For the concept of god in the religions abrahamic monotheists , to see God

Gods , goddesses , divinity S , Déité S , and dévas indicates gifted supernatural entities of a longevity and capacities higher than those of the human ones, whose existence is conceived by a certain number of people who in general return a worship to them of which they expect a positive effect. The belief in the gods is widespread in all the cultures since antiquity, but with very great variations in its expression. The gods constitute the central figures of the religious systems, although there are exceptions like the Bouddhisme, the Jaïnisme, the Scientologie and the Mouvement raëlien, and count among the heroes of the Mythologie S.

The French word god comes from the Latin deus , related to the words dies (day), and divum (open sky); it is related with the Sanskrit div and diu , (sky, day and luminosity).

Characteristics

One generally allots to the gods a human thought and emotions, and the conscience of the existence of the human beings with which they deal with superior with inferior by the intermédiare of Rite S, and often of special people (Prêtre S, Prophète S, Medium S, etc). Independently of personification, there can be a radical and irreducible difference between (S) the god (X) and the men, or on the contrary a possible passage, even a fundamental identity, between the human state and the divine state. With personification can superimpose or replace the identification of the god a concept (Unité, Transcendance etc).

One often lends to the gods a human or animal appearance. Their representations in general are codified, sometimes reduced to a symbol, even prohibited. The same god can have several appearances or representations. They are seldom visible in any case, if not through the phenomena interpreted as being their demonstration. They can reside in real places or out of the world (sea, mountain, underground world, sky, building, object, human body, another universe). They can remain continuously in the same place or change some, or be gifted of Ubiquité.

They exert their powers in all kinds of fields, since the natural phenomena until social operation, and particularly in the purely conceptual fields like the Au-delà. One allots sometimes the role to them of creator (of only one thing or the whole universe) or of civilizing. They can have knowledge inaccessible to human, like that of the future or the thoughts of others, or even be Omniscient S.

Place in the religion

Many religions consider the existence of several gods who maintain between them the more or less structured relations, often conceived with the image of the family or social relations. Sometimes, certain gods are regarded as emanations or misadventure S of other gods, or a single paramount divinity. The whole of the gods of a religion is sometimes called the Pantheon. The various religions consider gods different, although there can be coverings, loans and assimilations, as in the case of the three single gods from the abrahamic religions which are often, but always, not considered the same entity, or of the gods of the ancients of Europe compared to the gods of let us panthéons Roman or Greek.

Certain religious systems consider the existence of other entities having functions and capacities similar to those of the gods: genius S or demon S, Holy S, hero, Bodhisattva S, Extraterrestrial S, etc

Various terms were born to qualify certain aspects of the relations of the gods between them, the faithful ones and the universe. Polythéisme indicates a system which admits the existence of several gods, Monothéisme that which recognizes only one god, the distinction between the two not being always obvious, as if the various gods are demonstrations of a paramount divinity or ontological single (case of the Hindouisme for example). Hénothéisme indicates a system polytheist in which a divinity occupies a place infinitely more important than the others, Monolâtrie the exclusive relation between a single god and a particular group (ethnos group, profession). In the dualistic systems , two gods of equal power, a “good” and “bad”, are opposed. The Panthéisme regards the universe itself as divinity. The religious systems atheistic, considering the existence of no divinity, are very rare. The sect raëlienne and the Scientologie are two examples, like certain Western interpretations of Buddhism. Original Buddhism, like its Asian forms, admit the existence of gods, but grant to them only one marginal influence in the human businesses.

In Buddhism

In Buddhism the gods, or deva S, are also beings equipped with extremely favorable living conditions (longevity, power, pleasures, etc) but they acquired them by their former merits. However even if they do not exhaust to all them personal Karma, they are found in the same situation as all the beings of the six fields of existence and must still reappear according to their merits. Their condition is with double slicing since: 1) their faculties can reinforce the direction of their personal value and 2) the facility of their life their fact of neglecting higher stakes. Pride and unconsciousness, they are there two obstacles with the research of the Buddhist Éveil and with the generation of the spirit of Awakening (Bodhicitta). However Bouddha S also occur in the divine field, and some dévas, such as Shiva, are known as to be “converted”. They can be become Bodhisattva S, and it is in this condition only that one will be able to grant any to them devotion.

In this direction the human condition is most favorable to the Awakening, since it is held with the happy medium of the conditions extrèmes of divine ease and infernal overwhelming pressure. This is why it is said that even the gods must pass by our condition to reach the Bouddhéité.

In addition the historical Buddha, called Shakyamuni, should not be confused with God with the Western direction, (even less with one human déifié), nor various the Bouddha S confused with eternal gods, with the direction gréco-Roman. It is above all the beings which entirely conscientisé and brought up to date their ultimate and essential nature, called for that Nature of Buddha. It is them, as well as the Bodhisattva S, which guide us towards the Awakening. Adi-Buddhas, or Paramount Buddhas (Samantabhadra, Vajradhara, etc) are either of personifications of ultimate nature, or of the Bouddha S having never forgotten it.

According to the context and the nuance connoted, the Nature of Buddha carries multiple names, Claire Lumière, Éveil, Dharmakaya, Tathagatagarbha, etc which all are the equivalent of God , ultimate and impersonal, similar in that to the Dào taoist, and the Hindu Brahman.

Moreover all that was known as higher of the gods and of God, compared to Buddhism, can practically be transposed and applied to the Taoïsme and the modern Hindouisme.

Finally a certain consensus seems to be established to call divinities the various gods or déva S, and to hold the term Déités with the Buddhas and others Yidam S being used as support of Méditation, and by there of average of accession to its clean Bouddhéité. .

theosophic approaches

C.W.Leadbeater explains while speaking about devas why: “More the great system of evolution connected with this Ground, is that of the beings which the Hindus call deva S, called elsewhere Ange S, sons of God, etc”. For the theosophists, these devas can be considered minor gods, whose spiritual evolution is higher than that of the human ones.

pagan approaches

For the Pagan ones, the gods are elements, forces and powers immanents. The men can and must reconcile them by the ritual ones of any nature. It is in this condition that the prayers can be heard, according to the Roman formula C rather generalizable C of the to these religions naturalists and ethnic.

The gods in general form a company whose myths tell the origin, the history and manners, describe the power and the often varied spheres of influence. Each mythology constitutes a system whose powers must include/understand the ones compared to the others and never in an isolated and unilateral way. It is false to reduce a divine figure to a simple function or an element naturalist: thus Déméter is not the goddess of the grain, and even less the virtu of the grain, nor Zeus the god of the thunder. The influence of work of James Frazer thus too often mislaid on false tracks and caused misunderstanding.

For certain néo-pagan, by reference to Jung, the gods of mythologies are prototypes, symbolizing the relatively autonomous existence of the universal psychological impulses to which the man is subjected, or with which they must compose for possibly controlling them

Finally Wiccans are duotheists: the Goddess, appears principal, is sometimes adored only as in Wicca dianic. She is the mother and the wife of God. She generates it and marries it annually before he dies in Samhain. She is the Earth, source of any life, it is the fertilizing Sky. This goddess can be called of all known names of goddesses, in the same way God carries multiple epithets borrowed from various mythologies.

Other approaches

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