Deity
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers, often religiously referred to as a god.
Deities are depicted in a variety of forms, but are also frequently expressed as having human or animal form. Some faiths and traditions consider it blasphemous to imagine or depict the deity as having any concrete form. They are usually immortal, and are commonly assumed to have personalities and to possess consciousness, intellects, desires, and emotions similar to those of humans. Such natural phenomena as lightning, floods, storms, other 'acts of God', and miracles are attributed to them, and they may be thought to be the authorities or controllers of various aspects of human life (such as birth or the afterlife). Some deities are asserted to be the directors of time and fate itself, to be the givers of human law and morality, to be the ultimate judges of human worth and behavior, and to be the designers and creators of the Earth or the universe. Notable deities include Tsui Goab, Mangar-kunjer-kunja, Shiva, Yuanshi Tianzun, Ra, Zeus, Anu, Ahura Mazda, Vesta, Odin, Yahweh, Quetzalcoatl, Ika Omkara, Dirawong, Mars, Exu, Jesus, among others.
See also
- List of deities
- List of Japanese deities
- List of love and lust deities
- List of war deities
- Æsir
- Chthonic deities
- Christianized myths and imagery
- Death deity
- Deifying
- Deva (Buddhism)
- Deva (Hinduism)
- Fairy
- God (male deity)
- Goddess
- Hindu deities
- Life-death-rebirth deity
- Lunar deity
- Mother deity
- Misotheism
- Murthi
- Personhood
- Saint
- Solar deity
- Triad
- Triple deities
- Vaishnava Theology