God: An introduction

Information: This section contains an overview of beliefs and teachings about God. A version of this article was originally published on the website www.faithnet.org.uk.

Introduction

When beginning to discuss 'ultimate questions' in Religious Studies, the issue of whether a person believes in God is almost always raised. However, the question of whether a person does or does not believe in 'God', is not as easily resolved as some might think. There is often no straight-forward yes or no answer to the question, 'Do you believe in God', for no other reason than there are numerous versions of what 'God' represents in each of the major world religions, and the various sects/groups (denominations) associated with them.

Key terms

Theist - Person who believes in God.
Theism - Belief in the existence of God.
Atheist - Person who believes that God does not exist.
Atheism - Belief that God does not exist.
Agnostic - Person who is not sure whether God exists, or not.
Agnosticism - Belief that one cannot know whether God exists, or not.
Monotheism - Belief that there is only one God.
Polytheism - Belief that there are many gods.

Picture of William Blake's painting The Ancient of Days

Something to do: Cover the list above and see if you can explain the following terms to someone: Atheist, Theist, Atheism, Theism, Agnosticism. It is always important to learn and use religious terms correctly, especially if you are taking an exam in Religious Studies.

Most people would probably know what an atheist is, and that this word is used to describe a person who does not believe there is a God (or gods). Starting with this word will help you with the others.

If you remember that the letter a in the case of atheist has the idea of negative (like anti, or against), then when you remove this letter you get the opposite of atheist (and atheism). Therefore, someone who believes there is a God is a theist, and belief in the existence of God (or gods) is known as theism. If we add the word poly (meaning many) to the word theism, we then get polytheism (Belief that there are many gods.). However, adding the word mono (meaning one) to theism instead, gives us monotheism (the belief that there is only one God).

Another way of remembering the terms polytheism and monotheism is to think of them as musical references. For example, a polyphonic ring tone on a mobile phone is one that is capable of playing many notes at the same time. Or someone who has a monotone voice, is someone who does not change the tone of their voice when speaking (which would also be related to the word monotonous (or lacking variety)).

Unfortunately there is no easy way to remember agnostic and agnosticism (unless you know that the Greek for knowledge is gnosis, and therefore a+gnosis means a lack of knowledge about something - in this case God's existence). However, one suggestion may be to remember that the word agnosticism has in it the words 'no' and 'is', which suggest a degree of uncertainty (There is no God, or maybe there is).

Someone can still be an atheist, even if they believe in God! For instance, someone who is a member of one religion might deny the existence of God (or gods) in other faith traditions. An example of this would be if a Muslim believed that only Allah exists (Islamic God), but not Brahman (Hindu God) or Waheguru (Sikh God).

Does 'God' exist?

'When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?"' (Quentin Crisp)

When someone says they do not believe in God, the first question we should be asking them is, 'Which God don't you believe in?'. There are many theistic religions in the world, each one claiming to teach us different things about God and how God wants us to live, so which of these many versions of 'God' is the atheist talking about? Now this view view of things could lead to some very interesting conversations. For instance, if a Christian asked an atheist whether they believed in God, and the atheist replied they did not, then as we already alluded to, a Sikh might also agree with the atheist in saying that the Christian God did not exist, even thought they believe in God (Waheguru). However, if the atheist said that what they meant by 'God' is the idea of one Supreme Being who is worshipped by all believers in each different faith tradition, then it is unlikely that a Jew, Christian or Muslim would believe this either, and so they too (despite being theists) would once again agree with the atheist.

Buddhists would also agree with an atheist that God does not exist, and so we could ask all atheists why they do not become Buddhists? An atheist's response to this question will indicate whether they simply want to deny the existence of God, or they object to the presence of religion in the world per se.

There is also the question of different beliefs about God in faith traditions. For instance, some Christians would deny that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, because of the problem this creates for the matter of evil and suffering, yet others would not. Some might say that God does not want women to be priests or leaders in the Church, whereas other Christians might say that God does. So even in Christianity, we find example of people who do not believe that the God other Christians believe in exists, or may be unsure whether that God does (or not).

Another example of a difference in belief about God in one faith tradition, can be found in Hinduism. Hinduism is typically identified as a polytheistic faith, because altogether Hindus are said to worship over 300 million gods! However, Hinduism also teaches that these 300 million gods are each different ways of understanding and relating to the one God, Brahman. Therefore, although polytheistic in practice, Hinduism can be said to be grounded in beliefs which are monotheistic.

Some thoughts on speaking about God

In Christianity, there has been a tendency to refer to God using masculine pronouns (E.g. He, Father, Lord, King etc). Some reasons for doing this are that Jesus 'taught' his disciples to pray 'Our Father', and as a man was God's visible presence on earth (incarnation).

It is interesting to note that apart from Hinduism (which has no identifiable founder), the founders of all the major world religions practiced today are men (Abraham, Gautama Siddhartha (Buddha), Jesus Christ, Muhammad (PBUH), Guru Nanak).

However, in recent years there has been much debate in Christian theological circles about this matter, particularly when we note that the Bible tells us that God is a spirit (John 4:24), and created both men and women in God's image (Genesis 1:27). Some have suggested that to only refer to God as 'He', is to ignore some of the feminine attributes associated with God in the Bible (E.g. Matthew 23:37).

In Tibetan Buddhism, there are not only male but also female Buddhas who are given devotion (E.g. Green Tara (Dolma) - The Mother of all Buddhas).

Referring to God only as 'He' (or any other masculine term such as 'Lord' or 'King'), suggests that women can only relate to God using male-imagery, which some might find difficult to do (or even offensive). For instance, women whose Father has abused them may find using masculine terms for God quite difficult, especially if God is spoken of as our Heavenly Father! Of course, this is a controversial issue and far from being resolved. However, students of theology (and religion) should be aware of the debate surrounding this issue and may, if they feel able to, choose to adopt a more gender-inclusive language when referring to God.

In acknowledgement of the need to use more gender-inclusive terms for 'God', the author of this website has chosen to use the neutral term 'God' or 'Godself' whenever God is referred to. Although this sometimes results in clumsy sentence structure, it is felt that this is a small price to pay in order to avoid greater difficulties and misunderstanding arising, by only using masculine terms.

Something to discuss: Does it make any difference whether we refer to God as a 'He', 'She' or even an 'It'?