Also known as Mani or Manichaeus; Persian philosopher and religious teacher, founder of the Gnostic religion of Manichaeism (see Chapter 201 of Liber Aleph). Crowley's placement of Mani in this position is curious. Mani was a later teacher than Basilides, Valentinus and Bardesanes. Also, whereas these teachers considered themselves Christians, Mani was the founder of an entirely new religion, which claimed to be the culmination of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism. The reader who is unfamiliar with Gnosticism may benefit by reading the sections on Basilides, Valentinus and Bardesanes before proceeding with Mani.
Mani's Persian name was Shuriak, or Cubricus in Latin. He was born in southern Babylonia of noble Persian stock. His father, Patak, was from Ekbatana, and was a religious leader of a Jewish-Christian baptizing sect called the Mughtasilah, founded by a prophet known as Elchasai, and it was within the religious framework of this sect, and under the careful tutelage of his father, that Mani was raised.

[Ibn al-Nadim

The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, an Arabic writer, c. 987, found Mogtasilah, a sect of Sabians in the desert who counted al-Hasih (possibly Arabic for "Elchasai") as their founder.^[9]

The parents of Mani, founder of Manichaeanism were claimed, according to the Cologne Mani-Codex, to have been Elkasites

Elchasaites, were vegetarians and the young Mani had to naturally assist in the harvesting of fruit and vegetables. 

The Mughtasilah practiced a communion of unleavened bread and water and practiced ritual ablutions. 'Mughtasilah' means, 'Those Who Wash Themselves'.]

When he was twelve years old, he experienced a vision in which an Angel named At-Taum, "The Twin," instructed him to withdraw from the Mughtasilah and begin to purify himself with ascetic practices. The Angel returned to Shuriak the young man, and this second time, called upon him to preach a new religion.
In 242 e.v., he proclaimed a new, universal religion at the Persian court of Shapur I, proclaiming himself to be Mani, "The Vessel," the prophesied Paraclete, the divine helper of mankind, and the last of the great prophets. In his new religion, he consciously sought to reconcile the great religions of redemption, Christianity (Gnostic), Zoroastrianism (Zurvanite) and Buddhism (Mahâyâna), in a new Syncretism which also incorporated elements of Greek philosophy and Indian Jainism; while refuting patriarchal Judaism. He was not, at first, well received, and was forced to flee the country. He travelled to Trans-Oxiana (modern Uzbekistan), India and Western China, making converts wherever he went. He intended that his religion be a world-religion, in fact the first world-religion, and he consciously adapted his teaching to accommodate local beliefs and customs. He was regarded by his Christian adherents as the Paraclete, by his Persian followers as the Zoroastrian redeemer Saoshyant, and by his Buddhist disciples as the Avatar Maitreya.

In addition to an extensive body of anti-Manichaean literature in many languages, Mani and Manichaeism have themselves left us numerous texts in Latin, Greek, Coptic, Middle Iranian, Uighur, and Chinese. Manichaeism is, therefore, relatively well understood today. Among the extant Manichaean sacred texts are: The Living Gospel; The Treasure of Life; the Pragmateia; the Book of Mysteries; the Epistles; The Book of Giants; and Psalms and Prayers. These books were, at least in part, considered to have been inspired by Mani's Angel, At-Taum. There is also theShahburagan, a summary of the Manichaean teachings prepared for Shapur I; the Ardahang, a picture-book illustrating Mani's view of the world; and the Kephalaia, a collection of the sayings of Mani.
Mani eventually returned to Persia, where his following had greatly increased. This time, he was favorably received by Shapur and by his successor, Hormisdas I. He was allowed to preach freely, and was even given a city in Khuzistan for his residence. He finally fell victim to the established Zoroastrian priesthood during the reign of Bahram I, the successor of Hormisdas. He was arrested at Gundev Shapur in 276 e.v. and thrown into prison in chains, where he died after 26 days. His corpse was flayed, and his skin was stuffed with straw and nailed to the gate of the city. His Persian followers were then subjected to severe persecution, but Manichaeism outside Persia flourished. Records show the Manichaean religion to have spread to Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Asia Minor, Armenia, Dalmatia, Rome, Spain, Southern Gaul, Trans-Oxiana, Turkestan, India, China and even Tibet.

Karl Raimund Popper CH FBA FRS^[4] (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British^[5] philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics.^[6] He is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century.^[7][8] Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method, in favour of empirical falsification: A theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can and should be scrutinized by decisive experiments. If the outcome of an experiment contradicts the theory, one should refrain from ad hoc maneuvers that evade the contradiction merely by making it less falsifiable. Popper is also known for his opposition to the classical justificationist account of knowledge which he replaced with critical rationalism, "the first non justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy".^[9] In political discourse, he is known for his vigorous defence of liberal democracy and the principles of social criticism that he came to believe made a flourishing "open society" possible.

Personal life[edit]

Family and training[edit]

Karl Popper was born in Vienna (then in Austria-Hungary) in 1902, to upper middle-class parents. All of Karl Popper's grandparents were Jewish, but the Popper family converted to Lutheranism before Karl was born,^[10][11] and so he received Lutheran baptism.^[12] They understood this as part of their cultural assimilation, not as an expression of devout belief.^[13] Karl's father Simon Siegmund Carl Popper was a lawyer from Bohemia and a doctor of law at the Vienna University, and mother Jenny Schiff was of Silesian andHungarian descent. After establishing themselves in Vienna, the Poppers made a rapid social climb in Viennese society: Simon Siegmund Carl became a legal partner^{[clarification needed]} of Vienna's liberal mayor Raimond Grübl and, after his death in 1898, took over the firm (Karl received his middle name from the mayor).^[10] His father was a bibliophile who had 12,000–14,000 volumes in his personal library.^[14] Popper inherited both the library and the disposition from him.^[15]

Popper left school at the age of 16 and attended lectures in mathematics, physics, philosophy, psychology and the history of music as a guest student at the University of Vienna. In 1919, Popper became attracted by Marxism and subsequently joined the Association of Socialist School Students. He also became a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, which was at that time a party that fully adopted the Marxist ideology.^[16] After the June 15, 1919 street battle in the Hörlgasse, when police shot eight of his unarmed party comrades, he became disillusioned by what he saw to be the pseudo-scientific historical materialism of Marx, abandoned the ideology, and remained a supporter ofsocial liberalism throughout his life.

He worked in street construction for a short amount of time, but was unable to cope with the heavy labour. Continuing to attend university as a guest student, he started an apprenticeship as cabinetmaker, which he completed as a journeyman. He was dreaming at that time of starting a daycare facility for children, for which he assumed the ability to make furniture might be useful. After that he did voluntary service in one of psychoanalyst Alfred Adler's clinics for children. In 1922, he did his matura by way of a second chance education and finally joined the University as an ordinary student. He completed his examination as an elementary teacher in 1924 and started working at an after-school care club for socially endangered children. In 1925, he went to the newly founded Pädagogisches Institut and continued studying philosophy and psychology. Around that time he started courting Josephine Anna Henninger, who later became his wife.

In 1928, he earned a doctorate in psychology, under the supervision of Karl Bühler. His dissertation was entitled "Die Methodenfrage der Denkpsychologie" (The question of method in cognitive psychology).^[17] In 1929, he obtained the authorisation to teach mathematics and physics in secondary school, which he started doing. He married in 1930. Fearing the rise of Nazism and the threat of the Anschluss, he started to use the evenings and the nights to write his first book Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie. He needed to publish one in order to get some academic position in a country that was safe for people of Jewish descent. However, he ended up not publishing the two-volume work, but a condensed version of it with some new material, Logik der Forschung (The Logic of Scientific Discovery), in 1934. Here, he criticised psychologism, naturalism, inductionism, andlogical positivism, and put forth his theory of potential falsifiability as the criterion demarcating science from non-science. In 1935 and 1936, he took unpaid leave to go to England for a study visit.

The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers.

ENCOUNTERS between great literary figures are often anticlimactic. The one time that Marcel Proust and James Joyce crossed paths, for example, each reportedly inquired of the other whether he liked truffles, received an affirmative answer, and that was that. When great philosophers bump into each other, however, the results can be more dramatic. Take the sole encounter between Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) and Karl Popper (1902-94). It occurred the night of Oct. 25, 1946, during a meeting of the Moral Science Club in a small and crowded room in Cambridge, England. Though lasting only 10 minutes, it ended up becoming a famous bit of philosophical lore. Wittgenstein was presiding over the meeting; Popper was the invited speaker, addressing the question ''Are there philosophical problems?'' Supposedly Wittgenstein got so angry at Popper's remarks that he picked up a poker from the fireplace and began waving it around in an intimidating way. Then he stormed out of the room. At some point Popper, pressed to give an example proving his claim that there were valid moral rules, said something like, ''Thou shalt not threaten a visiting lecturer with a poker.''

This face-off makes for a great anecdote, but can it sustain a whole book? I wouldn't have thought so before reading ''Wittgenstein's Poker.'' David Edmonds and John Eidinow, both journalists with the BBC, were shrewd enough to spot three terrific angles. First, there is the biographical/historical angle: how did two characters like Wittgenstein and Popper, both of them refugees from the morbid culture of fin de siècle Vienna, come to confront each other in the phlegmatic cloister of Cambridge? Second, there is the detective angle: precisely what happened that night, and why are the surviving witnesses still squabbling about it? Finally, there is the purely intellectual angle: what does the fleeting clash between Wittgenstein and Popper say about the schism in 20th-century philosophy over the significance of language? Can we declare one of the antagonists the victor?

At the time of the poker incident, Wittgenstein was regarded as a sort of deity, at least in Cambridge. ''God has arrived,'' John Maynard Keynes said. ''I met him on the 5:15 train.'' Other philosophers were bewitched by Wittgenstein's incandescent genius, his austere ways, his devotion to rigor and clarity and -- not least -- his good looks and eccentric mannerisms. (Disciples could not resist imitating his way of clapping his hand to his forehead and shouting ''Ja!'') His ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,'' written in the trenches during the First World War, inspired awe with its lapidary, numbered propositions on logic, language, solipsism and the unsayable.

          Bob Doyle, Information Philosopher

Contents

• Information Philosophy and Physics
• The Three Phases or Kinds of Information Emergence
• Quantum Physics
• An Information "Interpretation" of Quantum Mechanics
• Non-Reductive Physicalism
• Downward Causation
• Emergent Dualism
• Consciousness and the Experience Recorder/Reproducer
• Determinism Itself Is Emergent
• Information, Entropy, and Evolution
• A Note on Free Will
• Information and Objective Value
• Slides

Introduction

The problem of mental causation depends heavily on the idea of “causal closure” of the world under "laws of nature." If everything that is caused has a physical cause (whether deterministic or indeterministic), what room is there for mental causes? Must mental events be eliminated - reduced to physicalism at best and epiphenomenalism at worst?
The central question in the classic mind-body problem is how can an immaterial mind move a material body if the “causal chains” are limited to interactions between physical things.
We propose a model or theory of an immaterial mind as the pure information in the biological information-processing system that is the brain and central nervous system. We show how this model can support a non-reductive physicalism and an emergent dualism.
Information is physical, but immaterial. It is neither matter nor energy, although it needs matter for its (temporary) embodiment and energy for its communication - for example to other minds or for storage in the external environment.
Indeterminism in quantum physics breaks the strict “causal chains” that have been used to “reduce” biological phenomena to physics and chemistry and mental events to neural events. But statistical causes remain and they are more than "adequate" to support the idea of self-determination.
Our informational theory of mind is a powerful alternative to the computational theories popular in cognitive science. Biological information processors are profoundly different from digital computers.
We argue against neurobiological reductionism and physical “bottom-up causation.” At the same time, we defend a supervenient statistical “downward causation” that allows free thoughts (mental events that are notpre-determined by past events and the laws of nature) to cause willed actions. Actions are ultimately statistical but “adequately determined” by our motives, reasons, intentions, desires, and feelings, in short, by our character. Our actions are thus determined for practical purposes, but "self-determined," with at least some of the causes originating inside our minds.
We defend an emergent dualism of mind and matter, subject and object, idealism and materialism. Monists might like the idea that information is a neutral quantity that can ground a triple-aspect monism of matter, life, and mind. Information itself is an emergent that did not exist in the early universe. We will show that information structures emerge in three ways and in a temporal sequence, corresponding respectively tomatter, life, and mind.
First is the emergence of "order out of chaos" This has given rise to complexity and chaos theories that try to explain life as a "complex adaptive system." Ilya Prigogine won a Nobel prize for far-from-equilibrium "dissipative" processes that produce information structures, like Bénard convection cells. He called it "order out of chaos." These "complex" systems have no internal information processing. They are "dumb" structures. They do, however, exert a gross "downward causation" over their physical parts.
Second is the emergence of "order out of order." Erwin Schrödinger showed that all life feeds on a stream of negative entropy from the sun. He called this "order out of order." Biological processes rearrange the information in the negative entropy to create and maintain themselves. They are "information-processing systems." Their downward causation is extremely fine, meaning they can exert causal control over component atoms and molecules individually.

Fig.1: Various tropic cues interact to guide the growth cone; the initial role of these cues was identified as either repulsive (red) or attractive (green).

The growth cone is a highly dynamic structure of the developing neuron, changing directionality in response to different secreted and contact-dependent guidance cues; it navigates through the developing nervous system in search of its target. The migration of the growth cone is mediated through the interaction of numerous trophic and tropic factors; Netrins, Slits, Ephrins and Semaphorins are four well-studied tropic cues (Fig.1). The growth cone is capable of modifying its sensitivity to these guidance molecules as it migrates to its target; this sensitivity regulation is an important theme seen throughout development.

Netrins[edit]

Fig.2: Netrin signaling has multiple roles in guidance.

Netrins are diffusible chemoattractive molecules that guide commissural axons across the midline; they are secreted by floor plate cells at ventral midline of the spinal cord.^[1]Netrins establish a gradient to direct commissural axons at a distance; Netrin-2 is expressed broadly in the ventral two thirds of the spinal cord, but not in the floor plate. Mice with Netrin-1 loss-of-function exhibit severe disruption in commissural axon migration; this experiment established the importance of Netrin-1 in guidance decisions.^[2]

Netrin-1 gradient in Xenopus laevis ganglion cell can induce turning of retinal growth cones in vitro to steer axons out of the retina.^[3] Netrin (unc-6, Caenorhabditis eleganshomologue) and its corresponding receptor DCC (Deleted in Colorectal Cancer) were initially identified as an attractive interaction.^[4] DCC, expressed by commissural axons, binds to Netrin with high affinity; inhibiting Netrin/DCC signaling interferes with the attractive turning of retinal growth cones.^[3]

Netrin-1 has also been shown to act as a chemorepellent in vivo for trochlear motor axons that migrate dorsally away from the floor plate.^[5] Interestingly, in Netrin-1 deficient mice, trochlear axon projections are normal,^[2]suggesting the existence of other redundant guidance cues working in tandem with Netrin-1 to repel trochlear axons.

Studies in C. elegans revealed a possible mechanism for Netrin acting as a chemorepulsive agent (Fig.2). Unc-5, a transmembrane protein, is required for dorsal migration of axons in nematodes; it was determined that unc-5 acts as a repulsive receptor for Netrin (unc-6). The switch between attractive and repulsive Netrin signaling can be mediated by misexpression of unc-5 in commissural axons.^[6] Netrin-1/DCC binding induces DCC homodimerization leading to an attractive response; on the other hand, the chemorepellent response is triggered via Netrin-1 binding to unc-5/DCC heterodimers.^[7]

Netrin repulsion can also be mediated by changes in cyclic nucleotide levels; Netrin-1 induces a repulsive response when cAMP signaling is inhibited.^[8] Cis interactions of Netrin/DCC (attractive) and Slit/Robo (repulsive) in commissural axons silence both signaling cues; this illustrates how multiple tropic cues interact to guide the commissural axons to their targets.^[9]

Christianity > Anglican | Catholic | Evangelical | Jehovah's Witnesses | Latter-day Saints | Orthodox |Pentecostal 
Islam | Hinduism | Buddhism | Sikhism | Judaism | Baha'i | Zoroastrianism | more links

Religious Affiliation of History's 100 Most Influential People

Religious Affiliation	% in List
Catholic	31%
Anglican/Episcopalian	13%
Jewish	7%
Atheist	6%
Greco-Roman paganism	6%
Chinese traditional religion/Confucianism	5%
Lutheran	5%
Russian Orthodox	4%
pre-Nicene Christianity	3%
Platonism	3%
Islam	2%
Hindu	2%
Buddhist	2%
Presbyterian	2%
Zoroastrian	2%
Manicheanism	2%
Quaker	2%
Unitarian/Universalist	2%
Calvinist	2%
Jain	1%
Jansenist	1%
United Brethren	1%
Congregationalist	1%
Dutch Reformed	1%
Egyptian paganism	1%
Mongolian shamanism	1%
Taoism	1%
Baptist	1%
Sandemanian	1%
Protestant (denomination unknown)	6%
unknown	5%

The following list of influential figures from world history comes from Michael H. Hart's book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. In the book, Hart provides brief biographies of each of the individuals, as well as reasons for their ranking.

Adherents.com takes no position regarding the validity of Hart's rankings. Certainly ranking the relative historical influence of individuals is a subjective process. We welcome and will by happy to post comments from readers suggesting alternative rankings or names of influential individuals who should be included in the "Top 100." (Please send suggestions to webmaster@adherents.com).

This list of names and their ranks are solely the work of Michael H. Hart. The columns "Religious Affiliation" and "Influence" are the work of Adherents.com. We will readily modify notes if there are any inaccuracies.

Note that many influential philosophies (such as Marxist Communism or Confucianism) are not always classified as organized "religions" in the traditional sense, but are classified as such by sociologists because they are a primary motivational worldview for individuals, cultures or subcultures. Also, many founders never considered themselves adherents of philosophies or religions which later bore their name (e.g., Martin Luther and Lutheranism).

In the table below, where there are two religions listed, the first one is the religion the person was born into. The second was the religion or philosophy the person later joined or founded. Comments in the "Influence" column are in bold when the influence is mainly in the realm of religion and philosophy. 

Trig mnemonics like SOH-CAH-TOA focus on computations, not concepts:

TOA explains the tangent about as well as x2 + y2 = r2 describes a circle. Sure, if you’re a math robot, an equation is enough. The rest of us, with organic brains half-dedicated to vision processing, seem to enjoy imagery. And “TOA” evokes the stunning beauty of an abstract ratio.

I think you deserve better; here’s what made trig click for me.

Motivation: Trig Is Anatomy

Imagine Bob The Alien visits Earth to study our species.

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the excessive mental stress and discomfort^[1] experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time. This stress and discomfort may also arise within an individual who holds a belief and performs a contradictory action or reaction.^[2] For example, an individual is likely to experience dissonance if he or she is addicted to smoking cigarettes and continues to smoke despite believing it is unhealthy.^[3]

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals largely become psychologically distressed. His basic hypotheses are listed below:

1. "The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance"
2. "When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance" ^[1]

Attitude ⟹ Belief Inconsistent with Attitude ⟹ Dissonance

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Being one of the oldest revealed religion of the world, Zarathushtrianism has influenced Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in a major way. Scholars of comparative religions believe that the concept of heaven and hell, resurrection, God and Satan etc., are all Zarathushtrian concepts borrowed subsequently by the Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Three Zarathushtrian priests (the three Majis) are said to have been present at the birth of Jesus Christ. Noted Scholar D.B. Macdonald in "Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory" (pg. 133) writes, "It was Dastur Dinyar, afterwards known as Salman (Solomon-e-Farsi, a learned Zoroastrian priest who helped Mahomed in writing, the Quran (The Quran XVI-105)"
Muhammad the Prophet of Islam was born at Mecca in 570 A.D. He took pride in the act that he was born in the reign of Noshirwan the Just Emperor of Zarathushtrian Iran. Muhammad began to preach in Mecca in 610 A.D. It is believed that the Prophet had constituted a council of advisers of whom Dastur Dinyar was an important member. It is said Prophet Muhammad had issued three 'Ahadnameh' or charters to guarantee protection of person, property, freedom of worship and exemption from the poll tax (the Jaziya) to
a) Farrukh-bin-Shakshan (the brother of Dastur Dinyar)
b) Bahram-bin -Khiradars and
c) The descendants of Adarbad Mahrespand.
Though the authenticity of these 'Firmans' is difficult to prove historically, they do bring out the liberal policy of tolerance ordained by the Prophet. In fact it is said that Muhammad and his son-in-law the Imam Ali had issued such charters to all the "Ahel-e-kitab" or "People of the Book" (i.e. those who followed the teachings of a revealed religion, a designation given to Zarathushtrians, Jews and Christians).
The three Zarathushtrian 'Ahadnameh' first came to light in 1851 more than twelve centuries after they were granted. Sorabji Jamsetji Jeejeebhoy the son of the first Baronet, Sir Jamsetji Jejeebhoy had them published-with the Arabic text and their translation in Persian and Gujarati. As said earlier, it would be difficult to establish with certainty the genuineness of these charters.

The Zoroastrian Origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islaam

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by Darrick T. Evenson. No copyright.

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Greetings!We are the Friends of God International; an international association of followers of "The Good Religion".
The Good Religion was founded in 1737 B.C. by Zarathustra Spitaman of Central Asia (Bactria). He was the first Messenger of the Wise Supreme Being (Ahura Mazda). The Greeks called him Zoro ("Shining") Aster ("Star"). He was born of the Aryan tribe, and spoke a language called Avestan; very similar to Sanskrit.
Zoroastrians refer to him as "Awsho" ("Righteous-Teacher").
At that time the Aryans worshipped many gods and goddesses, with very complicated rites; very similar to the Brahminism of India. The Aryans were divided into castes of priests (Brahmins), warrior-knights, artisans, and workers. The priests taught the people that they had to make sacrifices to the rain god to get rain, to the cattle god if their cattle were sick, to the sky gods, to gods of fertility to make sure their crops grew, their babies were born healthy, etc.
Young Zoroaster was a Seeker of Truth. He would spend many hours asking the priests various questions, and was not satisfied with most of their answers. Then one day, while gatering water, Zoroaster was visited by a Cosmic Being called Vohu Manah (Good Mind) who taught him the "Religion of the Good Mind"; what became known as "the Good Religion".


Vohu Manah (Vohuman) appears to Zoroaster (c. 1737 B.C.) Vohu Manah taught Zoroaster the "Good Religion"; the first Revelation of the Supreme Being (Ahura Mazda) to mankind.
Zoroaster composed a series of 17 Hymns called "Gathas" that composed the core of the Good Religion. He began to sing these hymns to others, and others would sing the hymns. He preached against the caste system, and referred to the gods and goddesses of the priests as "demons". He called for all two-legged creatures (humans) to forsake the "Religion of Demons" and to embrace the worship of the Ahura Mazda ("Supreme-Being Super-Wise") and become Mazdayasni ("Mazda-worshippers").

A store that sells husbands has just opened where a woman may go to choose a husband from among many men. The store is composed of 6 floors, and the men increase in positive attributes as the shopper ascends the flights. 

There is, however, a catch. As you open the door to any floor you may choose a man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go back down except to exit the building. 

So a woman goes to the shopping center to find a husband. 

On the first floor the sign on the door reads: 

Floor 1 - These men have jobs. 

The woman reads the sign and says to herself, "Well, that's better than my last boyfriend, but I wonder what's further up?" So up she goes. 

The second floor sign reads: 

Floor 2 - These men have jobs and love kids. 

How does quantum physics work, you may ask, what is it, and where does it come from?

In this article we discuss a very brief and simplified history of Quantum Mechanics and will quote what the founding fathers of this branch of science had to say about Vedic influence on the development of their theories.

We are not interested in new age mumbo-jumbo. We are interested in understanding what is real and what is false. This is why we, along with all other great minds, consult the Vedic texts. Please read on…

Misotheism is the "hatred of God" or "hatred of the gods" (from the Greek adjective μισόθεος "hating the gods", a compound of μῖσος "hatred" and θεός "god"). In some varieties of polytheism, it was considered possible to inflict punishment on gods by ceasing to worship them^{[citation needed]}. Thus, Hrafnkell, protagonist of the eponymous Icelandic saga set in the 10th century, as his temple to Freyr is burnt and he is enslaved states that "I think it is folly to have faith in gods", never performing another sacrifice, a position described in the sagas as goðlauss "godless". Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology observes that:

It is remarkable that Old Norse legend occasionally mentions certain men who, turning away in utter disgust and doubt from the heathen faith, placed their reliance on their own strength and virtue. Thus in the Sôlar lioð 17 we read of Vêbogi and Râdey á sjálf sig þau trûðu, "in themselves they trusted".^[1]

In monotheism, the sentiment arises in the context of theodicy (the problem of evil, the Euthyphro dilemma). A famous literary expression of misotheistic sentiment isGoethe's Prometheus, composed in the 1770s.

A related concept is dystheism (Greek δύσθεος "ungodly"), the belief that a god is not wholly good, and is possibly evil. Trickster gods found in polytheistic belief systems often have a dystheistic nature. One example is Eshu, a trickster god from Yoruba mythology who deliberately fostered violence between groups of people for his own amusement, saying that "causing strife is my greatest joy."

Some dualist interpretations of Christianity would conclude that demons are gods in those subsets of religions^{[citation needed]}. In that context, misotheism is encouraged for one third of all deities but not the other two thirds. The concept of the Demiurge in some versions of ancient Gnosticism also often portrayed the Demiurge as a generally evil entity.

Many polytheistic deities since prehistoric times have been assumed to be neither good nor evil (or to have both qualities). Thus dystheism is normally used in reference to the Judeo-Christian God. In conceptions of God as the summum bonum, the proposition of God not being wholly good would of course be a contradiction in terms.

A historical proposition close to "dystheism" is the deus deceptor (dieu trompeur) of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, which has been interpreted byProtestant critics as the blasphemous proposition that God exhibits malevolent intent. But Kennington^[2][3] states that Descartes never declared his "evil genius" to be omnipotent, but merely no less powerful than he is deceitful, and thus not explicitly an equivalent to God, the singular omnipotent deity.