Theism

Basic Description

Theism is the position one has that expresses that they believe in a supernatural deity or deities. It is the complete opposite and longtime enemy of Atheism, which is (depending on the usage of the term) the absence, or rejection the belief in the existence of deities, or instead the affirmative proposition that there are no gods at all.

Different Types of Theism

Monotheism

As the name says, monotheism is a form of theism that claims there is only one "true" god and that all the other gods (of all other religions) are false gods. This is the most common form of theism, popularized by the abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity, though, they were not the first religions to do this. Zoroastrianism and Egyptian religions all started various forms of monotheistic religions many centuries earlier.

Deism

- Theism is somewhat like Deism, however the biggest difference between the two is that Deism says that the Creator of the Universe does not intervene with things happening inside it. Theism says that this deity does.

- Although, if theism is defined as the broad belief in the existence of a deity or deities, than deism would be a rather mild subset of theism, which says that the god(s) that do exists don't interfere, especially with human affairs, by means of miracles and thus don't answer prayers. The most common deistic position is that the only supernatural action the god(s) ever did was creating the Universe, and that everything that happened after was simply the result of the natural processes that dictates how the Universe works, without the help of any god(s). Things like worship and the afterlife are often not part of any deistic belief (but there are always exceptions). Deism is contrasted with other types of theism that do claim god(s) perform miracles, answers prayer, and demand to be worshipped, but since the beliefs among deists can vary (some belief in an afterlife, some don't, etc), there is no clear cut distinction within this division.

Polytheism

A form of theism that claims there are multiple gods that are often part of a pantheon like the Greek gods, Norse gods and Egyptian gods.

Pantheism

The belief that all of reality is divine or is synonymous with god, or is at least an aspect of god. Pantheism and paganism/new age beliefs are associated with other, but one certainly does not imply the other.

Panentheism

The belief that god or the divine pervades all aspects of physical reality while also extending outside of it. Differs from Pantheism which holds that everything in the universe is or is part of god.

Misotheism/Maltheism

The belief that a personal god exists, but that said entity is evil or malevolent.