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6. MONOTHEISM & REINCARNATION
Five Models of Existence
1. Semitic model (Judaism & Islam):
God is One Person and there is no other beside Him. God is the creator of both good and evil. Every creation is outside of God and is controlled by Him.
2. Greek model:
God is not the name of A Person but a common noun. Thus Plato speaks of "the gods (hoi theoi), or "the god (ho theos)", in some cases of "god", but then in the same way we would talk of "man", using the word as a generic name. He also speaks of "the divine (to theion)".
Aristotle concluded that "being" primarily refers to the Unmoved Movers, and assigned one of these to each movement in the heavens
3. Vedic Model
In popular Indo-European (Greek and Vedic) religions the deities are anthropomorphic. This is Polytheism, where there is no God who is absolutely supreme or above all others. These beings are in constant interactions and creates their own hierarchy by virtue of the powers they have and powers they acquire and create. This includes Nature gods, spirits and beings that depend on matter and non-matter. These nature gods can be controlled by sacrifices and presents. They do not define good or evil.
4. Buddhist Jain Model:
There are very many beings in the cosmos in different levels of existence and energies. There are both beings and non beings - Purusha and Prakriti. They are in constant flux driven by the laws of existence which are immutable
5. Christian model:
Christians believe that the one God is Triune (the Holy Trinity). However, this is not a denial of monotheism but an affirmation of the complexity of the Divine Being. In human terms God is a Community which thinks and act in unison by nature. This community of God is an Organism. This is a recognition that God cannot be thought of in terms of the human dimensions. There are dimensions beyond our comprehension which are to be taken into consideration. The Eastern Christian Churches proposes the unity of God in that even the creation itself is within the dimension of divine, so that all creations are part of the divine. But part is not whole in that the creation in itself is not God. Thus God is both immanent and Transcendant in
creation.
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