God

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In some religions, there are many gods, which are believed to be powerful spirits. See gods.

God with the capital "G" is the Christian word most commonly used to refer to the Jewish word YHWH, who they believe is the highest, most perfect being. Without the capital "G", the word "god" means a deity who has supernatural powers. The name of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim god is YHWH, which can also be written as "Yahweh", or "Jehovah".

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Different kinds of believers

People who believe in just one God are called Monotheists. People who believe in many gods (even if they only worship one of them) are called Polytheists. People who don't think there are gods are called atheists. People who aren't sure if God exists or who do not care are called agnostics. Some agnostics think that it is impossible to know if God exists. People who believe that God is just another term for everything that exists are called Pantheists.

God in the Abrahamic religions

The Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are the most popular monotheistic religions. God's name is unpronounceable (unable to be said) in Hebrew, but some people today call him YHWH (Yahweh) or Jehovah. This is False, Because the HEBREW letters that make up the word, combine into a word that has No Pronunciation. Muslims commonly use the word Allah, which is simply the Arabic word for "The God."

In addition to the standard monotheistic beliefs, many Christians ( but most notably Catholics) believe that the one God exists in three "persons" (the Trinity): the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. God came to Earth in the form of a man (Yeshua) to save humanity. In this sense, God also became man, and when Yeshua prayed and talked to Him, he called him "Father," and taught others to do the same.

Believers in the Abrahamic religions believe that God has created human beings in his image, but this idea is rarely taken literally. It is often considered to be a sin to see God as a person, with a human-like mind and body. God says that if a human being sees his face, he will die instantly. The Abrahamic god's image of an old man with a beard has been used in art since the Renaissance, but is not what Monotheists actually believe him to look like.

God in Eastern religions

Religions like Hinduism and Buddhism involve the worship of many forms of gods, or sometimes no gods at all. It should be noted that the Eastern religions think of the Abrahamic god in different ways than the Western religions (Pantheism, Monism, Henotheism, etc).

Hindu Devas include one all-powerful god called either Ishvara or Brahman, somewhat similar to the god of Abrahamic religions, and other forms of god, also called Devas. In English, these beings are sometimes called gods, since the Hindus worship them in a manner similar to that in which westerners worship their god.

God in Western philosophy

Philosophers often try to understand gods through logic. When philosophers talk about "God," they talk about a being like the one described above, but not about the god of any particular religion. God in philosophy is discussed without any religious texts.

One of the earliest Western philosophers to write about a god was the Greek Aristotle, who describes god as the Supreme Cause. Aristotle sees god as a being that makes everything happen, but is not influenced by anything else.

There are also some philosophical problems about god. One of them is called god paradox. It is a question like whether (an omnipotent) God can make a mountain that is so heavy he cannot lift it.

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