Deity

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A **Deity** also called **God** is a supernatural being considered divine or sacred. The *Oxford Dictionary of English* defines deity as "a god or goddess (in a polytheistic religion)", or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life". In the English language, a male deity is referred to as a god, while a female deity is referred to as a goddess.

## Description

Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God. A deity need not be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, eternal. A monotheistic God is almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and eternal. Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in a variety of ways such as masculine, feminine, androgynous and gender neutral.

Deities are often thought to be immortal, and are commonly assumed to have personalities and to possess consciousness, intellects, desires, and emotions comparable but usually superior to those of humans. A male deity is a god, while a female deity is a goddess. They were thought to be able to work supernatural miracles and to be the authorities and controllers of various aspects of human life (such as birth or an afterlife). Despite their immortality, some gods can die and be incapacitated but they cannot truly perish and instead reincarnate. Whenever a god perishes, they go through a cycle of reincarnation and are then revived into their "true" forms within the "space beyond space" due to the fact that they are fundamental mythical aspects of reality and thus could never truly be killed. (With the exception of erasement which can could wipe them from existence; however their role would still need to be filled to maintain universal balance).

Some deities were asserted to be the directors of time and fate itself, the givers of human law and morality, the ultimate judges of human worth and behavior, or designers of the Universe, instead of being a natural result of the laws of physics. The boundary between human and divine in most cultures is by no means absolute. Demigods are the offspring from a union of a human with a deity, and most royal houses in Antiquity claimed divine ancestors.

Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as God), polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle; and nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity but accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and may be reborn like any other being.

Although most monotheistic religions traditionally envision their God as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and eternal, none of these qualities are essential to the definition of a "deity" and various cultures conceptualized their deities differently. Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in a variety of ways – masculine, feminine, androgynous and without gender.

Historically, many ancient cultures – including the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Norsemen– personified natural phenomena, variously as either deliberate causes or effects. Some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions, deities were envisioned as manifesting within the temple of every living being's body, as sensory organs and mind. Deities were envisioned as a form of existence (Saṃsāra) after rebirth, for human beings who gain merit through an ethical life, where they become guardian deities and live blissfully in heaven, but are also subject to death when their merit is lost.

## Quotes

* "*That was a god you just encountered. A real mythological god. Most people seem to think that they were fallen angels posing as deities to stray humanity's faith from God, but that was not the case. They were the real deal. The actual gods you've read about in your mythology books. And they're every bit as powerful, grandiose, and dangerous as the legends make them out to be. Watch your back. Any one of them can flatten a whole city, or the world if they're in a really bad mood, in one swoop if provoked. They're egotistical like that, too*."-Gabriel.

* *"When God Most High divided up the nations— when he divided up humankind— he decided the people's boundaries based on the number of the gods. Surely the LORD's property was his people; Jacob was his part of the inheritance"-Deuteronomy 32:8-9 declaring a possible origin of the various gods of the world.-Deuteronomy 32:8-9 declaring a possible origin of the various gods of the world*

* *"But gods are born of ichor and nectar, their excellences already bursting from their fingertips. So they find their fame by proving what they can mar: destroying cities, starting wars, breeding plagues and monsters. All that smoke and savor rising so delicately from our altars. It leaves only ash behind".-Madeline Miller*

* *"deity is what we used to refer to the pagan gods, as to not mistaken them for the Capital G-God. They are figures of worship of religions of old, embodying concepts that ancient humans both feared and revered, heavy emphasized on the fear. In the past, they were a pain in the ass to protect yourself from, though they have significantly mellowed out in the modern era, even becoming more benevolent. Something about needing to become more "angelic" like so that modern worshippers wouldn't be so scared that they changed to other kinder gods and religions, or worse, becoming atheists".-Carl Blck*

## Triva

* Although several gods founded their religions to gain power, God doesn't need this, and admits that he only founded the Three Great Abrahamic Religions to spread His word among humans and nothing else.