1. Anthropomorphism - attributing human-like characteristics to non-human things. An anthropomorphic god is one conceived of in human form.
When the fatherhood of God is stressed, e.g., as in "God loves us like a loving father or "God listens to your prayers." or when God is thought of as literally "up" there "in" heaven, then the Judaic Christian God is being thought of in anthropomorphic terms.
Related terms: anthropocentric -a human centered conception of something. Think of anthropology. Are omnipotence, omniscience and goodness also anthropomorphic?
2. Pantheism - god is everything or is identical with the entire universe. If you stress the omnipresence and immanence of god then you are close to pantheism; not a personal god; usually stresses the spiritual basis of everything and may even believe that material world is illusory.
Related terms: panentheism - god is in everything. American Indian Religions are somewhat panentheistic since the Great Spirit is found in things, e.g., streams or trees. This is sometimes referred to as animistic.
theism - the belief in a god or gods; a theist is one who believes in god.
atheist - is one who does not believe that there is a god.
agnostic - one who neither believes nor disbelieves in God; one who believes that there is not enough evidence either way. "I don't know if there is a god."
polytheism - the doctrine that there are many gods and goddesses
monotheism - the doctrine that there is one god(dess)
theology - the study of God or the gods.
theodicy - justifying god's goodness in face of the evil in the world.
Mithraism is the worship of Mithra. Of Persian, Indian or Chinese descent; may be an offshoot of Zorastrianism. According to Persian legends, Mithra was born of a rock and a virgin mother called the "Mother of God" and was first attended by shepherds. Mithra was called "the Light of the World." They believed in a heaven and hell and the dualism of good and evil, a final day of judgment, the end of the world as we know it and a general resurrection. Long before Jesus, Dec. 25th was celebrated as the date of Mithra's birth. Mithra was also associated with the sun, and his followers marked Sunday as his day of worship, they called it the Lord's Day. A few of the extra-biblical traditions seem to have found its way to Christianity through Roman Mithraism. Among the milder ceremonies of the followers of Mithra were baptism in holy water and a partaking of a sacred meal of bread and wine. After passing several ordeals the converts were "reborn" as a new man in Mithra. Though Mithra had ascended into heaven he had promised to return and bring life everlasting to his loyal followers.
3. Omniscient - All-knowing. Think of Omni World Theater - all world theater.
Omnipotent - all powerfulOmnipresent - god is everywhere. The Judaic-Christian god is both transcendent and immanent. Both totally "other" and "above" the physical world, but also, supposedly, right here at hand.
Atheists and agnostics in their positive doctrines might call themselves naturalists (the view that the natural world is all there is) or humanists (the view that all values derive from human interests and the view that solutions to problems will come about only through human effort).
4. Proof and evidence. It is often said, "You can't proove God's existence" and even more often, "You can't prove that God doesn't exist." 'Proof' is a word that comes from geometry and mathematics where you begin with basic axioms which are either just given or are intuitively true (e.g., a straight line is the shortest distance between two points) and you deduce other theorems. It is a powerful form of argument because if the axioms (or premises) are true and certain and if your deductions are valid then you can get to other certain truths. The trouble is that you cannot prove or disprove the EXISTENCE of anything. This just isn't how you establish existence. You can give evidence for the existence of things, and the evidence can be scanty or nearly conclusive. The evidence may be direct - just look and see, or indirect - instruments indicating traces or entities postulated by a good theory which explains things (think of sub atomic particles). The BIG point is that it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to "prove" or even give conclusive evidence that something does NOT exist. I can continue to claim that googlagogs exist in Australia even though none have yet been found. I can just say you haven't looked hard enough. Remember however, in theology the dispute is about the existence of a being who is very powerful and creative , and very good and cares about people. It would be odd indeed to claim that such a being existed but there was no evidence or little evidence.
5. Cosmological argument (St Thomas Aquinas): We observe that there are causal processes going on around us, that is we observe that physical things are caused to be the way they are. Now it seems obvious that nothing can cause itself. You cannot have an infinite series of physical causes because if you tried to go on to infinity there wouldn't be anything to get the series started, that is, having an infinite series would be to deny or to take away some cause. But if some cause is taken away, then the effect wouldn't exist. However, we clearly exist; that is things are going on right now. Therefore, there must be a First Cause.
A key Criticism: Aquinas has failed to rule out a universe with an infinite history. If everything is caused there is never a time at which nothing exists. An infinite series takes nothing away; it just denies that any member of the causal series can claim to be FIRST. Therefore, the physical universe could have always been around. Aquinas's philosophy is Thomism.
Other Arguments which attempt to "prove" God's existence are the Ontological (St Anselm), the Teleological or argument from design and arguments from religious experiences. Pascal's Wager Argument is an argument to convince you that it is better to believe than to disbelieve.
The argument runs as follows:
If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose everything (eternal damnation).
Pascal fails to tell you that it depends on what sort of God one is talking about. Bertrand Russell replied that God might send the honest atheist/agnostic to heaves, but send all those to hell who believed for such a self interested reason!
10/05 R. Evans