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| '''Monotheism''' is the belief in a single, universal, all-encompassing ]. Various forms of monotheism exist, including: | |||
| *], a term that usually refers to the belief in a 'personal' god, that is a single god with a distinctive personality, rather than just a divine force. | |||
| * ] is a form of monotheism in which it is believed that one god exists, but that God does not intervene in the world, beyond what was necessary for him to create it (no answering prayers or causing ]s). | |||
| *] holds that the ] is God. Depending on how this is understood, such a view may be tantamount to atheism, deism or theism. | |||
| *] is a form of theism that holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe. This is also the view of ]. | |||
| In contrast, see ], which holds that there are many gods. ] teaches that there are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, the one good, and the other evil, as set forth especially in ], but more fully in its later offshoots in ] systems, such as ]. | |||
| Most monotheists would say that, by definition, monotheism is incompatible with ]. However, devotees within polytheistic religious traditions often behave like monotheists. This is because a belief in multiple gods does not imply the worship of multiple gods. Historically, many polytheists believe in the existence of many gods, but worship only one. This practice is termed ]. There are also monotheistic theologies within polytheistic cultures, such as some schools of thought within ] which teach that the many gods merely represent aspects of a single or underlying divine power. Worship of a single god within a pantheon may also evolve into a form of monotheism, as in the case of the ] cult in the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh ]. | |||
| ] is considered by some to be the earliest monotheistic view to have evolved among mankind, though it is not fully so, as the chief god ] is not the sole creator. It has been theorized that Judaism was influenced by Zoroastrianism as well as by Greek philosophy before arriving at its modern monotheistic view of God. Earlier Judaism is assumed to have claimed only that ] was a tribal deity who took care of the descendents of ]. This view is not compatible with the self-understanding of the ] - ], ], ] - which traditionally insist that exclusive monotheism is the original religion of all mankind, all other gods being viewed as idols and creatures which wrongly came to be worshipped as deities. | |||
| The Christian belief in the ] is monotheism, the worship of the one God of Abraham according to Trinitarian tradition. However, many Jews, Muslims, and ] Christians question this classification. Such critics claim that the Trinity is in fact a form of ], a hypothetical belief system which teaches that there are three gods -- that is, that ] are, specifically, three distinct Gods. | |||
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| See also: | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||