Re: Taxonomy of supernatural beings

On Wed, 18 Sep 2002 15:02:06 +0200, Pavel Adamek <pavel.adamek@...>
wrote:
>> If we need to make the distinction,
>> we can usually speak of monotheism vs polytheism.
>
>There are 2 sorts of monotheism:
>
>1) belief in God only and unbelief in gods = monotheism
>2) belief in God and gods = monotheism
I wouldn't consider this monotheism - my understanding of Hinduism
is that it encompasses the belief in many gods, as well as the
belief that all things are a part of one transcendent god (which
could as easily be written God in this case), so I would think that
this qualified as a variety of polytheism instead?

>3) belief in gods only and unbelief in God = polytheism
>4) unbelief in God and unbelief in gods = atheism
>
>> The only trouble here is the boundary one -
>> where exactly is one to draw the line
>> between gods of relatively limited power
>> (belief in which would make you a theist)
>> and powerful jinns/angels/demons
>> (belief in which wouldn't on it's own).
and I guess this is where numinism fits in?

Bfowol