A Collection of Understanding

[Fiddlers Green]

This is complicated...
As I believe in staggering levels of power for "deities".
While I only worship 2, I consider others at least valid and worthy of the respect their power demands... but respect does not equate to subservience or worship. I am a child of man, and as such my perspectives are limited to that of a human, and regardless of the greater "cosmic scheme" I will lash out at anything that I perceive as a threat, in the hopes of neutralizing, destroying, or driving it away. This policy applies to gods as readily as it does people. While I consider them different, and possibly more powerful entities, I do not accept that it gives them blanket authority to do as they will. I hate bullies and sadists, especially when they are horrifically more powerful than those they make sport of.
That having been said, I will also give them the same courtesy I would another person... i.e. Showing propper deference and staying my hand while their guest, not speaking ill of them while requesting their succor, ect...
But no more.

I could be considered Maltheist or Dysteist at least, in that I consider balefull gods unfit for adoration, and only fit for appeasement until such time as they can be broken... or reasoned with.
I am not Misotheist in that I don't think disbelief will cause harm to a real god... I am no will-worker, and if something requires a mortal's belief to exist, then it is a sad creature indeed, a lesser creature to those that gave rise to it, in my estimation. Such creatures I will not call gods, not even little gods.

I am somewhat Deistic, in that it ties with the Ignostic part... and my Knowledge of the perversion and lies that some theological traditions have spread into their faiths, for whatever reason.

I'm somewhat Ignostic in that I believe that the human condition's limited scope of understanding (aka not omniscient) makes propper and True knowledge of that beyound us... well... beyound us. Even Gnosis, True Knowledge, can be misinterpreted. wink  

[patch99329]

Hmm, Im a monistic polytheist and a pantheist.
I can't remember what was mentioned before, a hard polytheist with an emanation mythos?

I believe every deity is connected by one force, but so are we and the rest of everything in this universe. They are still completely independant to each other as we are.  

[TeaDidikai]

patch99329

I believe every deity is connected by one force, but so are we and the rest of everything in this universe. They are still completely independant to each other as we are.

I'm not quite sure there is any pantheism present.
I'll have to think on this a bit.  

[Boadicia]

Is there a separate term for believing in two deities, as opposed to many as implied in polytheism? The deities in question may be polar opposites but don't necessarily antagonize each other, such as the good vs. evil concept (e.g. Azura Mazda vs. Ahriman or Jehovah vs. Satan).  

[TeaDidikai]

Boadicia

Is there a separate term for believing in two deities, as opposed to many as implied in polytheism? The deities in question may be polar opposites but don't necessarily antagonize each other, such as the good vs. evil concept (e.g. Azura Mazda vs. Ahriman or Jehovah vs. Satan).

If they are polar opposites then it is dualistic.

If they are not polar opposites then it is ditheism.  

[Elizabeth Tarion]

>> The only return I got on Kathenotheism was Hinduism, which to my knowledge is argued as soft polytheistic. I feel I'm missing something.  

[TeaDidikai]

MoreSpareParts

>> The only return I got on Kathenotheism was Hinduism, which to my knowledge is argued as soft polytheistic. I feel I'm missing something.

The idea is that specific aspects of situations provide the guidelines for the correct deity to worship- usually within a Pantheon.  

[Loona Wynd]

I've always Known myself to be a Polytheist, but I also believe that 1 being created the universe and from them all other deities were born. I don't see them as facets of each other but unique individuals. Would that make me a hard Polytheist?  

[TeaDidikai]

loona wynd

I've always Known myself to be a Polytheist, but I also believe that 1 being created the universe and from them all other deities were born. I don't see them as facets of each other but unique individuals. Would that make me a hard Polytheist?

Is the initial creating force aware?  

[Loona Wynd]

TeaDidikai

loona wynd

I've always Known myself to be a Polytheist, but I also believe that 1 being created the universe and from them all other deities were born. I don't see them as facets of each other but unique individuals. Would that make me a hard Polytheist?

Is the initial creating force aware?

Well, it was energy that became self aware.  

[TeaDidikai]

loona wynd

TeaDidikai

loona wynd

I've always Known myself to be a Polytheist, but I also believe that 1 being created the universe and from them all other deities were born. I don't see them as facets of each other but unique individuals. Would that make me a hard Polytheist?

Is the initial creating force aware?

Well, it was energy that became self aware.

Pantheistic Hard Polytheist?  

[TeaDidikai]

I was issued a correction on my definition of Henotheism and have since updated the first page.

If anything, I think this draws a better continuum between things such as Monism, Pantheism and different Theistic understandings.  

[blindfaith^_^]

I have a question regarding the classifications of monism. I know I'm a monist and in my case I believe everything mental and physical can be broken down into energy and that energy could eventually be broken down into one universal type. I believe from the definitions provided that this is functionalism, but I just wanted to check.

Thanks for the clarification.  

[chaoticpuppet]

blindfaith: I would say that would be more of a neutral monist position, since you're reducing both the physical and mental into a third group.  

[SlaineWildfire]

dictionary.com

mo⋅nol⋅a⋅try
   /məˈnɒlətri/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [muh-nol-uh-tree] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
the worship of only one god although other gods are recognized as existing.

I think it's a little tiny bit misleading to say that only one god is "deserving" of being worshiped. I happen to worship only one at a time, but that doesn't mean the others aren't worthwhile, they're just not being worshiped currently.

Edited so I don't double post:
Also, I realized that I agree with a whole bunch of these things... Weird.

I personally believe that all Gods come from one divine source, which was interpreted by different cultures in different ways so that each believing culture created its own separate pantheon of different, unique divine beings. I also believe that disbelief can harm a God, and that they can "die", in the sense of being returned to the divine source in order to be joined with new formed deities. I also believe that that divine source makes up the universe, and therefore the evidence of divinity is all around us and within us (as we are a part of the universe). And yet, given all that, I choose to actively worship only one Goddess or God at a time in order to learn their lessons and gain their knowledge.