Deity Series - Which religion?

 Hi all,

In today's post, we are going to look at different religions from around the globe, then in later posts, we will plunge more deeply into each religion and culture, and then into each deity themselves, so we are in for a long ride, are you joining us?

First of all, definitions:

(Joys of holding an English Degree means that I love delving into origins of words. Please just humour me!!)

I thought that I would start with differences, so I did an internet search for 'how many 'theisms' are there?' Then realised I needed more coffee!

So, coffee made, here goes: 

First I discovered that Theism as a term was first used in the 17th Century as an opposition to atheism (see below), and simply means a belief in one or more gods

• Monotheism - belief in one supreme deity
• Polytheism - belief in many deities
• Ditheism - belief in two equal supreme deities
• Atheism - belief in NO deities
• Agnostictheism - a hotly debated term, loosely means one who is unsure of the existence of any deities at all, and demands proof of existence (don't make me quote Douglas Adams!!)
• Pantheism - a belief that God is the Universe; or a belief in or tolerance of many Gods.

Monotheistic Religions include:

• Judaism - the original Abrahamic religion, has God (other names are considered too Holy, so I will NOT put them here) CLOSED PRACTICE!!
• Christianity - Has one God, although this is often divided into 'father, son, Holy spirit'
• Islam - Another Abrahamic religion, recognising the Gods of other religions as prophets of their God, also called Allah.
• Baha'i Faith - (Iranian) Another Abrahamic religion, believing that Allah or God sends manifestations of himself down to Earth to communicate His will. 
• Rastafari - famed for their dreadlocks, Rastafarians call their God Jah (a contraction of one of the Judaist names for God) and believe he incarnates on Earth, Jesus being one and Haile Selasie another incarnation. 
• Zoroastrianism - a non-Abrahamic religion founded in Ancient Persia in the 6th Century BCE, by Zoroaster, their deity is Ahura Mazda. (Interesting side note - Freddie Mercury was born into this faith)
• Sikhism - Waheguru is the name of their deity, and they realise that other religions may have different names for him.
• Vodou - practitioners accept the existence of a single God named Bondye. CLOSED PRACTICE!!
• Eckankar - founded in the USA in 1965, Eckists believe that all souls are a fragment of a God called Hu.
• Tenrikyo - Eastern religion teaches that humanity is the metaphorical child of God the Parent, called Tenri-O-no-Mikoto.

This list is a lot longer than I thought it would be, I must admit! Now onto

Polytheistic Religions:

• Animism - already covered in an earlier post on, of all things, Animism!
• Buddhism- although this is based on the teachings of one man (Siddartha Gautama 600BCE), many Buddhist practitioners believe in multiple deities. 
• Hinduism - the third largest religion in the world, as far back as 5000 CE it was practiced in the Indus Valley, and includes Vedic teachings.
• Shintoism - official religion of Japan, often practiced alongside Buddhism. Similar to Animism, it believes all things have a spirit, and ancestor worship is very important. It does not focus on an afterlife (although many practitioners believe in one) and has no written scripture.
• Finnish Paganism - evolving from a form of Shamanism, but having no official name, this polytheistic religion was practised in the Finnish regions until the area was Christianised.
• Canaanites - (a race of people) an unnamed polytheistic religion mentioned in the both Torah and Bible, practiced in Syria and surrounding areas in ancient times
• Atenism - Strictly speaking, this falls under Egyptian religious practices, but is big enough to garner its own section - and it became monotheistic. Aten was the Sun-Disc, we'll get into this during one of the Egypt segments.
• Minoan Religion - yet another religion without a true name, practiced by the Minoan people of Crete, and one of the few matriarchal religions, having a female nature goddess and many animal representations in their practices.

Many ancient cultures also practiced polytheism. Among these are:

• Egypt
• Greek
• Roman
• Norse
• Gaelic
• Aztec
• Mayan
• Inca
• Persian
• Babylonian
• Mesopotamian
• Phoenician

I'm sure that Gnosticism gets in there somewhere too....?

So, as you can see, we have our work well and truly cut out for us with the Deity Series. 

Any that we have missed that you would like covered in future posts, please drop us a line in the comments below, hopefully giving us enough time to research!

Kerenza x

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