Ultimate Reality

Ali Shakeri

The concept of ultimate reality and several approaches to it

There are several approaches to this issue which can be divided into two general categories: Negative approaches and Positive approaches.

Negative approaches:
There are four major groups in this class:

1. Atheism
The main issue in this approach is denying God including divine and material one and one God or several Gods. This point of view has various manifests in different times and places. The title Atheism, by some means, is used as the general title of negative approaches to the concept of ultimate reality.

2. Naturalism
This approach not only denies the existence of Divinity but also all divine beings. They say that there is nothing in the cosmos but material things. Materialism is the most celebrated sect in this group. For instance, Sigmund Freud introduces God as an illusion about parents for children. Naturalism in encountering to religious and ethical matters essays to give a material explanation for them.

3. Agnosticism
It refers to the one who believes that he/she does not have enough knowledge in a specific field, or who thinks he/she con not acquire knowledge in a specific field. It is possible to classify this category into three sections: i. Weak agnosticism In this sect, for example, one who wants to know God, after attempting in this respect, gains neither any proof to prove His existence nor any proof to prove His nonexistence. Average agnosticism (known as philosophical agnosticism) Followers of this sect believe that there is no way for intellect to know God. The difference between this sect and the previous one is that in weak agnosticism, they judge about individuals but in this one they speak as a general principle: human intellect cannot know any metaphysic issue including God. This sect has two subgroups: those who introduce an alternative for intellect in this respect and say that People must have faith

ii.

and believe in God instead of going to find proofs to prove His existence; and those who introduce nothing. iii. Extremist agnosticism Extremist agnostic claims that intellect cannot prove His existence and every belief must be deduced from intellectual proof. They add an ethical decree to their view which says if a person believes in something without any proof, he does an unforgivable mistake because his/her belief affects other people.

4. Skepticism
First of all it must be mentioned that skeptic has doubt about existence or nonexistence of a thing but this doubt can be removed by some proof; in contrast agnostic denies the possibility of knowing. There are two kinds of skepticism: generic and particular. Generic skepticism has doubt about everything including God and all divine brings. Particular skepticism just has doubt about God and divine beings.

Positive approaches
There are two general categories about the personality of God: Personal God or Gods: in this view God is creator and he has knowledge and he does some actions with his creatures. He has free will and can make contact with his creatures. He has specific attributes for himself. Impersonal God: in this view God is not ultra-mundane thing but he is a power that flows within the world. Hence God is not separated form world; both of them are eternal and self-existent. So making contact with him is impossible and also there is no specific attribute for him.

Positive approaches contain five sects:

1. Poly theism
It means there is more than one personal God. Poly theism has 4 sects: Katheno theism, in this sect one worships several Gods, each of which in different circumstances; Heno theism, in Heno theism one believes in various Gods but he/she just worships one of them; and counts the rest as subsidiary god; Monolatory, one believes in a number of Gods but he/she only chooses one of them as accredited and trustworthy God and leaves others aside; Dualism, believing in two Gods that one of them is the God of goodness and the other is the God of badness.

2. Mono theism (Theism)

Theism is the most notable approach within the positive approaches. In theism, there is one personal God who is the creator of all other things. However, there are many supernatural beings in theism but none of them is divine except God. Theists believe that He has all perfect attributes

and has not any attribute in which there is deficiency. Abrahamic religions are the most obvious examples for this approach.

3. Deism
Deism believes that this world is created by a superior being. But He created this world in a system in which the world works by itself and does not need to him anymore. In this approach God created man in way that he naturally can go forward, without getting any help from any supernatural being, just by his intellect and his own abilities. The intellect can prove the existence of God, His different attributes, hereafter and etc. and we have to trust on it in these issues. The product of this approach is natural theology which is in contrast with revealed theology. There are four reports for deism at least: a. deist believes in a God who is above other beings, He is omnipotence, omniscient, pure goodness, creator and He has a complete design for universe, He establishes ethical and religious decrees for human being and the judgment day. Finally, He establishes his/her intellect capable to understanding these issues. This report denies the necessity of prophecy; b. this report denies the judgment day too; c. in this report, the purity of goodness is denied in addition to the previous ones; d. in this report, which is the most extremist report, the design of universe by Him is denied. It says that God just created this universe and leaved it aside.

4. Panentheism
The cosmos, in this approach, and all its realities exist within the God and they are some of His parts. Of course God is not limited by cosmos and He is beyond the cosmos. However, as human is a complex of a soul and a body, cosmos is something like His body. It must be borne in mind that as the soul is the most important part of human, the essence of God is more important than cosmos as His body.

5. Pantheism
Pantheism sees God as not a personal God. In this approach there is no universe but God and whatever exists is God. God, in this approach, is not describable because He is everything. God is not creator, because there is no difference between Him and universe. Actually, in this approach God and cosmos is one thing.1

Ultimate reality, approaches and theories, sayyed akbar husayni, marefat magezin, no.88