[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-42857-en":3,"doc-seo-42857-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},42857,687197100911,"Himbo","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/a000239b6f1da00475?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1782698725881665579",9,"Religion & Spirituality","On Counting Gods","The paper critiques the standard trichotomy for classifying religious belief—monotheism, polytheism, and atheism—arguing that it becomes confused when the key terms for “god” and “deity” are left insufficiently defined. It analyzes what counts as deity, god, and ultimate, surveys historical and scholarly sources raising apparent contradictions, and proposes conservatively revised terminology to clarify classification problems across traditions.","On Counting Gods  \nDALE TUGGY  \nState University of New York at Fredonia  \n[tuggy@fredonia.edu](tuggy@fredonia.edu)  \nAbstract: Our standard scheme for describing and classifying different sorts of religious belief, the trichotomy monotheism-polytheism-atheism, is confused and confusing. In this paper I display some of the confusions and work out a better conceptual scheme, analyzing the concepts deity, god, and ultimate. I then suggest a conservatively revised terminology, discuss historical precedents for this, and show how my suggestions clarify various problems of classification.  \nKeywords: monotheism, atheism, polytheism, theism, deities, religions  \nI. The Confused and Confusing Status quo  \nIsn’t god-terminology easy? Just look at the prefixes: monotheism is belief in exactly one god, polytheism is belief in more than one god, and atheism is belief that the number of gods is zero. This is how analytic philosophy has proceeded in recent times.1 But things are not so simple. The prefixes are perfectly clear; the problem lies with the root word theos (“god”). Exactly what is a god supposed to be?  \nAtheistic philosophers interested in problems of evil will tell you: a perfect being. Contemporary Christian (and sometimes, Judaic and Islamic) philosophers who employ Anselmian, perfect being reasoning will tell you: a perfect being. But consider the gods and goddesses populating the lore of religious mythology, particularly in places with more or less established pantheons, like India, or ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome. Are such beings all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good? Omnipresent? Are they timelessly eternal or everlasting? Are they provident over all times and places? Are they deserving of the worship of all people? Do they exist a se (solely because of themselves, and not because of any other)? Do they necessarily exist, so that it is absolutely impossible that they not exist?  \nIn many cases, the answer is to all of these questions is no. Sometimes in a traditional story, a god is killed. In other cases a god loses both his temper and his self-  \n1 And recent philosophers often use “theism” as shorthand for “monotheism,” although some scholars instead use “theism” to mean the claim that there is at least one god, so that it means the disjunction: monotheism or polytheism.  \ncontrol. Gods have been said to commit rape and murder. Some get together and beget the next generation of gods. Some gods are supposed to be humans or former humans. Some have vast domains of control, but others seem to have little or none. Some, if real, would arguably deserve love. Others, only fear. Others, both. And yet others, neither. In sum, most of them don’t much resemble the perfect being so much discussed by analytic philosophers.  \nIf we listen to scholars outside of analytic philosophy, we will hear some strange sayings. A respected historian of religion has said that “In ancient times, all monotheists were polytheists.” (Fredriksen 2003: 12) What? Aren’t monotheism and polytheism contraries? Is she saying that there was a widespread plague of theological inconsistency in ancient times? Another respected historian and New Testament scholar has argued that first century Jewish monotheism was a distinctive version of high-god polytheism.3 Was this Jewish monotheism, unlike other sorts, patently incoherent, claiming that there is exactly one deity, and also that there are at least two deities? Or are these scholars confused? They sound confused sometimes, as when they insist that monotheism has nothing to do with the number of the gods, but only with their qualities.4  \nAgain, we hear the occasional voice in the wilderness, wondering why polytheism is not considered a serious topic in recent philosophy (Greer 2005; Paper 2005) . This is an excellent question. Since ancient times, polytheism has been viewed as backwards, superstitious, and intellectually disreputable. But why, exactly? And there is often, as with Hume, the assumption ","cbCaingu9BZnf6Hb","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaingu9BZnf6Hb","pdf",513775,4,1,26,"English","en",105,"# The Confused and Confusing Status quo\n## The problem with “theos” (god)\n## Misleading parallels and scholarly disputes\n## Polytheism’s status in philosophy\n## Case studies creating classification tension","[{\"question\":\"Why does the monotheism–polytheism–atheism scheme become confusing?\",\"answer\":\"The prefixes may be clear, but the root concept “god” (“theos”) is not. Real religious beings often fail to match the “perfect being” standard used in analytic definitions.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper treat historical and scholarly claims that seem contradictory?\",\"answer\":\"It examines statements from historians and theologians that challenge straightforward category boundaries, showing how disagreements can result from unclear or mismatched definitions of the relevant terms.\"},{\"question\":\"What terminology revision does the paper propose, and what is its goal?\",\"answer\":\"The paper suggests a conservatively revised terminology for deity, god, and ultimate, aiming to make classifications less arbitrary and to resolve recurring problems where traditions do not fit neatly into the classic labels.\"}]",1783372094,66,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"on-counting-gods","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/on-counting-gods/42857/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-15","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Why does the monotheism–polytheism–atheism scheme become confusing?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The prefixes may be clear, but the root concept “god” (“theos”) is not. Real religious beings often fail to match the “perfect being” standard used in analytic definitions.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the paper treat historical and scholarly claims that seem contradictory?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"It examines statements from historians and theologians that challenge straightforward category boundaries, showing how disagreements can result from unclear or mismatched definitions of the relevant terms.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What terminology revision does the paper propose, and what is its goal?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The paper suggests a conservatively revised terminology for deity, god, and ultimate, aiming to make classifications less arbitrary and to resolve recurring problems where traditions do not fit neatly into the classic labels.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,125,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]