WORLD RELIGIONS

Detailed explanation-1: -Shinto is polytheistic, involving the veneration of many deities known as kami, or sometimes as jingi. In Japanese, no distinction is made here between singular and plural, and hence the term kami refers both to individual kami and the collective group of kami.

Detailed explanation-2: -Shinto holds that nature has a sense of power and presence that is inescapable and beyond human control or understanding, but sensible in our encounters with it. Its respect to the mystery of nature thus presents to us an alternative way of treating our relationship with nature.

Detailed explanation-3: -The essence of Koshintō is nature worship. It is an animistic religion that regards every element of nature as divine. Mountains, seas, and rivers are all kami (divine spirits or gods), as are the sun, the moon, and the North Star. The wind and thunder are kami.

Detailed explanation-4: -In its purist form the Shinto faith reveres nature. Central to the belief is the assertion that somewhere between Gods and spirits there are Kami.