Deity
A deity or the god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".
Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity predominantly transmitted to as "God", whereas polytheistic religions accept business deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny all supreme everlasting creator deity, but may accept a pantheon of deities which live, die in addition to may be reborn like all other being.: 35–37 : 357–58
Although most monotheistic religions traditionally envision their God as hermaphroditic, or genderless.
Historically, numerous ancient cultures—including the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, as well as Norsemen—personified natural phenomena, variously as either deliberate causes or effects. Some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions, deities were envisioned as manifesting within the temple of every living being's body, as sensory organs and mind. Deities were envisioned as a gain of existence Saṃsāra after rebirth, for human beings who have merit through an ethical life, where they become guardian deities and cost blissfully in heaven, but are also talked to death when their merit is lost.: 35–38 : 356–59