Theism
<p ><b>Theism</b>, in the field of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_religion" title="Comparative religion" >comparative religion</a>, is the belief that at least one <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deity" title="Deity" >deity</a> exists.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup>In popular parlance, the term <i>theism</i> often describes the classical conception of God that is found in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism.
The term <i>theism</i> derives from the Greek <i>theos</i> meaning "god". The term <i>theism</i> was first used by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Cudworth" title="Ralph Cudworth" >Ralph Cudworth</a> (1617–88).<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-2" >[2]</a></sup> In Cudworth's definition, they are "strictly and properly called Theists, who affirm, that a perfectly conscious understanding being, or mind, existing of itself from eternity, was the cause of all other things".<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism" title="Atheism" >Atheism</a> is rejection of theism in the broadest sense of theism; i.e. the rejection of belief that there is even one deity.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup> Rejection of the narrower sense of theism can take forms such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism" title="Deism" >deism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism" title="Pantheism" >pantheism</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism" title="Polytheism" >polytheism</a>. The claim that the existence of any deity is unknown or unknowable is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism" title="Agnosticism" >agnosticism</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Hepburn_5-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-Hepburn-5" >[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-RoweRoutledge_6-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-RoweRoutledge-6" >[6]</a></sup> The positive assertion of knowledge, either of the existence of gods or the absence of gods, can also be attributed to some theists and some atheists. Put simply, theism and atheism deal with belief, and agnosticism deals with (absence of) rational claims to asserting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge" title="Knowledge" >knowledge</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-RoweRoutledge_6-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theism#cite_note-RoweRoutledge-6" >[6]</a></sup></p>