| Category | Sub-Category | Brief Description |
| Atheist | Positive Atheist | Positively believes in the non-existence of a supreme personal God/being |
| Atheist | Negative Atheist | States lack of belief in a supreme personal God/being |
| Agnostic | Closed Agnostic | Doesn’t know if there is a God, and doesn’t believe it is something knowable. |
| Agnostic | “Ignostic” | Doesn’t know if there is a God, and doesn’t really care. |
| Agnostic | Open Agnostic | Doesn’t know if there is a God, but would like to know. |
| Pantheist | Rejects a personal God, but accepts the spiritual interconnectedness of all things. Creation is the holy, and the transcendent. | |
| Panentheist | Similar to pantheist. However, a pantheist may say that God IS everything, while a panentheist would probably say that God IS IN everything (or permeates everything) | |
| Polytheist | Believes in many gods (at least the existence of many gods) | |
| Polytheist | Henotheist | Believes in many gods, but chooses to worship only one |
| Polytheist | Dualist | Believes in two primary Gods. They worship one god, and see themselves as opposed to the other. |
| Monotheist | Believes in one true God. Rejects the term god as applying to other beings. | |
| Monotheist | Deist | Sees God as transcendent creator, who is presently uninvolved in this world. |
| Monotheist | Unitarian | God is one and cannot be seen as divided in any way |
| Monotheist | Binitarian | God is one but can be identified in terms of two persons— Father and Son. |
| Monotheist | Trinitarian | God is one but can be identified in terms of three persons— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit |
| Monotheist | Modalist | God is one and cannot be divided, but changes His form at different times in History or in different settings. |
| Other | Antitheist | Usually just means anti-religious, or in opposition to theists, rather than a statement regarding belief in God |
| Other | Skeptic | Doubts or rejects things that are outside of the mainstream “scientific” and will only diverge from these beliefs with a high level of verifiable evidence. |
| Other | Freethinker | Stands in opposition to Authorities and Tradition for determining what is right or what is important (including authorities that skeptics might accept). |
| Other | Humanist | More ethical in viewpoint than focusing on God or not God. Humanists often would see themselves as Spiritual, but not Religious— or perhaps Spiritual, but not Theistic. |
| Other | Naturalist | One who rejects the existence of any form of existence beyond our universe. (Or one who may accept multiple universes, but would reject one that might be described as “supernatural.) |
Some of these terms I got from Brian McLaren’s book, “Finding Faith.” Some I got elsewhere… don’t remember. Obviously human thought and behavior is far too broad to be encapsulated in a few key terms… but these still help a bit.
MMM -- Mission Musings 