being overwhelmed by absolute knowledge of God's existence, which could remove free will.
(IV) Omnipotence is sharply limited by neo-Aristotelian philosophers, who independently arose in Judaism, Christianity and Islam during the medieval era, and whose views still are considered normative among the intellectual eltire of these faith communities even today. In this view, God never interrupts the set laws of nature; once set, they are never repealed, for God never changes His mind. These philosophers envisioned a connection between the realm of the physical and the intellectual. All physical events are held to be the results of "intellects", some of which are human, some of which are "angels". These intellects can interact in such a way as to seemingly violate the laws of nature. Since God Himself crated the universe and the laws therein, this is how God works in the world. However, God does not actively intervene in a temporal sense. It has been noted that this view veers away from traditional theism, and moves towards deism.
(V) In Unitarian-Universalism, much of Conservative and Reform Judaism, and some liberal wings of Protestant Christianity, God is said to act in the world through persuasion, and not by coercion. God makes Himself manifest in the world through inspiration and the creation of possibility, and not by miracles or violations of the laws of nature. The most popular works espousing this point are from Harold Kushner (in Judaism). This is the view that also was developed independently by [Albert North Whitehead]? and [Charles Hartshorne]?, in the theological system known as process theology.
See a list of Gods from various religions. See also Goddess.
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