Views of the Divine:
- Judaism – Monotheism. One person, one nature. God is transcendent and he is called Yahweh.
- Islam – Monotheism. One person, one nature. God is transcendent and he is Allah.
- Christianity – Monotheism. Three persons, one nature. God is transcendent and exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- Hinduism – Polytheism/Pantheism. There is an extensive number of gods and goddesses that can be worshiped. Yet those gods, as well as all things, are at their core existent of the same divine essence, called Brahman.
- Buddhism – No God/Irrelevant. The Buddha denied Brahman and the individual soul as he split from the teachings of Hinduism. Irrelevance, or ambivalence, best describes the Buddha’s doctrine of God. Belief and worship in God can actually be a hindrance to reaching nirvana because following a Supreme Power produces fear, as explained by the Buddha in the Dhammapada verse 188, “Men in their fear fly for refuge to mountains or forests, groves, sacred trees or shrines.” Instead of from a God of sorts, refuge comes from the Four Noble Truths.
- Wicca – Pantheism and other views. Everything is the manifestation of the divine, which is associated as being of the female sex, being called the Goddess. Some descriptions of the Goddess give the impression of energy, like the Force in Star Wars that connects all things. Although some Wiccans are monotheistic, and others say there is both a transcendent God and Goddess, and some say that both the God and Goddess are one, being of the same divine essence.
- Scientology – There is a Supreme Being, but “the Church of Scientology has no set dogma concerning God that it imposes on its members.” One’s view of God is contingent upon each individual’s “level of spiritual awareness.” (Scientology.org)
- Laveyan Satanism – Each man is his own God.
- Atheism – No God.
Andy Wrasman 