deity

{{main|Dyeus|Deus|God (word)|Deva (Hinduism)}}

The English language word deity derives from Old French {{lang|fro|deité}},{{cite book|last1=Hoad|first1=T. F.|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology|date=2008|publisher=Paw Prints|isbn=978-1-4395-0571-7|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=CDaPuAAACAAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{Page needed|date=June 2017}} the Latin {{lang|la|deitatem}} (nominative {{lang|la|deitas}}) or "divine nature", coined by Augustine of Hippo from {{lang|la|deus}} ("god"). Deus is related through a common Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin to *deiwos.{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=deity |title=Online Etymology Dictionary – Deity |publisher=Etymonline.com |access-date=6 June 2017 |archive-date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818174000/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=deity |url-status=live }} This root yields the ancient Indian word Deva meaning "to gleam, a shining one", from *div- "to shine", as well as Greek {{lang|grc-Latn|dios}} "divine" and Zeus; and Latin {{lang|la|deus}} "god" (Old Latin deivos).{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=deva&searchmode=none |title=Online Etymology Dictionary – Deva |publisher=Etymonline.com |access-date=6 June 2017 |archive-date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818214335/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=deva&searchmode=none |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Zeus&allowed_in_frame=0 |title=Online Etymology Dictionary – Zeus |publisher=Etymonline.com |access-date=6 June 2017 |archive-date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818173500/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Zeus&allowed_in_frame=0 |url-status=live }}{{rp|230–31}} Deva is masculine, and the related feminine equivalent is devi.{{rp|496}} Etymologically, the cognates of Devi are Latin {{lang|la|dea}} and Greek {{lang|grc-Latn|thea}}.{{cite book|last1=Hawley|first1=John Stratton|last2=Wulff|first2=Donna M.|title=Devī: Goddesses of India|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=CZrV3kOpMt0C|page=2}}|year=1998|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1491-2|pages=2, 18–21|edition=1st}} In Old Persian, {{lang|peo-latn|daiva-}} means "demon, evil god", while in Sanskrit it means the opposite, referring to the "heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones".{{rp|496}}{{cite book|last=Klostermaier|first=Klaus K.|title=Survey of Hinduism, A: Third Edition|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=8CVviRghVtIC|page=101}}|date=2010|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8011-3|pages=101–102|edition=3rd}}{{cite book|last1=Mallory|first1=J.P.|last2=Adams|first2=D.Q.|title=The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European world|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-928791-8|pages=418–23|edition=Reprint|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=iNUSDAAAQBAJ|page=418}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

The closely linked term "god" refers to "supreme being, deity", according to Douglas Harper,{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=god&allowed_in_frame=0 |title=Online Etymology Dictionary –\ God |access-date=6 June 2017 |archive-date=30 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730023014/http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=god&allowed_in_frame=0 |url-status=live }} and is derived from Proto-Germanic *guthan, from PIE {{PIE|*ghut-}}, which means "that which is invoked".{{rp|230–231}} {{lang|ga|Guth}} in the Irish language means "voice". The term {{PIE|*ghut-}} is also the source of Old Church Slavonic {{lang|cu|zovo}} ("to call"), Sanskrit {{lang|sa-Latn|huta-}} ("invoked", an epithet of Indra), from the root {{PIE|*gheu(e)-}} ("to call, invoke."),

An alternate etymology for the term "god" comes from the Proto-Germanic Gaut, which traces it to the PIE root {{PIE|*ghu-to-}} ("poured"), derived from the root {{PIE|*gheu-}} ("to pour, pour a libation"). The term {{PIE|*gheu-}} is also the source of the Greek {{lang|grc-Latn|khein}} "to pour". Originally the word "god" and its other Germanic cognates were neuter nouns but shifted to being generally masculine under the influence of Christianity in which the god is typically seen as male.{{rp|230–231}} In contrast, all ancient Indo-European cultures and mythologies recognized both masculine and feminine deities.

File:NASA-HS201427a-HubbleUltraDeepField2014-20140603.jpg believe that the universe itself and everything in it forms a single, all-encompassing deity.{{cite book|last1=Pearsall|first1=Judy|title=The New Oxford Dictionary Of English|date=1998|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-861263-6|page=1341|edition=1st}}{{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Paul|title=Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofph08edwa|url-access=registration|date=1967|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofph08edwa/page/34 34]}}]]

There is no universally accepted consensus on what a deity is, and concepts of deities vary considerably across cultures.{{rp|69–74}}{{cite book|last1=Strazny|first1=Philipp|title=Encyclopedia of Linguistics|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-45522-4|page=1046|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JOMobauYAC|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=4 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604114946/https://books.google.com/books?id=27JOMobauYAC|url-status=live}} Huw Owen states that the term "deity or god or its equivalent in other languages" has a bewildering range of meanings and significance.{{rp|vii-ix}} It has ranged from "infinite transcendent being who created and lords over the universe" (God), to a "finite entity or experience, with special significance or which evokes a special feeling" (god), to "a concept in religious or philosophical context that relates to nature or magnified beings or a supra-mundane realm", to "numerous other usages".{{rp|vii–ix}}

A deity is typically conceptualized as a supernatural or divine concept, manifesting in ideas and knowledge, in a form that combines excellence in some or all aspects, wrestling with weakness and questions in other aspects, heroic in outlook and actions, yet tied up with emotions and desires.{{cite book|last1=Gupta|first1=Bina|last2=Gupta|first2=Professor of Philosophy and Director South Asia Language Area Center Bina|title=An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and Freedom|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=-WepAgAAQBAJ|page=21}}|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-65310-0|pages=21–25}}{{cite book|last=Gupta|first=Bina|title=An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and Freedom|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=2mmpAgAAQBAJ|page=88}}|year= 2012|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-65309-4|pages=88–96}} In other cases, the deity is a principle or reality such as the idea of "soul". The Upanishads of Hinduism, for example, characterize Atman (soul, self) as deva (deity), thereby asserting that the deva and eternal supreme principle (Brahman) is part of every living creature, that this soul is spiritual and divine, and that to realize self-knowledge is to know the supreme.{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Signe|title=Text and Authority in the Older Upaniṣads|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=dUKwCQAAQBAJ|page=40}}|date=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-474-3363-7|pages=40, 219–220, 243–244}}{{cite book|last1=Fowler|first1=Jeaneane|title=Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices|date=1997|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|location=Brighton|isbn=978-1-898723-60-8|pages=10, 17–18, 114–118, 132–133, 149|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=RmGKHu20hA0C|page=10}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book|last1=Choon Kim|first1=Yong|last2=Freeman|first2=David H.|title=Oriental Thought: An Introduction to the Philosophical and Religious Thought of Asia|date=1981|publisher=Littlefield, Adams and Company|location=Totowa, NJ|isbn=978-0-8226-0365-8|pages=15–19|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=omwMQA_DUVEC|page=15}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more deities.{{cite web|title=the definition of theism|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theism?|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=22 January 2018|archive-date=12 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212143951/http://www.dictionary.com/browse/theism|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=theism|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theism|website=Merriam-Webster|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=14 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514194441/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theism|url-status=live}} Polytheism is the belief in and worship of multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, with accompanying rituals.{{cite book|last=Libbrecht |first=Ulrich|title=Within the Four Seas: Introduction to Comparative Philosophy|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=rmT3ZHGxJPgC|page=42}}|year=2007|publisher= Peeters Publishers|isbn=978-90-429-1812-2|page=42}} In most polytheistic religions, the different gods and goddesses are representations of forces of nature or ancestral principles, and can be viewed either as autonomous or as aspects or emanations of a creator God or transcendental absolute principle (monistic theologies), which manifests immanently in nature. Henotheism accepts the existence of more than one deity, but considers all deities as equivalent representations or aspects of the same divine principle, the highest.[https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism Monotheism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229113308/https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism |date=29 December 2017 }} and [https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism Polytheism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111205729/https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism |date=11 November 2020 }}, Encyclopædia Britannica;
{{cite book|author=Louis Shores|title=Collier's Encyclopedia: With Bibliography and Index|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2maKFG4CpMC|year=1963|publisher=Crowell-Collier Publishing|page=179|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002206/https://books.google.com/books?id=E2maKFG4CpMC|url-status=live}}, Quote: "While admitting a plurality of gods, henotheism at the same time affirms the paramount position of some one divine principle."{{cite book|author=Rangar Cline|title=Ancient Angels: Conceptualizing Angeloi in the Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-pZHD6JtR_sC|year=2011|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-19453-3|pages=40–41|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-date=27 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427062942/https://books.google.com/books?id=-pZHD6JtR_sC|url-status=live}} Monolatry is the belief that many deities exist, but that only one of these deities may be validly worshipped.{{cite book|last=Eakin|first=Frank Jr.|title=The Religion and Culture of Israel|location=Boston|publisher=Allyn and Bacon|date=1971|page=70}}, Quote: "Monolatry: The recognition of the existence of many gods but the consistent worship of one deity".{{citation |author-link= Bruce R. McConkie |first= Bruce R. |last= McConkie |title= Mormon Doctrine |edition= 2nd |location= Salt Lake City, UT |publisher= Bookcraft |year= 1979 |page= 351|title-link= Mormon Doctrine }}

Monotheism is the belief that only one deity exists.{{Cite book |publisher=Hutchinson Encyclopedia (12th edition) |title= Monotheism |page=644}}Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.{{cite web|last1=Wainwright|first1=William|title=Monotheism|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/monotheism/|website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=22 January 2018|date=2013|archive-date=7 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407040931/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/monotheism/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last1=Van Baaren|first1=Theodorus P.|title=Monotheism|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229113308/https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=monotheism|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/monotheism|website=Oxford Dictionaries|access-date=22 January 2018|archive-date=3 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903165202/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/monotheism|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=monotheism|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monotheism|website=Merriam-Webster|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=14 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114070404/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monotheism|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=monotheism|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/monotheism|website=Cambridge English Dictionary|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109193832/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/monotheism|url-status=live}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=October 2021}} A monotheistic deity, known as "God", is usually described as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and eternal.Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted (editor). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995. However, not all deities have been regarded this way{{cite book|last1=Beck|first1=Guy L.|title=Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity|date=2005|publisher=State University of New York Press|location= Albany|isbn= 978-0-7914-6415-1| page=169, note 11}}{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=George M.|title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology|date= 2008|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-533261-2|pages=24–35|edition=Reprint}} and an entity does not need to be almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent or eternal to qualify as a deity.

Deism is the belief that only one deity exists, who created the universe, but does not usually intervene in the resulting world.{{cite web|last1=Manuel|first1=Frank Edward|last2=Pailin|first2=David A.|title=Deism|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/156154/Deism|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|date=1999|quote=In general, Deism refers to what can be called natural religion, the acceptance of a certain body of religious knowledge that is inborn in every person or that can be acquired by the use of reason and the rejection of religious knowledge when it is acquired through either revelation or the teaching of any church.|archive-date=1 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501053700/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/156154/Deism|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last1=Kohler|first1=Kaufmann|last2=Hirsch|first2=Emil G.|title=DEISM|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5049-deism|website=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=22 January 2018|date=1906|quote=DEISM: A system of belief which posits God's existence as the cause of all things, and admits His perfection, but rejects Divine revelation and government, proclaiming the all-sufficiency of natural laws.|archive-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109235415/http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5049-deism|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Kurian|first1=George Thomas|title=The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization|date=2008|publisher=Blackwell|location=Malden, MA|isbn=978-0-470-67060-6|quote=Deism is a rationalistic, critical approach to theism with an emphasis on natural theology. The Deists attempted to reduce religion to what they regarded as its most foundational, rationally justifiable elements. Deism is not, strictly speaking, the teaching that God wound up the world like a watch and let it run on its own, though that teaching was embraced by some within the movement.}}{{Page needed|date=January 2018}} Deism was particularly popular among western intellectuals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.{{cite book|last1=Thomsett|first1=Michael C.|title=Heresy in the Roman Catholic Church: A History|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Co.|location=Jefferson|isbn=978-0-7864-8539-0|page=222|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=LDbhV7u1_yIC}}|access-date=22 January 2018}}{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Ellen Judy|last2=Reill|first2=Peter Hanns|title=Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment|date=2004|publisher=Facts On File|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8160-5335-3|pages=146–158|edition=Revised|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=t1pQ4YG-TDIC}}|access-date=22 January 2018}} Pantheism is the belief that the universe itself is God or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent deity. Pandeism is an intermediate position between these, proposing that the creator became a pantheistic universe.{{cite book|author = Sal Restivo|author-link = Sal Restivo|title = Society and the Death of God|year = 2021|isbn = 978-0-3676-3764-4|publisher = Routledge|chapter = The End of God and the Beginning of Inquiry|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ST4oEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|page = 123|quote = In the pandeism argument, an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God creates the universe and in the process becomes the universe and loses his powers to intervene in human affairs.|access-date = 25 April 2021|archive-date = 25 April 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210425040608/https://books.google.com/books?id=ST4oEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|url-status = live}} Panentheism is the belief that divinity pervades the universe, but that it also transcends the universe.{{cite book|last1=Fahlbusch|first1=Erwin|last2=Bromiley|first2=Geoffrey William|title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity|date=2005|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0-8028-2416-5|page=21|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=sCY4sAjTGIYC|page=21}}|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en}} Agnosticism is the position that it is impossible to know for certain whether a deity of any kind exists.{{cite book|last1=Borchert|first1=Donald M.|title=The Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=2006|publisher=Macmillan Reference|location=Detroit|isbn=978-0-02-865780-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofph0000unse/page/92 92]|edition=2nd|quote=In the most general use of the term, agnosticism is the view that we do not know whether there is a God or not.|title-link=Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}{{cite book|last1=Craig|first1=Edward|last2=Floridi|first2=Luciano|title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-07310-3|page=112|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=VQ-GhVWTH84C|page=122}}|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|quote=In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, whereas an atheist disbelieves in God. In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. In so far as one holds that our beliefs are rational only if they are sufficiently supported by human reason, the person who accepts the philosophical position of agnosticism will hold that neither the belief that God exists nor the belief that God does not exist is rational.}}{{cite encyclopedia |dictionary=OED Online, 3rd ed. |entry=agnostic, agnosticism |publisher=Oxford University Press |date= 2012 |quote=agnostic. : A. n[oun]. :# A person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of immaterial things, especially of the existence or nature of God. :# In extended use: a person who is not persuaded by or committed to a particular point of view; a sceptic. Also: person of indeterminate ideology or conviction; an equivocator. : B. adj[ective]. :# Of or relating to the belief that the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena is unknown and (as far as can be judged) unknowable. Also: holding this belief. :# a. In extended use: not committed to or persuaded by a particular point of view; sceptical. Also: politically or ideologically unaligned; non-partisan, equivocal. agnosticism n. The doctrine or tenets of agnostics with regard to the existence of anything beyond and behind material phenomena or to knowledge of a First Cause or God.}} Atheism is the non-belief in the existence of any deity.{{cite book|last1=Draper|first1=Paul|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|year=2017|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|edition=Fall 2017|chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/#1|access-date=22 January 2018|chapter=Atheism and Agnosticism|archive-date=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211005616/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/#1|url-status=live}}

File:Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük on black background.jpg flanked by two felines from Çatalhöyük, dating to {{circa|6000 BCE}}, thought by most archaeologists to represent a goddess of some kind{{cite book | first = James | last = Mellaart |year = 1967 | title = Catal Huyuk: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia | publisher = McGraw-Hill | pages = 181}}A typical assessment: "A terracotta statuette of a seated (mother) goddess giving birth with each hand on the head of a leopard or panther from Çatalhöyük (dated around 6000 B.C.E.)" (Sarolta A. Takács, "Cybele and Catullus' Attis", in Eugene N. Lane, Cybele, Attis and related cults: essays in memory of M.J. Vermaseren 1996:376.]]

{{Further|Prehistoric religion}}

Scholars infer the probable existence of deities in the prehistoric period from inscriptions and prehistoric arts such as cave drawings, but it is unclear what these sketches and paintings are and why they were made.{{cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Philip|title=The Story of Prehistoric Peoples|date=2012|publisher=Rosen Central|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4488-4790-7|pages=22–23|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=exY3ViA3sSQC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals.{{cite book|last1=Ruether|first1=Rosemary Radford|title=Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History|date=2006|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=978-0-520-25005-5|page=3|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=mb_her-hd9YC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} It was once common for archaeologists to interpret virtually every prehistoric female figurine as a representation of a single, primordial goddess, the ancestor of historically attested goddesses such as Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Cybele, and Aphrodite;{{cite book|last1=Lesure|first1=Richard G.|title=The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines|date=2017|editor-last=Insoll|editor-first=Timothy|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-967561-6|pages=54–58|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TdKdDgAAQBAJ&q=prehistoric+deities&pg=PA55|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002220/https://books.google.com/books?id=TdKdDgAAQBAJ&q=prehistoric+deities&pg=PA55|url-status=live}} this approach has now generally been discredited. Modern archaeologists now generally recognize that it is impossible to conclusively identify any prehistoric figurines as representations of any kind of deities, let alone goddesses. Nonetheless, it is possible to evaluate ancient representations on a case-by-case basis and rate them on how likely they are to represent deities. The Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted by some as an exemplar of a prehistoric female deity. A number of probable representations of deities have been discovered at 'Ain Ghazal and the works of art uncovered at Çatalhöyük reveal references to what is probably a complex mythology.

{{Main|List of African mythological figures|Traditional African religion|Afro-American religion|Orisha}}

File:Musée africain Lyon 130909 02.jpgDiverse African cultures developed theology and concepts of deities over their history. In Nigeria and neighboring West African countries, for example, two prominent deities (locally called Òrìṣà){{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=Joseph M.|last2=Sanford|first2=Mei-Mei|title=Osun across the Waters: A Yoruba Goddess in Africa and the Americas|date=2002|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=978-0-253-10863-0|pages=1–8|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=XIx0TjQb8yEC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} are found in the Yoruba religion, namely the god Ogun and the goddess Osun. Ogun is the primordial masculine deity as well as the archdivinity and guardian of occupations such as tools making and use, metal working, hunting, war, protection and ascertaining equity and justice.{{cite book|last1=Barnes|first1=Sandra T.|title=Africa's Ogun: Old World and New|date=1997|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, IN|isbn=978-0-253-21083-8|pages=ix–x, 1–3, 59, 132–134, 199–200|edition=2nd|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=8OWjkR-1btMC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Juang|first1=Richard M.|last2=Morrissette|first2=Noelle|title=Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History|date=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn=978-1-85109-441-7|pages=843–44|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=wFrAOqfhuGYC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Osun is an equally powerful primordial feminine deity and a multidimensional guardian of fertility, water, maternal, health, social relations, love and peace. Ogun and Osun traditions were brought into the Americas on slave ships. They were preserved by the Africans in their plantation communities, and their festivals continue to be observed.

In Southern African cultures, a similar masculine-feminine deity combination has appeared in other forms, particularly as the Moon and Sun deities.{{cite book|last1=Andrews|first1=Tamra|title=Dictionary of Nature Myths: Legends of the Earth, Sea, and Sky|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-513677-7|pages=6–7|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=7jS65aClvFEC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} One Southern African cosmology consists of Hieseba or Xuba (deity, god), Gaune (evil spirits) and Khuene (people). The Hieseba includes Nladiba (male, creator sky god) and Nladisara (females, Nladiba's two wives). The Sun (female) and the Moon (male) deities are viewed as offspring of Nladiba and two Nladisara. The Sun and Moon are viewed as manifestations of the supreme deity, and worship is timed and directed to them.{{cite book|last1=Barnard|first1=Alan|title=Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa: A Comparative Ethnography of the Khoisan Peoples|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-42865-1|pages=87–88, 153–155, 252–256|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=2nBx83jMc48C}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} In other African cultures the Sun is seen as male, while the Moon is female, both symbols of the godhead.{{rp|199–120}} In Zimbabwe, the supreme deity is androgynous with male-female aspects, envisioned as the giver of rain, treated simultaneously as the god of darkness and light and is called Mwari Shona.{{rp|89}} In the Lake Victoria region, the term for a deity is Lubaale, or alternatively Jok.{{cite book|last1=Makward|first1=Edris|last2=Lilleleht|first2=Mark|last3=Saber|first3=Ahmed|title=North-south Linkages and Connections in Continental and Diaspora African Literatures|date=2004|publisher=Africa World|location=Trenton, NJ|isbn=978-1-59221-157-9|pages=302–04|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=zGUcI99zssYC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

{{main|Religions of the ancient Near East}}

{{Main|Ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian mythology|Ancient Egyptian religion}}

File:La Tombe de Horemheb cropped.jpg, Anubis, and Horus, who are among the major deities in ancient Egyptian religion]]

Ancient Egyptian culture revered numerous deities. Egyptian records and inscriptions list the names of many whose nature is unknown and make vague references to other unnamed deities.{{rp|73}} Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts,{{cite journal|last1=Allen|first1=James P.|author-link=James Peter Allen|title=Monotheism: The Egyptian Roots|journal=Archaeology Odyssey|date=Jul–Aug 1999|volume=2|issue=3|pages=44–54, 59}} whereas Christian Leitz offers an estimate of "thousands upon thousands" of Egyptian deities.{{rp|393–394}} Their terms for deities were nṯr (god), and feminine nṯrt (goddess);{{rp|42}} however, these terms may also have applied to any being – spirits and deceased human beings, but not demons – who in some way were outside the sphere of everyday life.{{rp|216}}{{rp|62}} Egyptian deities typically had an associated cult, role and mythologies.{{rp|7–8, 83}}

Around 200 deities are prominent in the Pyramid texts and ancient temples of Egypt, many zoomorphic. Among these, were Min (fertility god), Neith (creator goddess), Anubis, Atum, Bes, Horus, Isis, Ra, Meretseger, Nut, Osiris, Shu, Sia and Thoth.{{rp|11–12}} Most Egyptian deities represented natural phenomenon, physical objects or social aspects of life, as hidden immanent forces within these phenomena.{{cite book|last1=Allen|first1=James P.|title=Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-521-77483-3|pages=43–45}}{{cite book|last1=Dunand|first1=Françoise|last2=Zivie-Coche|first2=Christiane|author-link=Françoise Dunand|last3=Lorton|first3=David|title=Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CE|date=2004|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=978-0-8014-8853-5|page=26}} The deity Shu, for example represented air; the goddess Meretseger represented parts of the earth, and the god Sia represented the abstract powers of perception.{{rp|91, 147}} Deities such as Ra and Osiris were associated with the judgement of the dead and their care during the afterlife.{{rp|26–28}} Major gods often had multiple roles and were involved in multiple phenomena.{{rp|85–86}}

The first written evidence of deities are from early 3rd millennium BCE, likely emerging from prehistoric beliefs.{{cite book|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Toby A.H.|title=Early dynastic Egypt|date=1999|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-18633-9|pages=261–262|edition=1st}} However, deities became systematized and sophisticated after the formation of an Egyptian state under the Pharaohs and their treatment as sacred kings who had exclusive rights to interact with the gods, in the later part of the 3rd millennium BCE.{{cite book|last1=Traunecker|first1=Claude|last2=Lorton|first2=David|title=The Gods of Egypt|date=2001|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=978-0-8014-3834-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/godsofegypt00trau/page/29 29]|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/godsofegypt00trau/page/29}}{{rp|12–15}} Through the early centuries of the common era, as Egyptians interacted and traded with neighboring cultures, foreign deities were adopted and venerated.{{cite book|last1=Shafer|first1=Byron E.|last2=Baines|first2=John|last3=Lesko|first3=Leonard H.|last4=Silverman|first4=David P.|title=Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice |date=1991|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=978-0-8014-9786-5|page=58}}{{rp|160}}

File:Zeus Yahweh.jpg, a 4th-century BCE drachm (quarter shekel) coin from the Achaemenid Empire, possibly representing Yahweh seated on a winged and wheeled sun-throne]]

{{main|Ancient Canaanite religion|Origins of Judaism|Ancient Semitic religion|Yahweh|Second Temple Judaism|History of ancient Israel and Judah}}

The ancient Canaanites were polytheists who believed in a pantheon of deities,{{cite book|last=Day|first=John|date=2002|orig-year=2000|title=Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=2xadCgAAQBAJ}} |location=Sheffield, England|publisher=Sheffield Academic Press|isbn=978-0-8264-6830-7}}{{cite book|last1 = Coogan|first1 = Michael D.|last2 = Smith|first2 = Mark S.|title = Stories from Ancient Canaan|publisher = Presbyterian Publishing Corp|year = 2012|url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=G49SJI183IkC}}|isbn = 978-90-5356-503-2|page=8|edition = 2nd}}{{cite book|last = Smith|first = Mark S.|year = 2002|author-link = Mark S. Smith|title = The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel|publisher = Eerdmans|url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=1yM3AuBh4AsC|page=28}}|edition = 2nd|isbn = 978-0-8028-3972-5}} the chief of whom was the god El, who ruled alongside his consort Asherah and their seventy sons.{{rp|22–24}} Baal was the god of storm, rain, vegetation and fertility,{{rp|68–127}} while his consort Anat was the goddess of war{{rp|131, 137–139}} and Astarte, the West Semitic equivalent to Ishtar, was the goddess of love.{{rp|146–149}} The people of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah originally believed in these deities,{{cite book|last = Albertz|first = Rainer|title = A History of Israelite Religion, Volume I: From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy|publisher = Westminster John Knox|year = 1994|url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=yvZUWbTftSgC|page=89}}|page=61|isbn = 978-0-664-22719-7}} alongside their own national god Yahweh.{{cite book|last = Miller|first = Patrick D|author-link = Patrick D. Miller|title = A History of Ancient Israel and Judah|publisher = Westminster John Knox Press|year = 1986|url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=uDijjc_D5P0C|page=110}}|isbn = 978-0-664-21262-9|page=110}}{{cite book|last = Grabbe|first = Lester L. |title = An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism|publisher = A&C Black|year = 2010|url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=i89-9fdNUcAC}}|isbn = 978-0-567-55248-8|page=184}} El later became syncretized with Yahweh, who took over El's role as the head of the pantheon,{{rp|13–17}} with Asherah as his divine consort{{rp|45}}{{rp|146}} and the "sons of El" as his offspring.{{rp|22–24}} During the later years of the Kingdom of Judah, a monolatristic faction rose to power insisting that only Yahweh was fit to be worshipped by the people of Judah.{{rp|229–233}} Monolatry became enforced during the reforms of King Josiah in 621 BCE.{{rp|229}} Finally, during the national crisis of the Babylonian captivity, some Judahites began to teach that deities aside from Yahweh were not just unfit to be worshipped, but did not exist.{{cite book|last = Betz|first = Arnold Gottfried|chapter = Monotheism|editor1-last = Freedman|editor1-first = David Noel|editor2-last = Myer|editor2-first = Allen C.|title = Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible|publisher = Eerdmans|year = 2000|chapter-url = {{google books |plainurl=y |id=qRtUqxkB7wkC|page=917=bible%20monotheism%20Betz}}|isbn = 978-90-5356-503-2|page=917}}{{rp|4}} The "sons of El" were demoted from deities to angels.{{rp|22}}

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{{Main|List of Mesopotamian deities|Ancient Mesopotamian religion|Sumerian religion}}

Ancient Mesopotamian culture in southern Iraq had numerous dingir (deities, gods and goddesses).{{rp|69–74}} Mesopotamian deities were almost exclusively anthropomorphic.{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=Jeremy|last2=Green|first2=Anthony|last3=Rickards|first3=Tessa|title=Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary|date=1998|publisher=British Museum Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-7141-1705-8|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05LXAAAAMAAJ&q=Inana|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=20 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120094829/https://books.google.com/books?id=05LXAAAAMAAJ&q=Inana|url-status=live}}{{rp|93}}{{rp|69–74}}{{cite book|last1=Masson|first1=Vadim Mikhaĭlovich|title=Altyn-Depe|date=1988|publisher=University Museum, University of Pennsylvania|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-0-934718-54-7|pages=77–78|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQMzQ_k3ty0C|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=15 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215081839/https://books.google.com/books?id=QQMzQ_k3ty0C|url-status=live}} They were thought to possess extraordinary powers{{rp|93}} and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size.{{rp|93}} They were generally immortal,{{rp|93}} but a few of them, particularly Dumuzid, Geshtinanna, and Gugalanna were said to have either died or visited the underworld.{{rp|93}} Both male and female deities were widely venerated.{{rp|93}}

In the Sumerian pantheon, deities had multiple functions, which included presiding over procreation, rains, irrigation, agriculture, destiny, and justice.{{rp|69–74}} The gods were fed, clothed, entertained, and worshipped to prevent natural catastrophes as well as to prevent social chaos such as pillaging, rape, or atrocities.{{rp|69–74}}{{rp|186}}{{rp|93}} Many of the Sumerian deities were patron guardians of city-states.{{cite book|last1=Nemet-Nejat|first1=Karen Rhea|author-link=Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat|title=Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia|date=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CN|isbn=978-0-313-29497-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinancie00neme/page/179 179]|url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinancie00neme/page/179}}

The most important deities in the Sumerian pantheon were known as the Anunnaki,{{cite book|last1=Kramer|first1=Samuel Noah|title=The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character|url=https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu|url-access=registration|date=1963|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-226-45238-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sumerianstheirhi00samu/page/122 122–123]}} and included deities known as the "seven gods who decree": An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu and Inanna. After the conquest of Sumer by Sargon of Akkad, many Sumerian deities were syncretized with East Semitic ones. The goddess Inanna, syncretized with the East Semitic Ishtar, became popular,{{cite book|last1=Leick|first1=Gwendolyn|author-link=Gwendolyn Leick|title=A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology|date=1998|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-19811-0|page=87|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=c52EAgAAQBAJ|page=91}}|access-date=22 January 2018}}{{rp|xviii, xv}}{{rp|182}}{{rp|106–09}} with temples across Mesopotamia.{{cite journal|last1=Harris|first1=Rivkah|title=Inanna-Ishtar as Paradox and a Coincidence of Opposites|journal=History of Religions|date=February 1991|volume=30|issue=3|pages=261–78|doi=10.1086/463228|s2cid=162322517}}{{rp|106–09}}

The Mesopotamian mythology of the first millennium BCE treated Anšar (later Aššur) and Kišar as primordial deities.{{cite web |url=http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/anarandkiar/ |title=Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses – Anšar and Kišar (god and goddess) |publisher=Oracc |access-date=6 June 2017 |archive-date=16 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116000951/http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/anarandkiar/ |url-status=live }} Marduk was a significant god among the Babylonians. He rose from an obscure deity of the third millennium BCE to become one of the most important deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon of the first millennium BCE. The Babylonians worshipped Marduk as creator of heaven, earth and humankind, and as their national god.{{rp|62, 73}}{{cite book|last1=Leeming|first1=David|title=The Oxford Companion to World Mythology|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028888-4|pages=122–124|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=iPrhBwAAQBAJ|page=122}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Marduk's iconography is zoomorphic and is most often found in Middle Eastern archaeological remains depicted as a "snake-dragon" or a "human-animal hybrid".{{cite web |url=http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/marduk/ |title=Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses – Marduk (god) |publisher=Oracc |access-date=6 June 2017 |archive-date=26 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126050252/http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/marduk/ |url-status=live }}{{cite book|last1=Bienkowski|first1=Piotr|last2=Millard|first2=Alan|title=Dictionary of the ancient Near East|date=2000|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia, PA|isbn=978-0-8122-2115-2|page=246|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=V9QrPMN1C4EC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

{{main|Proto-Indo-European religion}}

File:Kirkby Stephen Stone by Petersen.jpg, England, depicts a bound figure, who some have theorized may be the Germanic god Loki.]]

{{Main|List of Germanic deities|Germanic paganism|Germanic mythology|Common Germanic deities|Æsir|Vanir}}

In Germanic languages, the terms cognate with 'god' such as {{langx|ang|god}} and {{langx|non|guð}} were originally neuter but became masculine, as in modern Germanic languages, after Christianisation due their use in referring to the Christian god.{{cite web |title=Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/gudą |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/gud%C4%85 |website=Wiktionary |access-date=3 July 2022 |language=en |date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=3 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703111017/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/gud%C4%85 |url-status=live }}

In Norse mythology, {{lang|non|Æsir}} (singular {{lang|non|áss}} or {{lang|non|ǫ́ss}}) are the principal group of gods,{{cite web |title=áss |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A1ss#Old_Norse |website=Wiktionary |access-date=3 July 2022 |language=en |date=3 July 2022 |archive-date=3 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703111017/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A1ss#Old_Norse |url-status=live }} while the term {{lang|non|ásynjur}} (singular {{lang|non|ásynja}}) refers specifically to the female {{lang|non|Æsir}}.{{cite web |title=ásynja |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A1synja#Old_Norse |website=Wiktionary |access-date=3 July 2022 |language=en |date=26 February 2021 |archive-date=3 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703111015/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A1synja#Old_Norse |url-status=live }} These terms, states John Lindow, may be ultimately rooted in the Indo-European root for "breath" (as in "life giving force"), and are cognate with {{langx|ang|os}} (a heathen god) and Gothic: anses.{{rp|49–50}}

Another group of deities found in Norse mythology are termed as Vanir, and are associated with fertility. The Æsir and the Vanir went to war, according to the Nordic sources. The account in Ynglinga saga describes the Æsir–Vanir War ending in truce and ultimate reconciliation of the two into a single group of gods, after both sides chose peace, exchanged ambassadors (hostages),{{rp|181}} and intermarried.{{rp|52–53}}{{cite book|last1=Gimbutas|first1=Marija|last2=Dexter|first2=Miriam Robbins|title=The Living Goddesses|date=2001|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-22915-0|pages=191–196|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=7DfI39EDbMcC}}|language=en}}

The Norse mythology describes the cooperation after the war, as well as differences between the Æsir and the Vanir which were considered scandalous by the other side.{{rp|181}} The goddess Freyja of the Vanir taught magic to the Æsir, while the two sides discover that while Æsir forbid mating between siblings, Vanir accepted such mating.{{rp|181}}{{cite book|last1=Christensen|first1=Lisbeth Bredholt|last2=Hammer|first2=Olav|last3=Warburton|first3=David|title=The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-54453-1|pages=328–329|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=rl5_BAAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Oosten|first1=Jarich G.|title=The War of the Gods (RLE Myth): The Social Code in Indo-European Mythology|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-55584-1|page=36|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=5w_wBgAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

Temples hosting images of Germanic gods (such as Thor, Odin and Freyr), as well as pagan worship rituals, continued in Scandinavia into the 12th century, according to historical records. It has been proposed that over time, Christian equivalents were substituted for the Germanic deities to help suppress paganism as part of the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples.{{rp|187–188}} Worship of the Germanic gods has been revived in the modern period as part of the new religious movement of Heathenry.{{cite journal |title=Heathenry as a Postcolonial Movement |url=https://submissions.scholasticahq.com/supporting_files/5682/attachment_versions/5685 |last=Horrell |first=Thad N. |year=2012 |journal=The Journal of Religion, Identity, and Politics |volume=1 |number=1 |page=1 }}

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{{Main|List of Greek deities|Greek mythology|Ancient Greek religion|Twelve Olympians}}

The ancient Greeks revered both gods and goddesses.{{cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Thomas R.|title=Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times |date=2013|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=978-0-300-16005-5|pages=39–40|edition=2nd|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=iyFaMmr4hFwC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} These continued to be revered through the early centuries of the common era, and many of the Greek deities inspired and were adopted as part of much larger pantheon of Roman deities.{{rp|91–97}} The Greek religion was polytheistic, but had no centralized church, nor any sacred texts.{{rp|91–97}} The deities were largely associated with myths and they represented natural phenomena or aspects of human behavior.{{rp|91–97}}

Several Greek deities probably trace back to more ancient Indo-European traditions, since the gods and goddesses found in distant cultures are mythologically comparable and are cognates.{{rp|230–231}}{{rp|15–19}} Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, for instance, is cognate to Indic Ushas, Roman Aurora and Latvian Auseklis.{{rp|230–232}} Zeus, the Greek king of gods, is cognate to Latin Iūpiter, Old German Ziu, and Indic Dyaus, with whom he shares similar mythologies.{{rp|230–232}}{{cite book|last1=West|first1=Martin Litchfield|author-link=Martin Litchfield West|title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth|date=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-928075-9|pages=166–173|edition=1st}} Other deities, such as Aphrodite, originated from the Near East.{{cite book|last1=Breitenberger|first1=Barbara|title=Aphrodite and Eros: The Development of Greek Erotic Mythology|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-96823-2|pages=8–12|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=PSFePRxm1jAC|page=10}}|access-date=22 January 2018}}{{cite book|last1=Cyrino|first1=Monica S.|title=Aphrodite|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978-0-415-77523-6|pages=59–52|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=7gyVn5GjXPkCAphrodite}}|access-date=22 January 2018}}{{Dead link|date=June 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book|last1=Puhvel|first1=Jaan|title=Comparative Mythology|date=1989|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, MD|isbn=978-0-8018-3938-2|page=27|edition=2nd}}{{cite journal|last1=Marcovich|first1=Miroslav|title=From Ishtar to Aphrodite|journal=Journal of Aesthetic Education|date=1996|volume=39|issue=2|pages=43–59|doi=10.2307/3333191|jstor=3333191}}

Greek deities varied locally, but many shared panhellenic themes, celebrated similar festivals, rites, and ritual grammar.{{cite book|last1=Flensted-Jensen|first1=Pernille|title=Further Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis|date=2000|publisher=Steiner|location=Stuttgart|isbn=978-3-515-07607-4|pages=9–12|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=uK8szXLlvjoC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} The most important deities in the Greek pantheon were the Twelve Olympians: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Ares.{{rp|125–170}} Other important Greek deities included Hestia, Hades and Heracles.{{rp|96–97}} These deities later inspired the Dii Consentes galaxy of Roman deities.{{rp|96–97}}

Besides the Olympians, the Greeks also worshipped various local deities.{{rp|170–181}}{{cite web|last1=Pollard|first1=John Ricard Thornhill|last2=Adkins|first2=A.W.H.|title=Greek religion|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-religion|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=22 January 2018|language=en|date=19 September 1998|archive-date=9 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309201523/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-religion|url-status=live}} Among these were the goat-legged god Pan (the guardian of shepherds and their flocks), Nymphs (nature spirits associated with particular landforms), Naiads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, satyrs (a class of lustful male nature spirits), and others. The dark powers of the underworld were represented by the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.

The Greek deities, like those in many other Indo-European traditions, were anthropomorphic. Walter Burkert describes them as "persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts".{{rp|182}} They had fantastic abilities and powers; each had some unique expertise and, in some aspects, a specific and flawed personality.{{rp|52}} They were not omnipotent and could be injured in some circumstances.{{cite book|last1=Stoll|first1=Heinrich Wilhelm|title=Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks|date=1852|page=3|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=UWoBAAAAQAAJ&pg=4}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Greek deities led to cults, were used politically and inspired votive offerings for favors such as bountiful crops, healthy family, victory in war, or peace for a loved one recently deceased.{{rp|94–95}}{{cite book|last1=Garland|first1=Robert|title=Introducing New Gods: The Politics of Athenian Religion|date=1992|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=978-0-8014-2766-4|pages=1–9|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=7Ne-bCX_DaUC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

{{Main|List of Roman deities|Roman mythology|Religion in ancient Rome|Capitoline Triad}}

File:MANNapoli 6705 creation of the man sarcophagus.jpg depicting the creation of man by Prometheus, with major Roman deities Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury, Juno, Apollo, Vulcan watching]]

The Roman pantheon had numerous deities, both Greek and non-Greek.{{rp|96–97}} The more famed deities, found in the mythologies and the 2nd millennium CE European arts, have been the anthropomorphic deities syncretized with the Greek deities. These include the six gods and six goddesses: Venus, Apollo, Mars, Diana, Minerva, Ceres, Vulcan, Juno, Mercury, Vesta, Neptune, Jupiter (Jove, Zeus); as well Bacchus, Pluto and Hercules.{{rp|96–97}}{{cite book|last1=Long|first1=Charlotte R.|title=The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome|date=1987|publisher=Brill Archive|isbn=978-90-04-07716-4|pages=232–243|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=3dUUAAAAIAAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} The non-Greek major deities include Janus, Fortuna, Vesta, Quirinus and Tellus (mother goddess, probably most ancient).{{rp|96–97}}{{cite book|last1=Woodard|first1=Roger|title=Myth, ritual, and the warrior in Roman and Indo-European antiquity|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-107-02240-9|pages=25–26, 93–96, 194–196|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=VkXlcVMP_dQC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Some of the non-Greek deities had likely origins in more ancient European culture such as the ancient Germanic religion, while others may have been borrowed, for political reasons, from neighboring trade centers such as those in the Minoan or ancient Egyptian civilization.{{cite book|last1=Ruiz|first1=Angel|title=Poetic Language and Religion in Greece and Rome|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|isbn=978-1-4438-5565-5|pages=90–91|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=yGUxBwAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Mysliwiec|first1=Karol|last2=Lorton|first2=David|title=The Twilight of Ancient Egypt: First Millennium B.C.E.|date=2000|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, NY|isbn=978-0-8014-8630-2|page=188|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=dJycxuhvS8UC}}|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Todd|first1=Malcolm|title=The Early Germans|date=2004|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1-4051-3756-0|pages=103–105|edition=2nd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5QdmV3zNpIC|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423122528/https://books.google.com/books?id=p5QdmV3zNpIC|url-status=live}}

The Roman deities, in a manner similar to the ancient Greeks, inspired community festivals, rituals and sacrifices led by flamines (priests, pontifs), but priestesses (Vestal Virgins) were also held in high esteem for maintaining sacred fire used in the votive rituals for deities.{{rp|100–101}} Deities were also maintained in home shrines (lararium), such as Hestia honored in homes as the goddess of fire hearth.{{rp|100–101}}{{cite book|last1=Kristensen|first1=f.|title=The Meaning of Religion Lectures in the Phenomenology of Religion|date=1960|publisher=Springer Netherlands|location=Dordrecht|isbn=978-94-017-6580-0|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5QdmV3zNpIC|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423122528/https://books.google.com/books?id=p5QdmV3zNpIC|url-status=live}} This Roman religion held reverence for sacred fire, and this is also found in Hebrew culture (Leviticus 6), Vedic culture's Homa, ancient Greeks and other cultures.

Ancient Roman scholars such as Varro and Cicero wrote treatises on the nature of gods of their times.{{cite book|last1=Walsh|first1=P.G.|title=The Nature of the Gods|date=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-162314-1|page=xxvi|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=JhQ4aXatR08C}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Varro stated, in his Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum, that it is the superstitious man who fears the gods, while the truly religious person venerates them as parents. Cicero, in his Academica, praised Varro for this and other insights. According to Varro, there have been three accounts of deities in the Roman society: the mythical account created by poets for theatre and entertainment, the civil account used by people for veneration as well as by the city, and the natural account created by the philosophers.{{cite book|last1=Barfield|first1=Raymond|title=The Ancient Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49709-1|pages=75–76|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=PY9FbnNhdDUC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} The best state is, adds Varro, where the civil theology combines the poetic mythical account with the philosopher's. The Roman deities continued to be revered in Europe through the era of Constantine, and past 313 CE when he issued the Edict of Toleration.{{rp|118–120}}

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| footer = Inti Raymi, a winter solstice festival of the Inca people, reveres Inti, the sun deity—offerings include round bread and maize beer.

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{{Main|Inca mythology|Religion in the Inca Empire|Inca religion in Cusco}}

The Inca culture has believed in Viracocha (also called Pachacutec) as the creator deity.{{rp|27–30}}{{rp|726–729}} Viracocha has been an abstract deity to Inca culture, one who existed before he created space and time.{{cite book|last1=Kolata|first1=Alan L.|title=Ancient Inca|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-86900-3|page=164|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=RpELeDbp7BQC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} All other deities of the Inca people have corresponded to elements of nature.{{rp|726–729}} Of these, the most important ones have been Inti (sun deity) responsible for agricultural prosperity and as the father of the first Inca king, and Mama Qucha the goddess of the sea, lakes, rivers and waters. Inti in some mythologies is the son of Viracocha and Mama Qucha.{{cite book|last1=Sherman|first1=Josepha|title=Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45938-5|page=238|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=n2-sBwAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

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|quote = Inca Sun deity festival

Oh creator and Sun and Thunder,

be forever copious,

do not make us old,

let all things be at peace,

multiply the people,

and let there be food,

and let all things be fruitful.

|source = —Inti Raymi prayers{{cite book|last1=Parker|first1=Janet|last2=Stanton|first2=Julie|title=Mythology: Myths, Legends and Fantasies|date=2006|publisher=Struik|location=Cape Town, South Africa|isbn=978-1-77007-453-8|page=501|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=p7dR2w1Wv2sC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

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Inca people have revered many male and female deities. Among the feminine deities have been Mama Kuka (goddess of joy), Mama Ch'aska (goddess of dawn), Mama Allpa (goddess of harvest and earth, sometimes called Mama Pacha or Pachamama), Mama Killa (moon goddess) and Mama Sara (goddess of grain).{{rp|31–32}} During and after the imposition of Christianity during Spanish colonialism, the Inca people retained their original beliefs in deities through syncretism, where they overlay the Christian God and teachings over their original beliefs and practices.{{cite book|last1=Melton|first1=J. Gordon|last2=Baumann|first2=Martin|title=Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn=978-1-59884-204-3|pages=2243–2244|edition=2nd|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=v2yiyLLOj88C}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Koschorke|first1=Klaus |last2=Ludwig|first2=Frieder|last3=Delgado|first3=Mariano|last4=Spliesgart|first4=Roland|title=A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990: A Documentary Sourcebook|date=2007|publisher=W.B. Eerdmans|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0-8028-2889-7|pages=323–325|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=dbq6fkyp698C}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Kuznar|first1=Lawrence A.|title=Ethnoarchaeology of Andean South America: Contributions to Archaeological Method and Theory|date=2001|publisher=International Monographs in Prehistory|location=Ann Arbor, MI|isbn=978-1-879621-29-9|pages=45–47|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=88R8AAAAMAAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} The male deity Inti became accepted as the Christian God, but the Andean rituals centered around Inca deities have been retained and continued thereafter into the modern era by the Inca people.{{cite book|last1=Fagan|first1=Brian M.|last2=Beck|first2=Charlotte|title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology|date=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-507618-9|pages=345|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ystMAgAAQBAJ|page=345}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

{{Main|List of Maya gods and supernatural beings|Maya religion|List of Aztec gods and supernatural beings|Aztec mythology}}

In Maya culture, Kukulkan has been the supreme creator deity, also revered as the god of reincarnation, water, fertility and wind.{{rp|797–798}} The Maya people built step pyramid temples to honor Kukulkan, aligning them to the Sun's position on the spring equinox.{{rp|843–844}} Other deities found at Maya archaeological sites include Xib Chac—the benevolent male rain deity, and Ixchel—the benevolent female earth, weaving and pregnancy goddess.{{rp|843–844}} The Maya calendar had 18 months, each with 20 days (and five unlucky days of Uayeb); each month had a presiding deity, who inspired social rituals, special trading markets and community festivals.

File:Quetzalcóatl 5.jpg]]

A deity with aspects similar to Kulkulkan in the Aztec culture has been called Quetzalcoatl.{{rp|797–798}} However, states Timothy Insoll, the Aztec ideas of deity remain poorly understood. What has been assumed is based on what was constructed by Christian missionaries. The deity concept was likely more complex than these historical records.{{cite book|last1=Insoll|first1=Timothy|title=The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-923244-4|pages=563–567|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=U4_ylNNHBy4C}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} In Aztec culture, there were hundred of deities, but many were henotheistic incarnations of one another (similar to the avatar concept of Hinduism). Unlike Hinduism and other cultures, Aztec deities were usually not anthropomorphic, and were instead zoomorphic or hybrid icons associated with spirits, natural phenomena or forces.{{cite book|last1=Issitt|first1=Micah Lee|last2=Main|first2=Carlyn|title=Hidden Religion: The Greatest Mysteries and Symbols of the World's Religious Beliefs: The Greatest Mysteries and Symbols of the World's Religious Beliefs|date=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-478-0|pages=373–375|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=kmFhBQAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} The Aztec deities were often represented through ceramic figurines, revered in home shrines.{{cite book|last1=Faust|first1=Katherine A.|last2=Richter|first2=Kim N.|title=The Huasteca: Culture, History, and Interregional Exchange|date=2015|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-4957-8|pages=162–163|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=f5j_BwAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

File:Wooden idols of Polynesia (1830).jpg

{{Main|Polynesian narrative}}

The Polynesian people developed a theology centered on numerous deities, with clusters of islands having different names for the same idea. There are great deities found across the Pacific Ocean. Some deities are found widely, and there are many local deities whose worship is limited to one or a few islands or sometimes to isolated villages on the same island.{{rp|5–6}}

The Māori people, of what is now New Zealand, called the supreme being as Io, who is also referred elsewhere as Iho-Iho, Io-Mataaho, Io Nui, Te Io Ora, Io Matua Te Kora among other names.{{rp|239}} The Io deity has been revered as the original uncreated creator, with power of life, with nothing outside or beyond him.{{rp|239}}Other deities in the Polynesian pantheon include Tangaloa (god who created men),{{rp|37–38}} La'a Maomao (god of winds), Tu-Matauenga or Ku (god of war), Tu-Metua (mother goddess), Kane (god of procreation) and Rangi (sky god father).{{rp|261, 284, 399, 476}}

The Polynesian deities have been part of a sophisticated theology, addressing questions of creation, the nature of existence, guardians in daily lives as well as during wars, natural phenomena, good and evil spirits, priestly rituals, as well as linked to the journey of the souls of the dead.{{rp|6–14, 37–38, 113, 323}}

File:Švenčiausioji Trejybė.jpg, showing God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all of whom are revered in Christianity as a single deity]]

{{Main|God in Christianity|Trinity|God the Father|God the Son|Jesus in Christianity|Holy Spirit in Christianity|Names of God in Christianity|Christian theology}}

Christianity is a monotheistic religion in which most mainstream congregations and denominations accept the concept of the Holy Trinity.{{rp|233–234}} Modern orthodox Christians believe that the Trinity is composed of three equal, cosubstantial persons: God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit.{{rp|233–234}} The first person to describe the persons of the Trinity as homooúsios ({{lang|grc|ὁμοούσιος}}; "of the same substance") was the Church Father Origen.{{cite book|last=La Due|first=William J.|date=2003|title=Trinity Guide to the Trinity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0WvgLlSKW7oC&q=Origen+Trinity&pg=PA37|location=Harrisburg, PA|publisher=Trinity Press International|isbn=978-1-56338-395-3|page=38|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002219/https://books.google.com/books?id=0WvgLlSKW7oC&q=Origen+Trinity&pg=PA37|url-status=live}} Although most early Christian theologians (including Origen) were Subordinationists,{{citation|last=Badcock|first=Gary D.|date=1997|title=Light of Truth and Fire of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qnDyjaXPwooC&q=Origen+Subordinationist&pg=PA43|location=Grand Rapids, MI|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8028-4288-6|page=43|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002231/https://books.google.com/books?id=qnDyjaXPwooC&q=Origen+Subordinationist&pg=PA43|url-status=live}} who believed that the Father was superior to the Son and the Son superior to the Holy Spirit,{{cite book|last=Olson|first=Roger E.|date=1999|title=The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zexBAwAAQBAJ&q=Origen+Father+of+Theology&pg=PA100|location=Downers Grove, IL|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-1505-0|page=25|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002228/https://books.google.com/books?id=zexBAwAAQBAJ&q=Origen+Father+of+Theology&pg=PA100|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Greggs|first=Tom|date=2009|title=Barth, Origen, and Universal Salvation: Restoring Particularity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etQjYHmwiv4C&q=Origen+preexistence+of+souls&pg=PA55|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-956048-6|page=161|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002207/https://books.google.com/books?id=etQjYHmwiv4C&q=Origen+preexistence+of+souls&pg=PA55|url-status=live}} this belief was condemned as heretical by the First Council of Nicaea in the fourth century, which declared that all three persons of the Trinity are equal. Christians regard the universe as an element in God's actualization{{rp|273}} and the Holy Spirit is seen as the divine essence that is "the unity and relation of the Father and the Son".{{rp|273}} According to George Hunsinger, the doctrine of the Trinity justifies worship in a Church, wherein Jesus Christ is deemed to be a full deity with the Christian cross as his icon.{{rp|296}}

The theological examination of Jesus Christ, of divine grace in incarnation, his non-transferability and completeness has been a historic topic. For example, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE declared that in "one person Jesus Christ, fullness of deity and fullness of humanity are united, the union of the natures being such that they can neither be divided nor confused".{{cite book|last1=Larsen|first1=Timothy|last2=Treier|first2=Daniel J.|title=The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology|date=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-82750-8|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=vlmXBe0RPxYC|page=51}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament, is the self-disclosure of the one, true God, both in his teaching and in his person; Christ, in Christian faith, is considered the incarnation of God.{{rp|4, 29}}{{cite book|last1=Aslanoff|first1=Catherine|title=The Incarnate God: The Feasts and the life of Jesus Christ|date=1995|publisher=St. Vladimir's Seminary Press|location=Crestwood, NY|isbn=978-0-88141-130-0|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=QpVNuPwnIIcC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Inbody|first1=Tyron|title=The Faith of the Christian Church: An Introduction to Theology|date=2005|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0-8028-4151-3|pages=205–232|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=cHvF2SiBn-kC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

{{Main|Allah|Ilah|God in Islam|Names of God in Islam}}

Ilah, {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ʾIlāh}} ({{langx|ar|إله}}; plural: {{lang|ar|آلهة}} {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ʾālihah}}), is an Arabic word meaning "god".{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isDgI0-0Ip4C&q=ilah|author=Zeki Saritoprak|title=Allah|editor=Oliver Leaman|encyclopedia=The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|page=34|isbn=978-0-4153-2639-1|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=4 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004005837/https://books.google.com/books?id=isDgI0-0Ip4C&q=ilah|url-status=live}}{{cite encyclopedia|author=Vincent J. Cornell|title=God: God in Islam|editor=Lindsay Jones|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion|edition=2nd|publisher=MacMillan Reference|volume=5|year=2005|page=724}} It appears in the name of the monotheistic god of Islam as Allah ({{transliteration|ar|DIN|al-Lāh}}).{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/faithgod.html |title=God |work=Islam: Empire of Faith |publisher=PBS|access-date=18 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327034958/http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/faithgod.html|archive-date=27 March 2014}}"Islam and Christianity", Encyclopedia of Christianity (2001): Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews also refer to God as Allāh.{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/allah-COM_0047|title=Allah|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam Online|first=L.|last=Gardet|access-date=2 May 2007|editor1-first=P.|editor1-last=Bearman|editor2-first=Th.|editor2-last=Bianquis|editor3-first=C.E.|editor3-last=Bosworth|editor4-first=E.|editor4-last=van Donzel|editor5-first=W.P.|editor5-last=Heinrichs|publisher=Brill Online|archive-date=3 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403114258/https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/allah-COM_0047|url-status=live}} which literally means "the god" in Arabic. Islam is strictly monotheistic{{cite book|last1=Hammer|first1=Juliane|last2=Safi|first2=Omid|title=The Cambridge Companion to American Islam|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-107-00241-8|page=213|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=OBPKKFUyZaUC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} and the first statement of the shahada, or Muslim confession of faith, is that "there is no {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ʾilāh}} (deity) but Allah (God)",{{cite book|last1=Yust|first1=Karen Marie|last4=Johnson|first4=Aostre N.|last5=Sasso|first5=Sandy Eisenberg|last6=Roehlkepartain|first6=Eugene C.|title=Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions|date=2006|isbn=978-1-4616-6590-8|page=300|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=adMkAgAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} who is perfectly unified and utterly indivisible.{{cite book|last1=Piamenta|first1=Moshe|title=The Muslim Conception of God and Human Welfare: As Reflected in Everyday Arabic Speech|date=1983|publisher=Brill Archive|pages=16–17|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=FOIUAAAAIAAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

The term Allah is used by Muslims for God. The Persian word Khuda ({{Langx|fa|خدا}}) can be translated as god, lord or king, and is also used today to refer to God in Islam by Persian, Urdu, Tat and Kurdish speakers. The Turkic word for god is Tengri; it exists as Tanrı in Turkish.

File:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg (12th century BCE to 150 BCE), Paleo-Hebrew (10th century BCE to 135 CE), and square Hebrew (3rd century BCE to present) scripts]]

{{Main|God in Judaism|Yahweh|Tetragrammaton|Elohim|Names of God in Judaism}}

Judaism affirms the existence of one God (Yahweh, or YHWH), who is not abstract, but He who revealed himself throughout Jewish history particularly during the Exodus and the Exile.{{rp|4}} Judaism reflects a monotheism that gradually arose, was affirmed with certainty in the sixth century "Second Isaiah", and has ever since been the axiomatic basis of its theology.{{rp|4}}

The classical presentation of Judaism has been as a monotheistic faith that rejected deities and related idolatry.{{cite book|last1=Terry|first1=Michael|title=Reader's Guide to Judaism|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-94150-5|pages=287–288|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Aw5EAgAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}} However, states Breslauer, modern scholarship suggests that idolatry was not absent in biblical faith, and it resurfaced multiple times in Jewish religious life. The rabbinic texts and other secondary Jewish literature suggest worship of material objects and natural phenomena through the medieval era, while the core teachings of Judaism maintained monotheism.{{cite book|last1=Kochan|first1=Lionel|title=Jews, Idols, and Messiahs: The Challenge from History|date=1990|publisher=B. Blackwell|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-631-15477-8|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=fWVsQgAACAAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}{{Page needed|date=June 2017}}

According to Aryeh Kaplan, God is always referred to as "He" in Judaism, "not to imply that the concept of sex or gender applies to God", but because "there is no neuter in the Hebrew language, and the Hebrew word for God is a masculine noun" as he "is an active rather than a passive creative force".{{cite book|last1=Kaplan|first1=Aryeh|title=The Aryeh Kaplan Reader: The Gift He Left Behind : Collected Essays on Jewish Themes from the Noted Writer and Thinker|date=1983|publisher=Mesorah Publications|location=Brooklyn, NY|isbn=978-0-89906-173-3|pages=144–145|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=bv5lmlmRmbwC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

{{Main|Hayyi Rabbi}}

{{Further|Mandaeism}}

In Mandaeism, Hayyi Rabbi (lit=The Great Life), or 'The Great Living God',{{Citation|last=Nashmi|first=Yuhana|title=Contemporary Issues for the Mandaean Faith|website=Mandaean Associations Union|date=24 April 2013|url=http://www.mandaeanunion.com/history-english/item/488-mandaean-faith|access-date=8 October 2021|archive-date=31 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031155605/http://www.mandaeanunion.com/history-english/item/488-mandaean-faith|url-status=live}} is the supreme God from which all things emanate. He is also known as 'The First Life', since during the creation of the material world, Yushamin emanated from Hayyi Rabbi as the "Second Life."{{cite book|last=Buckley|first=Jorunn Jacobsen|title=The Mandaeans: ancient texts and modern people|publisher=Oxford University Press|publication-place=New York|year=2002|isbn=0-19-515385-5|oclc=65198443}} "The principles of the Mandaean doctrine: the belief of the only one great God, Hayyi Rabbi, to whom all absolute properties belong; He created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into the human body. So He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman."{{Citation|last=Al-Saadi|first=Qais|title=Ginza Rabba "The Great Treasure" The Holy Book of the Mandaeans in English|website=Mandaean Associations Union|date=27 September 2014|url=http://www.mandaeanunion.com/component/k2/itemlist/category/45-mandaean-identity|access-date=8 October 2021|archive-date=16 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716214027/http://www.mandaeanunion.com/component/k2/itemlist/category/45-mandaean-identity|url-status=live}} Mandaeans recognize God to be the eternal, creator of all, the one and only in domination who has no partner.Hanish, Shak (2019). The Mandaeans In Iraq. In {{cite book|last=Rowe|first=Paul S.|title=Routledge Handbook of Minorities in the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bOF1DwAAQBAJ&q=Routledge+Handbook+of+Minorities+in+the+Middle+East|page=163|year=2019|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-3172-3379-4|place=London and New York|access-date=20 May 2022|archive-date=30 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730071808/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Routledge_Handbook_of_Minorities_in_the/bOF1DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Routledge+Handbook+of+Minorities+in+the+Middle+East&printsec=frontcover|url-status=live}}

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{{Further|Indigenous Philippine folk religions|Philippine mythology|List of Philippine mythological figures}}

Anitism, composed of an array of indigenous religions from the Philippines, has multiple pantheons of deities. There are more than a hundred different ethnic groups in the Philippines, each having their own supreme deity or deities. Each supreme deity or deities normally rules over a pantheon of deities, contributing to the sheer diversity of deities in Anitism.The supreme deity or deities of ethnic groups are almost always the most notable.Anitism: a survey of religious beliefs native to the Philippines, SK Hislop – Asian Studies, 1971 {{ISBN?}}

For example, Bathala is the Tagalog supreme deity,F. Landa Jocano: Outline of Philippine Mythology (1969) Mangechay is the Kapampangan supreme deity,"Pampangan Folklore", Alfredo Nicdao, (1917) Malayari is the Sambal supreme deity,Jean Karl Gaverza The Myths of the Philippines (2014) {{ISBN?}} Melu is the Blaan supreme deity,Mabel Cook Cole, Philippine Folk Tales (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1916), pp. 141–142. Kaptan is the Bisaya supreme deity,John Maurice Miller in his 1904 collection Philippine Folklore Stories and so on.

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{{Further|Creator in Buddhism|Buddhist deities}}

Although Buddhists do not believe in a creator deity,{{cite book|last1=McClelland|first1=Norman C.|title=Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma|date=2010|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, NC|isbn=978-0-7864-5675-8|page=136}} deities are an essential part of Buddhist teachings about cosmology, rebirth, and saṃsāra. Buddhist deities (such as devas and bodhisattvas) are believed to reside in a pleasant, heavenly realm within Buddhist cosmology, which is typically subdivided into twenty six sub-realms.{{cite book|last1=Trainor|first1=Kevin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PrloTKuAjwC|title=Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517398-7|location=New York|page=62|language=en|access-date=4 October 2017|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111060833/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PrloTKuAjwC|url-status=live}}{{rp|35}}

Devas are numerous, but they are still mortal; they live in the heavenly realm, then die and are reborn like all other beings. A rebirth in the heavenly realm is believed to be the result of leading an ethical life and accumulating very good karma. A deva does not need to work, and is able to enjoy in the heavenly realm all pleasures found on Earth. However, the pleasures of this realm lead to attachment (upādāna), lack of spiritual pursuits, and therefore no nirvana.{{rp|37}} Nonetheless, according to Kevin Trainor, the vast majority of Buddhist lay people in countries practicing Theravada have historically pursued Buddhist rituals and practices because they are motivated by their potential rebirth into the deva realm.{{cite book|last1=Fowler|first1=Merv|title=Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices|date=1999|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|location=Brighton|isbn=978-1-898723-66-0|page=65|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=A7UKjtA0QDwC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|quote=For a vast majority of Buddhists in Theravadin countries, however, the order of monks is seen by lay Buddhists as a means of gaining the most merit in the hope of accumulating good karma for a better rebirth.}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book|last1=Gowans|first1=Christopher|title=Philosophy of the Buddha: An Introduction|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-46973-4|page=169|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbU4Hd5lro0C|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111060836/https://books.google.com/books?id=EbU4Hd5lro0C|url-status=live}} The deva realm in Buddhist practice in Southeast Asia and East Asia, states Keown, include gods found in Hindu traditions such as Indra and Brahma, and concepts in Hindu cosmology such as Mount Meru.{{rp|37–38}}

Mahayana Buddhism also includes different kinds of deities, such as numerous Buddhas, bodhisattvas and fierce deities.

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{{Main|Hindu deities|Deva (Hinduism)|Devi|God in Hinduism|Ishvara|Bhagavan}}

The concept of God varies in Hinduism, it being a diverse system of thought with beliefs spanning henotheism, monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism and monism among others.{{cite book|last1=Lipner|first1=Julius|author-link=Julius J. Lipner|title=Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, Oxon|isbn=978-0-415-45677-7|page=8|edition=2nd|quote=(...) one need not be religious in the minimal sense described to be accepted as a Hindu by Hindus, or describe oneself perfectly validly as Hindu. One may be polytheistic or monotheistic, monistic or pantheistic, even an agnostic, humanist or atheist, and still be considered a Hindu.}}{{cite book|last1=Chakravarti|first1=Sitansu S.|title=Hinduism, a Way of Life|date=1992|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishing|location=Delhi|isbn=978-81-208-0899-7|pages=71|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=J_-rASTgw8wC|page=71}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

In the ancient Vedic texts of Hinduism, a deity is often referred to as Deva (god) or Devi (goddess).{{rp|496}} The root of these terms mean "heavenly, divine, anything of excellence".{{rp|492}} Deva is masculine, and the related feminine equivalent is devi. In the earliest Vedic literature, all supernatural beings are called Asuras.{{rp|5–11, 22, 99–102}}{{rp|121}} Over time, those with a benevolent nature become deities and are referred to as Sura, Deva or Devi.{{rp|2–6}}{{cite book|last1=Gier|first1=Nicholas F.|title=Spiritual Titanism: Indian, Chinese, and Western Perspectives|date=2000|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany, NY|isbn=978-0-7914-4528-0|pages=59–76}}

Devas or deities in Hindu texts differ from Greek or Roman theodicy, states Ray Billington, because many Hindu traditions believe that a human being has the potential to be reborn as a deva (or devi), by living an ethical life and building up saintly karma.{{cite book|last1=Billington|first1=Ray|title=Understanding Eastern Philosophy|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-79348-8|pages=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055833/https://books.google.com/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} Such a deva enjoys heavenly bliss, till the merit runs out, and then the soul is reborn again into Saṃsāra. Thus deities are henotheistic manifestations, embodiments and consequence of the virtuous, the noble, the saint-like living in many Hindu traditions.

{{Main|Shinto}}

Shinto is polytheistic, involving the veneration of many deities known as {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}},{{sfnm|1a1=Littleton|1y=2002|1p=23|2a1=Cali|2a2=Dougill|2y=2013|2p=13}} or sometimes as {{lang|ja-Latn|jingi}}.{{sfnm|1a1=Bocking|1y=1997|1p=70|2a1=Hardacre|2y=2017|2p=31}} In Japanese, no distinction is made here between singular and plural, and hence the term {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} refers both to individual {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} and the collective group of {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}}.{{sfnm|1a1=Boyd|1a2=Williams|1y=2005|1p=35|2a1=Cali|2a2=Dougill|2y=2013|2p=13}} Although lacking a direct English translation,{{sfn|Earhart|2004|p=8}} the term {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} has sometimes been rendered as "god" or "spirit".{{sfnm|1a1=Earhart|1y=2004|1p=2|2a1=Cali|2a2=Dougill|2y=2013|2p=13}} The historian of religion Joseph Kitagawa deemed these English translations "quite unsatisfactory and misleading",{{sfn|Kitagawa|1987|p=36}} and various scholars urge against translating {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} into English.{{sfnm|1a1=Offner|1y=1979|1p=194|2a1=Bocking|2y=1997|2p=84}} In Japanese, it is often said that there are eight million {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}}, a term which connotes an infinite number,{{sfnm|1a1=Nelson|1y=1996|1p=29|2a1=Littleton|2y=2002|2p=24}} and Shinto practitioners believe that they are present everywhere.{{sfn|Hardacre|2017|p=1}} They are not regarded as omnipotent, omniscient, or necessarily immortal.{{sfnm|1a1=Boyd|1a2=Williams|1y=2005|1p=35|2a1=Hardacre|2y=2017|2p=52}}

{{Main|Taoism|Chinese mythology|Chinese gods and immortals}}

Taoism is polytheistic religion. The gods and immortals （神仙） believed in by Taoism can be roughly divided into two categories, namely "gods" and "xian". "Gods" refers to deities and there are many kinds, that is, heaven gods/celestials （天神）, earth spirits （地祇）, wuling （物灵, animism, the spirit of all things）, netherworld gods （地府神灵）, gods of human body （人体之神）, gods of human ghost （人鬼之神）etc. Among these "gods" such as heaven gods/celestials （天神）, earth spirits（地祇）, netherworld gods（阴府神灵）, gods of human body （人体之神） exist innately."Xian" is acquired the cultivation of the Tao，persons with vast supernatural powers, unpredictable changes and immortality.{{cite web |last1=武当山道教协会 |first1=武当山道教协会 |title=道教神仙分类 |url=http://www.wdsdjxh.com/detail.php?id=51 |access-date=29 January 2024 |archive-date=26 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126153241/http://www.wdsdjxh.com/detail.php?id=51 |url-status=dead }}

File:Padmavati.JPG

{{Main|God in Jainism|Deva (Jainism)}}

Jainism does not believe in a creator, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal God; however, the cosmology of Jainism incorporates a meaningful causality-driven reality, including four realms of existence (gati), one of them being deva (celestial beings, gods).{{rp|351–357}} A human being can choose and live an ethical life, such as being non-violent (ahimsa) against all living beings, and thereby gain merit and be reborn as deva.{{rp|357–358}}{{cite book|last1=Wiley|first1=Kristi L.|title=The A to Z of Jainism|date=2004|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6337-8|page=186|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=cIhCCwAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

Jain texts reject a trans-cosmic God, one who stands outside of the universe and lords over it, but they state that the world is full of devas who are in human-image with sensory organs, with the power of reason, conscious, compassionate and with finite life.{{rp|356–357}} Jainism believes in the existence of the soul (Self, atman) and considers it to have "god-quality", whose knowledge and liberation is the ultimate spiritual goal in both religions. Jains also believe that the spiritual nobleness of perfected souls (Jina) and devas make them worship-worthy beings, with powers of guardianship and guidance to better karma. In Jain temples or festivals, the Jinas and Devas are revered.{{rp|356–357}}{{cite book|last1=Kelting|first1=M. Whitney|title=Heroic Wives Rituals, Stories and the Virtues of Jain Wifehood |date=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-973679-9|pages=44–48|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=-txAd-dK0tEC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}

File:Taq-e Bostan - High-relief of Ardeshir II investiture.jpg (center) with Mithra (left) and Ahura Mazda (right) at Taq-e Bostan, Iran]]

{{Main|Ahura Mazda}}

Ahura Mazda ({{IPAc-en|ə|ˌ|h|ʊ|r|ə|ˌ|m|æ|z|d|ə}});{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ahura%20mazda |title=Ahura Mazda |publisher=Merriam-Webster |access-date=11 June 2017 |archive-date=7 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180707153613/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ahura%20Mazda |url-status=live }} is the Avestan name for the creator and sole God of Zoroastrianism.{{citation|last=Boyce|first=Mary|chapter=Ahura Mazdā|title=Encyclopaedia Iranica|location=New York|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|year=1983|volume=1|pages=684–687}} The literal meaning of the word Ahura is "mighty" or "lord" and Mazda is wisdom. Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism, taught that Ahura Mazda is the most powerful being in all of the existence{{citation|last=Andrea|first=Alfred|author2=James H. Overfield|title=The Human Record: Sources of Global History : To 1700|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2000|edition=Illustrated|volume=4|page=86|isbn=978-0-618-04245-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tiz6jbjgSjEC&q=ahura+mazda&pg=PA87|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002212/https://books.google.com/books?id=tiz6jbjgSjEC&q=ahura+mazda&pg=PA87|url-status=live}} and the only deity who is worthy of the highest veneration. Nonetheless, Ahura Mazda is not omnipotent because his evil twin brother Angra Mainyu is nearly as powerful as him. Zoroaster taught that the daevas were evil spirits created by Angra Mainyu to sow evil in the world and that all people must choose between the goodness of Ahura Mazda and the evil of Angra Mainyu. According to Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda will eventually defeat Angra Mainyu and good will triumph over evil once and for all. Ahura Mazda was the most important deity in the ancient Achaemenid Empire.{{citation|last=Bromiley|first=Geoffrey|title=The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Q-Z|year=1995|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-3784-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OJvO2jMCr8C|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=30 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830091414/https://books.google.com/books?id=6OJvO2jMCr8C|url-status=live}} He was originally represented anthropomorphically, but, by the end of the Sasanian Empire, Zoroastrianism had become fully aniconic.

File:Lightning cloud to cloud (aka).jpg argued that belief in deities arose when humans observed natural phenomena such as lightning and attributed such phenomena to supernatural beings.]]

{{See also|Evolutionary origin of religions|Evolutionary psychology of religion|Neurotheology}}

Attempts to rationally explain belief in deities extend all the way back to ancient Greece.{{rp|311–317}} The Greek philosopher Democritus argued that the concept of deities arose when human beings observed natural phenomena such as lightning, solar eclipses, and the changing of the seasons.{{rp|311–317}} Later, in the third century BCE, the scholar Euhemerus argued in his book Sacred History that the gods were originally flesh-and-blood mortal kings who were posthumously deified, and that religion was therefore the continuation of these kings' mortal reigns, a view now known as Euhemerism.{{cite book|last1=Winiarczyk|first1=Marek|title=The "Sacred History" of Euhemerus of Messene|date=2013|translator-last=Zbirohowski-Kościa|translator-first=Witold|publisher=Walther de Gruyter|location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-11-029488-0|pages=27–68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWS8TUTWLvAC&q=Sacred+History|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002219/https://books.google.com/books?id=OWS8TUTWLvAC&q=Sacred+History|url-status=live}} Sigmund Freud suggested that God concepts are a projection of one's father.{{cite journal|last1=Barrett|first1=Justin L.|last2=Keil|first2=Frank C.|title=Conceptualizing a Nonnatural Entity: Anthropomorphism in God Concepts|journal=Cognitive Psychology|date=December 1996|volume=31|issue=3|pages=219–247|doi=10.1006/cogp.1996.0017|pmid=8975683|url=http://www.yale.edu/cogdevlab/aarticles/conceptualizingnonnaturalentity.pdf|access-date=28 June 2017|citeseerx=10.1.1.397.5026|s2cid=7646340|archive-date=27 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327024245/http://www.yale.edu/cogdevlab/aarticles/conceptualizingnonnaturalentity.pdf|url-status=live}}

A tendency to believe in deities and other supernatural beings may be an integral part of the human consciousness.{{cite journal|last1=Atran|first1=Scott|last2=Norensayan|first2=Ara|title=Religion's evolutionary landscape: Counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion|journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences|date=2005|volume=27|issue=6|pages=713–770|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~ara/Manuscripts/AtranNorenzayanBBS.pdf|doi=10.1017/S0140525X04000172|pmid=16035401|s2cid=1177255|access-date=24 January 2018|archive-date=31 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131185248/http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~ara/Manuscripts/AtranNorenzayanBBS.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Spiegel|first1=Alex|title=Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196|work=NPR|agency=National Public Radio|publisher=National Public Radio, Inc.|date=30 August 2010|access-date=24 January 2018|archive-date=25 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125134546/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Alleyne|first1=Richard|title=Humans 'evolved' to believe in God: Humans may have evolved to believe in God and superstitions because it helps them co-ordinate group action better, scientists claim.|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/richard-alleyne/6146411/Humans-evolved-to-believe-in-God.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090910070521/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/richard-alleyne/6146411/Humans-evolved-to-believe-in-God.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 September 2009|work=The Daily Telegraph|agency=The Daily Telegraph|date=7 September 2009}}{{cite book|last1=Barrett|first1=Justin L.|author-link=Justin L. Barrett|title=Born Believers: The Science of Children's Religious Belief|date=2012|publisher=Free Press|location=New York City|isbn=978-1-4391-9657-1|pages=15|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JVJsakBCGGQC&q=Why+did+humans+evolve+to+believe+in+deities%3F|ref=Barrett|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=31 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831002237/https://books.google.com/books?id=JVJsakBCGGQC&q=Why+did+humans+evolve+to+believe+in+deities%3F|url-status=live}}{{rp|2–11}} Children are naturally inclined to believe in supernatural entities such as gods, spirits, and demons, even without being introduced into a particular religious tradition.{{rp|2–11}} Humans have an overactive agency detection system,{{cite book|last=Guthrie|first=Stewart Elliot|title=Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-19-506901-3}}{{rp|25–27}} which has a tendency to conclude that events are caused by intelligent entities, even if they really are not. This is a system which may have evolved to cope with threats to the survival of human ancestors: in the wild, a person who perceived intelligent and potentially dangerous beings everywhere was more likely to survive than a person who failed to perceive actual threats, such as wild animals or human enemies.{{rp|2–11}} Humans are also inclined to think teleologically and ascribe meaning and significance to their surroundings, a trait which may lead people to believe in a creator-deity.{{cite journal|last1=Keleman|first1=Deborah|title=The scope of teleological thinking in preschool children|journal=Cognition|date=1999|volume=70|issue=3|pages=241–272|url=https://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2013/08/1999_Kelemen_Scope.pdf|doi=10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00010-4|pmid=10384737|s2cid=29785222|access-date=25 January 2018|archive-date=24 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324191533/http://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2013/08/1999_Kelemen_Scope.pdf|url-status=live}} This may have developed as a side effect of human social intelligence, the ability to discern what other people are thinking.

Stories of encounters with supernatural beings are especially likely to be retold, passed on, and embellished due to their descriptions of standard ontological categories (person, artifact, animal, plant, natural object) with counterintuitive properties (humans that are invisible, houses that remember what happened in them, etc.).{{cite web|url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/bec/papers/boyer_religious_concepts.htm|title=Functional Origins of Religious concepts|last=Boyer|first=Pascal|access-date=19 December 2009|author-link=Pascal Boyer|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010010146/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/bec/papers/boyer_religious_concepts.htm|archive-date=10 October 2009}} As belief in deities spread, humans may have attributed anthropomorphic thought processes to them,{{cite book|last=Boyer|first=Pascal|title=Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought|publisher=Basic Books|year=2001|author-link=Pascal Boyer|isbn=978-0-465-00695-3|url=https://archive.org/details/religionexplaine00boye}} leading to the idea of leaving offerings to the gods and praying to them for assistance, ideas which are seen in all cultures around the world.

Sociologists of religion have proposed that the personality and characteristics of deities may reflect a culture's sense of self-esteem and that a culture projects its revered values into deities and in spiritual terms. The cherished, desired or sought human personality is congruent with the personality it defines to be gods. Lonely and fearful societies tend to invent wrathful, violent, submission-seeking deities, while happier and secure societies tend to invent loving, non-violent, compassionate deities. Émile Durkheim states that gods represent an extension of human social life to include supernatural beings. According to Matt Rossano, God concepts may be a means of enforcing morality and building more cooperative community groups.{{cite journal |last=Rossano |first=Matt |title=Supernaturalizing Social Life: Religion and the Evolution of Human Cooperation |journal=Human Nature (Hawthorne, NY) |year=2007 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=272–294 |doi=10.1007/s12110-007-9002-4 |pmid=26181064 |s2cid=1585551 |url=http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/mrossano/recentpubs/Supernaturalizing.pdf |access-date=21 June 2009 |archive-date=3 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303101304/http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/mrossano/recentpubs/Supernaturalizing.pdf |url-status=live }}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Portal|Religion|Society}}

{{col div|colwidth=30em}}

• Aeon (Gnosticism)
• Apotheosis
• Deicide
• Existence of God
• Hero cult
• Imperial cult
• List of deities
• List of deities in fiction
• Third man factor

{{colend}}

{{Reflist|30em

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{{Clear}}

{{Theism}}

{{Theology}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Divinity

Category:Heaven