A logical discussion of the different views people hold with regards to the nature of existence

1. EXAMINING THE DIFFERENT
WORLD VIEWS OF GOD AND
RELIGION?
BY: DR.EMAD SALIH

2. EVERYONE HAS HIS OWN VIEW OF THE NATURE OF
EXISTENCE AND HENCE A WAY OF LIFE
• Theism
• Nontheism
• Deism
• Atheism
• Pantheism
• Agnosticism
• Apatheism

3. THEISM
• Definition: A belief in a supreme being (or beings)who is in control of his creation and
who does communicate with his creation.
• Forms Of Theism: Monotheism and Polytheism
• Examples Of Monotheism: Islam and Judaism
• Examples Of Polytheism: Hinduism
• Hard Polytheism: Multiple separate Gods e.g. Hinduism, Shintoism
• Soft Polytheism: Multiple Gods are aspects of one God e.g. Christianity
• Henotheism: Belief in one supreme deity without denying other deities
• Nontheistic Religions: Jainism, Confucianism , Buddhism, Satanism

4. DEISM
• God exists as as the uncaused First Cause
• God does not interact directly with the subsequently created world
• This view rejects revelation as a source of knowledge
• This view rejects the direct intervention of God in the universe.
• Rejects organized religion
• Rejects the existence of a personal relationship between God and Man

5. ATHEISM
• The absence of belief in the existence of deities
• Considers that this universe is all there is and all there will be
• Atheists make their argument claiming that there is a lack of empirical evidence
for a God, the problem of evil, multiple revelations and religions.
• Implicit Atheism: The absence of a theistic belief without a conscious rejection of
it
• Explicit Atheism: The conscious rejection of belief

6. PANTHEISM
• Defined as: A view in which everything is part of an all-encompassing,
immanent God
• All forms of reality are considered as modes of that being
• The universe (The Totality of all existence) and God are identical
• This view denies the transcendence and personality of God
• Panentheism: God is omnipresent in the physical universe but also exists apart
from it as its creator and sustainer
• Auotheism: Belief that one is a deity or worship of oneself

7. AGNOSTICISM
• The view that the existence of the the divine supernatural (God) is unknown or
unknowable.
• They claim that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational
grounds to confirm either the that God exists or that he does not exist.
• Strong (Hard) Agnosticism: The existence or nonexistence of a deity is
unknowable “I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, and neither can you.
• Weak (Soft) Agnosticism: The existence or nonexistence of a deity is currently
unknown but is not necessarily unknowable.

8. APATHEISM
• It is the attitude of apathy towards the existence or non-existence of God
• It is more an attitude than a belief
• The question of existence or non existence if a God is irrelevant and
unnecessary
• Total lack of interest
• The existence of non-existence of God would not have any implications on
morality
• It can be regarded as a practical atheism

9. HOW TO SIFT THROUGH THE MYRIAD OF
DIFFERENT WORLD VIEWS AND RELIGIONS
• If we can prove that there is a First Cause (Creator) that precedes this existence that
would exclude Atheistic, Agnostic, and Pantheistic world views and religions from
our search for the the right view of the nature if existence
• If we can prove that a supernatural events have taken place in the history mankind
and that revelations with firm tangible evidence of their emergence from the
supernatural deity do exist, that would exclude deism and Apatheism from being the
correct view of the nature of existence.
• If we can prove that this deity cannot be except one deity that would exclude
Polytheistic world views and religions.
• We would then be left with monotheistic religions to sift through in order to reach
the correct world view and religion.

10. THANK YOU