See: Cosmology (disambiguation).

Cosmology is the branch of philosophy and metaphysics that deals with the world as the totality of all phenomena in space and time. Presocratic philosophers from the Ionian School are sometimes called cosmologists.

There are many basic cosmological positions that form the foundation of virtually all philosophies and religions. These include:

• Naturism: The universe is all that exists. Any God or gods are a product (derived) of the universe. (Western atheism) Some people confuse naturism with naturalism. The latter is a complete worldview, the former, a cosmological position. Cosmological naturism should also not be comfused wth the position that has one running around naked in the woods.
• Negationism: God does not exist, but is a mere illusion. The universe does not exist; it too is a mere illusion. Everything is mere illusion. (Eastern atheism)
• Pantheism: God and the universe have a
  
  
  
  one to one correspondence. (Hinduism)
• Panentheism: The entire universe is part of God, but God is greater than the universe. (Process theology)
• Dualism: There are two gods and the universe is a product of these gods. (Zoroastrianism, Plato)
• Godism: the universe is an illusion, only God is real and exists. (Eastern philosophy)
• Deism: God created the universe, set everything in motion, and then had nothing more to do with it. (Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin were part of the deist movement)
• Theism: God is the always existent, original being who created a universe intended to be known and creatures intended to know it. (Judaism, Islam and Christianity)
• Subjectivism: I am all that exists. (Solipsism)

These are the main heading. Most, if not all, have adherents with slight variations.

See also

• Cosmogony
• Creationism
• Hylomorphism
• Mechanism (philosophy)
• Monism
• Pre-Socratic philosophy.