Africa Eastern Africa festival is a thanksgiving to
Waaq According to
Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist, the emergence of
doctrinal religions is closely linked to environmental and social factors. He argues that large, densely populated societies—often arising in agriculturally productive regions—required more
formalized religious structures to maintain
social cohesion. In particular, the shift from small, kin-based communities to larger settlements increased the need for moralizing gods and centralized rituals. Additionally, the climatic stability of the
Northern Subtropical Zone during the
Neolithic facilitated surplus food production, enabling religious specialists to emerge and institutionalize belief systems. Dunbar identifies two early monotheistic traditions in sub-Saharan Africa. The
Cushitic-speaking populations of the central Nile Valley (present-day
Sudan) circa
5th millennium BCE worshipped
Waaq, a singular
sky deity whose veneration persists among some Cushitic groups. Later,
Nilotic-speaking societies migrating southward developed or
adopted similar beliefs, with singular deities such as
Engai of the
Maasai, though often combined with ancestral reverence and spirit veneration.
Waaq is the name of a singular
God in the traditional religion of many
Cushitic people in the
Horn of Africa, denoting an early monotheistic religion. However, this religion was mostly replaced with the
Abrahamic religions, such as
Islam in the case of the
Somali. The term
barwaaqo in the Somali language means
prosperity still includes the name of Waaq. The Somali rendition of the Ethiopian
prosperity party is
Xisbiga Barwaaqo. The Somali city of
Abudwak means '
worship Waaq' in Somali. Some
Oromo still follow the traditional monotheistic religion called
Waaqeffanna in the
Oromo language.
Irreechaa is an annual thanksgiving festival celebrated by the Oromo people, primarily in
Ethiopia, marking the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the
harvest. It is a spiritual occasion dedicated to Waaq, the supreme God in traditional Oromo belief, symbolizing gratitude for nature's abundance. The festival is observed in various regions, with its largest celebration taking place in
Addis Ababa, where tens of thousands of people gather near bodies of water to offer prayers, songs, and traditional rituals. Irreechaa not only reflects deep-rooted cultural practices but also promotes unity and peace among the Oromo community and beyond.
Ancient Egypt Atenism and his family adoring the Aten
Amenhotep IV initially introduced
Atenism in Year 5 of his reign (1348/1346 BCE) during the
18th dynasty of the
New Kingdom. He raised
Aten, once a relatively obscure Egyptian
solar deity representing the disk of the sun, to the status of Supreme God in the Egyptian pantheon. To emphasise the change, Aten's name was written in the
cartouche form normally reserved for Pharaohs, an innovation of Atenism. This religious reformation appears to coincide with the proclamation of a
Sed festival, a sort of royal jubilee intended to reinforce the Pharaoh's divine powers of kingship. Traditionally held in the thirtieth year of the Pharaoh's reign, this possibly was a festival in honour of
Amenhotep III, who some Egyptologists think had a
coregency with his son Amenhotep IV of two to twelve years. Year 5 is believed to mark the beginning of Amenhotep IV's construction of a new capital,
Akhetaten (
Horizon of the Aten), at the site known today as
Amarna. Evidence of this appears on three of the boundary
stelae used to mark the boundaries of this new capital. At this time, Amenhotep IV officially changed his name to Akhenaten (
Agreeable to Aten) as evidence of his new worship. In shifting his court from the traditional ceremonial centres Akhenaten was signalling a dramatic transformation in the focus of religious and political power. The move separated the Pharaoh and his court from the influence of the priesthood and from the traditional centres of worship, but his decree had deeper religious significance too—taken in conjunction with his name change, it is possible that the move to Amarna was also meant as a signal of Akhenaten's symbolic death and rebirth. It may also have coincided with the death of his father and the end of the coregency. In addition to constructing a new capital in honor of Aten, Akhenaten also oversaw the construction of some of the most massive
temple complexes in ancient Egypt, including one at
Karnak and one at Thebes, close to the old temple of
Amun. In Year 9 (1344/1342 BCE), Akhenaten declared a more radical version of his new religion, declaring Aten not merely the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon, but the only God of Egypt, with himself as the sole intermediary between the Aten and the Egyptian people. Key features of Atenism included a ban on
idols and other images of the Aten, with the exception of a rayed solar disc, in which the rays (commonly depicted ending in hands) appear to represent the unseen spirit of Aten. Akhenaten made it however clear that the image of the Aten only represented the god, but that the god transcended creation and so could not be fully understood or represented. Aten was addressed by Akhenaten in prayers, such as the
Great Hymn to the Aten: "O Sole God beside whom there is none". The details of Atenist theology are still unclear. The exclusion of all but one god and the prohibition of idols was a radical departure from Egyptian tradition, but scholars see Akhenaten as a practitioner of monolatry rather than monotheism, as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshiping any but Aten. Akhenaten associated Aten with Ra and put forward the eminence of Aten as the renewal of the kingship of Ra. Under Akhenaten's successors, Egypt reverted to its traditional religion, and Akhenaten himself came to be reviled as a heretic.
Other monotheistic traditions Some Egyptian ethical text authors believed in only a single god ruling over the universe.
Central Africa Bukongo' is the traditional religion of the
Kongo people, originating from Central Africa ( the former
"Ntotila kya Kongo" established parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and the Republic of Congo ). It is based on the belief in a supreme God called
Nzambi a Mpungu Tulendo, an abstract, formless entity representing the cycle of the Nza (the Universe) and the source of all life. While it includes practices related to the ancestral community (
bakulu) and natural forces that can be embodied by Nzambi a Mpungu, these entities are regarded as respected intermediaries, not as independent deities. As such, Bukongo can be classified as a hierarchical monotheism, with a spiritual structure centered on a single, supreme God.
Americas Native American religion Native American religions may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or some combination thereof.
Cherokee religion, for example, is monotheist as well as pantheist. The
Great Spirit, called
Wakan Tanka among the
Sioux, According to
Lakota activist
Russell Means a better translation of
Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery. Indeed,
Wakan Tanka among the Lakota was considered a "council of gods" in pre-Columbian times, and their religion is not monotheistic. Some researchers have interpreted
Aztec philosophy as fundamentally monotheistic or panentheistic. While the populace at large believed in a polytheistic pantheon, Aztec priests and nobles might have come to an interpretation of
Teotl as a single universal force with many facets. There has been criticism to this idea, however, most notably that many assertions of this supposed monotheism might actually come from post-Conquistador bias, imposing an Antiquity pagan model onto the Aztec.
Asia South Asia Hinduism displaying his
Vishvarupa (universal form) to
Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra As an old religion,
Hinduism inherits religious concepts spanning monotheism,
polytheism,
panentheism,
pantheism,
monism, and
atheism among others; and its concept of God is complex and depends upon each individual and the tradition and philosophy followed. Hindu views are broad and range from monism, through pantheism and panentheism (alternatively called monistic theism by some scholars) to monotheism and even atheism. Hinduism cannot be said to be purely polytheistic. Hindu religious leaders have repeatedly stressed that while God's forms are many and the ways to communicate with him are many, God is one. The
puja of the
murti is a way to communicate with the abstract one god (
Brahman) which creates, sustains and dissolves creation. and the source of
Vishnu himself, or to be the same as
Narayana. As such, he is therefore regarded as
Svayam Bhagavan. When
Krishna is recognized to be
Svayam Bhagavan, it can be understood that this is the belief of
Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the
Vallabha Sampradaya, and the
Nimbarka Sampradaya, where Krishna is accepted to be the source of all other avatars, and the source of
Vishnu himself. This belief is drawn primarily "from the famous statement of the Bhagavatam" (1.3.28). A viewpoint differing from this theological concept is the concept of
Krishna as an
avatar of
Narayana or
Vishnu. It should be however noted that although it is usual to speak of Vishnu as the source of the avataras, this is only one of the names of the God of
Vaishnavism, who is also known as Narayana,
Vasudeva and Krishna and behind each of those names there is a divine figure with attributed supremacy in Vaishnavism. The Rig Veda discusses monotheistic thought, as do the
Atharva Veda and
Yajur Veda: "Devas are always looking to the supreme abode of Vishnu" (
tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sṻrayaḥ Rig Veda 1.22.20) "The One Truth, sages know by many names" (
Rig Veda 1.164.46) "When at first the unborn sprung into being, He won His own dominion beyond which nothing higher has been in existence" (
Atharva Veda 10.7.31) "There is none to compare with Him. There is no parallel to Him, whose glory, verily, is great." (
Yajur Veda 32.3) The number of auspicious qualities of God are countless, with the following six qualities (
bhaga) being the most important: •
Jñāna (omniscience), defined as the power to know about all beings simultaneously •
Aishvarya (sovereignty, derived from the word
Ishvara), which consists in unchallenged rule over all •
Shakti (energy), or power, which is the capacity to make the impossible possible •
Bala (strength), which is the capacity to support everything by will and without any fatigue •
Vīrya (vigor), which indicates the power to retain immateriality as the supreme being in spite of being the material cause of mutable creations •
Tejas (splendor), which expresses His self-sufficiency and the capacity to overpower everything by His spiritual effulgence In the
Shaivite tradition, the
Shri Rudram (
Sanskrit श्री रुद्रम्), to which the Chamakam (चमकम्) is added by scriptural tradition, is a Hindu
stotra dedicated to
Rudra (an epithet of
Shiva), taken from the
Yajurveda (TS 4.5, 4.7). Shri Rudram is also known as
Sri Rudraprasna, ''
, and Rudradhyaya''. The text is important in
Vedanta where
Shiva is equated to the Universal supreme God. The hymn is an early example of enumerating the
names of a deity, a tradition developed extensively in the
sahasranama literature of
Hinduism. The
Nyaya school of Hinduism has made several arguments regarding a monotheistic view. The Naiyanikas have given an argument that such a god can only be one. In the
Nyaya Kusumanjali, this is discussed against the proposition of the
Mimamsa school that let us assume there were many demigods (
devas) and sages (
rishis) in the beginning, who wrote the Vedas and created the world. Nyaya says that: In other words, Nyaya says that the polytheist would have to give elaborate proofs for the existence and origin of his several celestial spirits, none of which would be logical, and that it is more logical to assume one eternal, omniscient god. Many other Hindus, however, view polytheism as far preferable to monotheism. The famous Hindu revitalist leader
Ram Swarup, for example, points to the
Vedas as being specifically polytheistic, and states that, "only some form of polytheism alone can do justice to this variety and richness."
Sita Ram Goel, another 20th-century Hindu historian, wrote:
Sikhism '', in
Alberta, Canada Sikhi is a monotheistic and a
revealed religion. for a
Central Asian
religion characterized by features of
shamanism,
animism,
totemism, both
polytheism and monotheism, and
ancestor worship. Historically, it was the prevailing religion of the
Bulgars,
Turks,
Mongols, and
Hungarians, as well as the
Xiongnu and the
Huns. It was the state religion of the six ancient Turkic states:
Avar Khaganate,
Old Great Bulgaria,
First Bulgarian Empire,
Göktürks Khaganate,
Eastern Tourkia and
Western Turkic Khaganate. In
Irk Bitig, Tengri is mentioned as
Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks). The term is perceived among
Turkic peoples as a
national religion. In
Chinese and
Turco-Mongol traditions, the Supreme God is commonly referred to as the ruler of Heaven, or the Sky Lord granted with omnipotent powers, but it has largely diminished in those regions due to
ancestor worship,
Taoism's
pantheistic views and Buddhism's
rejection of a creator God. On some occasions in the mythology, the Sky Lord as identified as a male has been associated to mate with an Earth Mother, while some traditions kept the omnipotence of the Sky Lord unshared.
West Asia Abrahamic religions Baháʼí Faith , Germany God in the
Baháʼí Faith is taught to be the Imperishable, uncreated Being Who is the source of existence, too great for humans to fully comprehend. Human primitive understanding of God is achieved through his revelations via his divine intermediary
Manifestations. In the Baháʼí faith, such Christian doctrines as the
Trinity are seen as compromising the Baháʼí view that God is single and has no equal, and the very existence of the Baháʼí Faith is a challenge to the Islamic doctrine of the finality of Muhammad's revelation. God in the Baháʼí Faith communicates to humanity through divine intermediaries, known as
Manifestations of God. The Oneness of God is one of the core teachings of the
Baháʼí Faith. The
obligatory prayers in the Baháʼí Faith involve explicit monotheistic testimony. God is the imperishable, uncreated being who is the source of all existence. He is described as "a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal,
omniscient,
omnipresent and
almighty". Although transcendent and inaccessible directly, his image is reflected in his creation. The purpose of creation is for the created to have the capacity to know and love its creator. God communicates his will and purpose to humanity through intermediaries, known as
Manifestations of God, who are the prophets and messengers that have founded religions from prehistoric times up to the present day.
Christianity is the Christian belief that God is one God in essence but three persons:
God the Father,
God the Son (
Jesus), and
God the Holy Spirit. Among
early Christians, there was considerable debate over the nature of the
Godhead, with some denying the incarnation but not the deity of Jesus (
Docetism) and others later calling for an
Arian conception of God. Despite at least one earlier local
synod rejecting the claim of Arius, this
Christological issue was to be one of the items addressed at the
First Council of Nicaea. The First Council of Nicaea, held in
Nicaea (in present-day
Turkey), convoked by the
Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325, was the first
ecumenical council of
bishops of the
Roman Empire, and most significantly resulted in the first uniform Christian
doctrine, called the
Nicene Creed. With the creation of the creed, a precedent was established for subsequent general ecumenical councils of bishops (
synods) to create statements of belief and
canons of doctrinal
orthodoxy—the intent being to define a common creed for the
Church and address
heretical ideas. One purpose of the council was to resolve
disagreements in
Alexandria over the nature of
Jesus in relationship to the Father; in particular, whether Jesus was of the
same substance as
God the Father or merely of
similar substance. All but two bishops took the first position; while
Arius' argument failed. '', fresco by
Michelangelo (c. 1508–1512) Christian orthodox traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestants) follow this decision, which was reaffirmed in 381 at the
First Council of Constantinople and reached its full development through the work of the
Cappadocian Fathers. They consider God to be a triune entity, called the Trinity, comprising three "
persons",
God the Father,
God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. These three are described as being "of the same substance" (). Christians overwhelmingly assert that monotheism is central to the Christian faith, as the Nicene Creed (and others), which gives the orthodox Christian definition of the Trinity, begins: "I believe in one God". From earlier than the times of the
Nicene Creed, 325 CE, various Christian figures advocated the triune
mystery-nature of God as a normative profession of faith. According to
Roger E. Olson and Christopher Hall, through prayer, meditation, study and practice, the Christian community concluded "that God must exist as both a unity and trinity", codifying this in ecumenical council at the end of the 4th century. Most modern Christians believe the
Godhead is triune, meaning that the three persons of the Trinity are in one union in which each person is also wholly God. They also hold to the doctrine of a
man-god Christ Jesus as
God incarnate. These Christians also do not believe that one of the three divine figures is God alone and the other two are not but that all three are mysteriously God and one. Other Christian religions, including
Unitarianism, Christian Science,
Jehovah's Witnesses,
Mormonism (some groups) and others,
do not share those views on the Trinity. Some Christian faiths, such as some followers of
Mormonism, argue that the Godhead is in fact three separate individuals which include God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, each individual having a distinct purpose in the grand existence of human kind. Furthermore, some Mormons believe that before the Council of Nicaea, the predominant belief among many early Christians was that the Godhead was three separate individuals. In support of this view, they cite early Christian examples of belief in
subordinationism.
Unitarianism is a theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism. Followers of Christian Science "acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God; ... acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness." Some in Judaism and some in Islam do not consider Trinitarian Christianity to be a pure form of monotheism due to the pluriform monotheistic Christian doctrine of the
Trinity, classifying it as
shituf in Judaism and as
shirk in Islam. Trinitarian Christians, on the other hand, argue that the doctrine of the Trinity is a valid expression of monotheism, citing that the Trinity does not consist of three separate
deities, but rather the three
persons, who exist
consubstantially (as one
substance) within a single
Godhead.
Islam In Islam,
God (
Allāh) is
all-powerful and
all-knowing, the Creator, Sustainer, Ordainer and Judge of the universe.
God in Islam is strictly singular (
tawhid) unique (
wahid) and inherently One (
ahad), all-merciful and omnipotent. Allāh exists on the ''
Al-'Arsh'' , but the
Quran states that "No vision can encompass Him, but He encompasses all vision. For He is the Most Subtle, All-Aware." () Islam emerged in the 7th century CE in the context of both Christianity and Judaism, with some thematic elements similar to
Gnosticism. Islamic belief states that
Muhammad did not bring a new religion from God, but rather the same religion as practiced by
Abraham,
Moses,
David,
Jesus and all the other
prophets of God. The assertion of Islam is that the message of God had been corrupted, distorted or lost over time, and the Quran was sent to Muhammad in order to correct the lost message of the
Tawrat (Torah),
Injil (Gospel) and
Zabur. The Quran asserts the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world; a unique and indivisible being who is independent of the creation. The Quran rejects binary modes of thinking such as the idea of a
duality of God by arguing that both
good and evil generate from God's creative act. God is a universal god rather than a local, tribal or parochial one; an absolute who integrates all affirmative values and brooks no evil.
Ash'ari theology, which dominated Sunni Islam from the tenth to the nineteenth century, insists on ultimate divine transcendence and holds that divine unity is not accessible to human reason. Ash'arism teaches that human knowledge regarding it is limited to what has been revealed through the prophets, and on such paradoxes as God's creation of evil, revelation had to accept
bila kayfa (without [asking] how).
Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim
profession of faith, "There is no god but
God, Muhammad is the messenger of God. To attribute divinity to a created entity is the only unpardonable sin mentioned in the Quran. As they traditionally profess a concept of monotheism with a singular entity as God, Judaism although up to the 8th century BCE the Israelites were
polytheistic, with their worship including the gods
El,
Baal,
Asherah, and
Astarte. Yahweh was originally the
national god of the
Kingdom of Israel and the
Kingdom of Judah. During the 8th century BCE, the worship of
Yahweh in Israel was in competition with many other cults, described by the Yahwist faction collectively as
Baals. The oldest books of the
Hebrew Bible reflect this competition, as in the books of
Hosea and
Nahum, whose authors lament the "
apostasy" of the people of Israel, threatening them with the wrath of God if they do not give up their polytheistic cults. As time progressed, the
henotheistic cult of Yahweh grew increasingly militant in its opposition to the worship of other gods. Later, the reforms of
King Josiah imposed a form of strict
monolatrism. After the fall of Judah and the beginning of the
Babylonian captivity, a small circle of priests and scribes gathered around the exiled royal court, where they first developed the concept of Yahweh as the sole God of the world. The
Babylonian Talmud references other, "foreign gods" as non-existent entities to whom humans mistakenly ascribe reality and power. One of the best-known statements of Rabbinic Judaism on monotheism is the Second of
Maimonides'
13 Principles of faith: Some in Judaism and Islam reject the Christian idea of monotheism. Modern Judaism uses the term
shituf to refer to the worship of God in a manner which Judaism deems to be neither purely monotheistic (though still permissible for non-Jews) nor polytheistic (which would be prohibited).
Mandaeism Mandaeism or Mandaeanism ( ''''), sometimes also known as Sabianism, is a monotheistic,
Gnostic, and
ethnic religion.Mandaeans consider
Adam,
Seth,
Noah,
Shem and
John the Baptist to be prophets, with Adam being the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and
final prophet.The Mandaeans believe in one God commonly named
Hayyi Rabbi meaning 'The Great Life' or 'The Great Living God'. The Mandaeans speak a dialect of
Eastern Aramaic known as
Mandaic. The name 'Mandaean' comes from the Aramaic
manda meaning "knowledge", as does Greek
gnosis. The term 'Sabianism' is derived from the
Sabians (, ), a mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the
Quran alongside the Jews, the Christians and the
Zoroastrians as a '
people of the book', and whose name was historically claimed by the Mandaeans as well as by several other religious groups in order to gain the legal protection () offered by
Islamic law. Mandaeans recognize God to be the eternal, creator of all, the one and only in domination who has no partner.
Rastafari Rastafari, sometimes termed Rastafarianism, is classified as both a
new religious movement and
social movement. It developed in
Jamaica during the 1930s. It lacks any centralised authority and there is much heterogeneity among practitioners, who are known as Rastafari, Rastafarians, or Rastas. Rastafari refer to their beliefs, which are based on a specific interpretation of the
Bible, as "Rastalogy". Central is a monotheistic belief in a single God—referred to as
Jah—who partially resides within each individual. The former emperor of Ethiopia,
Haile Selassie, is given central importance. Many Rastas regard him as an incarnation of Jah on Earth and as the
Second Coming of Christ. Others regard him as a human prophet who fully recognised the inner divinity within every individual.
Yazidism (
Tawûsê Melek), the Peacock Angel, functions as the ruler of the world and leader of the other Angels. God in Yazidism created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven
Holy Beings, known as
Angels. The Yazidis believe in a divine Triad. The original, hidden God of the Yazidis is considered to be
remote and inactive in relation to his creation, except to contain and bind it together within his essence. God is referred to by Yazidis as '
, , ', and '''' ('King'), and, less commonly, '
and '. According to some Yazidi hymns (known as
Qewls), God has 1,001 names, or 3,003 names according to other Qewls.
Zoroastrianism (or Ferohar) is one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of a Fravashi (guardian spirit). By some scholars, the Zoroastrians ("Parsis" or "Zartoshtis") are sometimes credited with being some of the first monotheists and having had influence on other world religions. But this theory has been widely criticized, even by Zoroastrians, who consider that their religion believes in two gods, not one god.
Gherardo Gnoli comments that the Islamic conquest of Persia caused a huge impact on the Zoroastrian doctrine: The deity to whom Procopius is referring is the storm god
Perún, whose name is derived from
*Perkwunos, the Proto-Indo-European god of lightning. The ancient Slavs syncretized him with the Germanic god
Thor and the Biblical prophet
Elijah.
Ancient Greek religion Classical Greece from a 17th-century engraving The surviving fragments of the poems of the classical Greek philosopher
Xenophanes of Colophon suggest that he held views very similar to those of modern monotheists. His poems harshly criticize the traditional notion of anthropomorphic gods, commenting that "...if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,... [they] also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have." Instead, Xenophanes declares that there is "...one god, greatest among gods and humans, like mortals neither in form nor in thought." Xenophanes's theology appears to have been monist, but not truly monotheistic in the strictest sense.
Hellenistic religion The development of pure (philosophical) monotheism is a product of the
Late Antiquity. During the 2nd to 3rd centuries,
early Christianity was just one of several competing religious movements advocating monotheism. "
The One" () is a concept that is prominent in the writings of the
Neoplatonists, especially those of the philosopher
Plotinus. In the writings of Plotinus, "The One" is described as an inconceivable, transcendent, all-embodying, permanent, eternal, causative entity that permeates throughout all of existence. 4th century CE Cyprus had, besides Christianity, an apparently monotheistic cult of
Dionysus. The
Hypsistarians were a religious group who believed in a most high god, according to Greek documents. Later revisions of this Hellenic religion were adjusted towards monotheism as it gained consideration among a wider populace. The worship of Zeus as the head-god signaled a trend in the direction of monotheism, with less honour paid to the fragmented powers of the lesser gods.
Oceania Aboriginal Australian religion Aboriginal Australians are typically described as
polytheistic in nature. Although some researchers shy from referring to
Dreamtime figures as "gods" or "deities", they are broadly described as such for the sake of simplicity. In Southeastern Australian cultures, the sky father
Baiame is perceived as the creator of the universe (though this role is sometimes taken by other gods like
Yhi or
Bunjil) and at least among the
Gamilaraay traditionally revered above other mythical figures. Equation between him and the Christian god is common among both missionaries and modern Christian Aboriginals. The
Yolngu had extensive contact with the Makassans and adopted religious practises inspired by those of Islam. The god Walitha'walitha is based on Allah (specifically, with the ''wa-Ta'ala'' suffix), but while this deity had a role in funerary practises it is unclear if it was "Allah-like" in terms of functions.
Andaman Islands The religion of the
Andamanese peoples has at times been described as "animistic monotheism", believing foremost in a single deity,
Pūluga, who created the universe. However, Pūluga is not worshipped, and anthropomorphic personifications of natural phenomena are also known. ==Criticism==