Atheism - Communism - Christian communism or communalism

Humanism - Agnosticism - Materialism - Enlightenment

Animism - Pantheism - Panentheism - Monism

Deism - Theism - Monotheism - Polytheism

Modernism and Secularism

Empiricism - Determinism - Logical Positivism - Monolatry - Pragmatism - Rationalism - Relativism

Immanent - Transcendent

Other Terms and definitions

Atheism:
    The belief that there is no god or the lack of belief in a god. The position held by a person or persons that 'lack belief' in god(s) and/or deny that god(s) exist
    Critique and denial of metaphysical beliefs in God or divine beings.
    Unlike agnosticism, which leaves open the question of whether there is a God, atheism is a positive denial. It is rooted in an array of philosophical systems. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Democritus and Epicurus argued for it in the context of materialism. In the 18th century David Hume and Immanuel Kant, though not atheists, argued against traditional proofs for God's existence, making belief a matter of faith alone. Atheists such as Ludwig Feuerbach held that God was a projection of human ideals and that recognizing this fiction made self-realization possible. Marxism exemplified modern materialism. Beginning with Friedrich Nietzsche, existentialist atheism proclaimed the death of God and the human freedom to determine value and meaning. Logical positivism holds that propositions concerning the existence or nonexistence of God are nonsensical or meaningless.

Communism:
    Political theory advocating community ownership of all property, the benefits of which are to be shared by all according to the needs of each.
    The theory was principally the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Their Communist Manifesto (1848) further specified a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” a transitional stage Marx called socialism; communism was the final stage in which not only class division but even the organized state—seen by Marx as inevitably an instrument of oppression—would be transcended (see Marxism). That distinction was soon lost, and “communist” began to apply to a specific party rather than a final goal. Vladimir Ilich Lenin maintained that the proletariat needed professional revolutionaries to guide it (see Leninism). Joseph Stalin's version of communism (see Stalinism) was synonymous to many with totalitarianism. Mao Zedong mobilized peasants rather than an urban proletariat in China's communist revolution (see Maoism). European communism (see Eurocommunism) lost most of its following with the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991). See also Communist Party, dialectical materialism, First International, Second International.
    Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat. And the proletariat is the working class, that class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labor and does not draw profit from any kind of capital.
    The atheistic Communism advocated by the USSR was one of the greatest failures of humanity, after the Berlin Wall collapsed and Communism disintegrated.

Christian communism or communalism:
    Christian communism is the common ownership of the means of production. The reference to communism in the book of Acts is having all things in common.
    The Believers Share Their Possessions:
     - 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. (Act.2:44-45). 
    - 32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. 36Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. (Act.4:32-36)
    To explain the kind of communism that the early church practiced it is necessary to understand the sense of brotherhood that the members of the Jerusalem Church had toward each other. It was not, to be sure, an arbitrary communism and bears no relation to communists of today but the principle on which it was based was communistic. They held jobs, bought and sold and made a profit on their earnings, much like you would see in an ideal social democracy. This was the spirit of Pentecost; the beautiful outpouring of unselfishness that was soon to be lost. It was the result of a spiritual oneness that should be an example to us today.
    Saint Benedict's vision was a monastery with its fields and workshops that was self-contained and self-supporting. A monk was to think nothing as being his own property but all belonged to all. This ideal was a type of Christian communism like the apostles practiced. It was the early Christians in Jerusalem that Benedict cited for his precedent, all shared in the common stock. This same type of communalism still exists among the best Christian groups today. Upon arriving to America at Plymouth, the Pilgrims initiated communism and for seven years there was to have been no private ownership of land, and everyone was to have been fed and clothed from the common stock. It didn't last long.
    The thousands of Catholic Orders today are actually "Christian communism, or communalism" like the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Carmelites, etc., and are a very good example of human accomplishment for centuries.
http://latter-rain.com/general/commu.htm

Humanism:
    The system of philosophy based upon human reason, actions, and motives without concern of deity or supernatural phenomena.
    In Renaissance Europe, a cultural impulse characterized by a revival of classical letters, an individualistic and critical spirit, and a shift of emphasis from religious to secular concerns. It dates to the 14th century and the poet Petrarch, though earlier figures are sometimes described as humanists. Its diffusion was facilitated by the universal use of Latin and the invention of movable
    In metaphysics, the doctrine that all of reality is essentially of the nature of matter.

Agnosticism:
    Doctrine that one cannot know the existence of anything beyond the phenomena of experience. It is popularly equated with religious skepticism, and especially with the rejection of traditional Christian beliefs under the impact of modern scientific thought. T.H. Huxley popularized philosophical agnosticism after coining the term agnostic (as opposed to gnostic) in 1869, to designate one who repudiated traditional Judeo-Christian theism but was not a doctrinaire atheist (see atheism). Agnosticism may mean no more than the suspension of judgment on ultimate questions because of insufficient evidence, or it may constitute a rejection of traditional Christian tenets.

Materialism:
    A theory that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that all being and processes and phenomena can be explained as manifestations or results of matter
    A doctrine that the only or the highest values or objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress
    A preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things
    Dialectical materialism: The Marxist theory that maintains the material basis of a reality constantly changing in a dialectical process and the priority of matter over mind.
    Historical materialism: The Marxist theory of history and society that holds that ideas and social institutions develop only as the superstructure of a material economic base.

The Enlightenment:
    Was a movement of thinkers in the 18th century who believed that science could explain everything in nature. There is no need of a god controlling the universe in a "metaphysical" manner.
    The Enlightenment encouraged people to participate in government and to rethink old ideas like feudalism and primogeniture. The thinkers of the Enlightenment encouraged people to use science to explore nature and to question what they had always accepted without questioning.
    The American Revolution was seen by many as a huge achievement for the Enlightenment. Two hundred years ago, our Constitution provided for a government where nobody was above the law. People had freedoms of speech and religion, and the press would be allowed to print any true statement. The Enlightenment also had a negative aspect. Many of the thinkers were atheists, who did not believe in god. They often attacked religion and the faithful. Many were also bloodthirsty in attempting to reach their goals.
    The French Revolution of 1789 overthrows the traditions of the Church and briefly establishes the goddess of Reason, and ended the period known as the Enlightenment. 
    It started with René Descartes in the 17th century, and now with Kant, Rousseau, Voltaire...

Animism:
    Believe that everything has a "soul", an "anima" in Latin, a "spirit"... including animals, plants, rocks, mountains, rivers, stars... each "anima" is powerful, spiritual, that can help or hurt them, including the souls of the dead, the "ancestors".
    For thousands of years they deified animals, stars, idols of any kind... and practiced Spiritism, witchcraft, divination, astrology... and they used magic, spells, enchantments, superstitions, prayers, amulets, talismans, charms... often with the worship of an Absolute, or the Great One...
    Today Animism is represented, among others, by the Mormons, Hinduism and the New Age. They proclaim that every human is God, and their practices will help each one to realize it.

Pantheism - The belief that God is the universe and all that comprises it: laws, motion, matter, energy, consciousness, life, etc. It denies that God is a person and is self aware.
    Doctrine that the universe is God and, conversely, that there is no god apart from the substance, forces, and laws manifested in the universe.
    Pantheism characterizes many Buddhist and Hindu doctrines and can be seen in such Hindu works as the Vedas and the Bhagavadgita. Numerous Greek philosophers contributed to the foundations of Western pantheism. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the tradition was continued in Neoplatonism and Judeo-Christian mysticism. In the 17th century Benedict de Spinoza formulated the most thoroughly pantheistic philosophical system, arguing that God and Nature are merely two names for one reality.

Panentheism -
    The belief that God is in the universe. It differs with pantheism which states that God is the universe and all that it comprises.
    Pantheism and panentheism are not necessarily connected with the notion of either monotheism or polytheism. In both cases the conception of the god or gods is impersonal, which tends, of course, to the conception of one god, of one divine substance, like Spinoza's deus sive natura, “god or nature.” In pantheism god is immanent, in monotheism god is mostly transcendent.

Monism - 
    The view that there is only one basic and fundamental reality, that all existence is this one reality.
    In metaphysics, the doctrine that the world is essentially one substance or contains only one kind of substance.
    Monism is opposed both to dualism and to pluralism. Examples of monism include materialism, pantheism, and metaphysical idealism. See also Benedict de Spinoza.

Deism:
    Belief in God based on reason rather than revelation or the teaching of any specific religion.
    The belief that there is a God but that God is not involved in the world. Deism denies any revelatory work of God in the world whether it be by miracles or by scripture.
    A form of natural religion, Deism originated in England in the early 17th century as a rejection of orthodox Christianity. Deists asserted that reason could find evidence of God in nature and that God had created the world and then left it to operate under the natural laws he had devised. The philosopher Edward Herbert (1583–1648) developed this view in On Truth (1624). By the late 18th century Deism was the dominant religious attitude among Europe's educated classes; it was accepted by many upper-class Americans of the same era, including the first three U.S. presidents.

Theism:
The belief that there is a God and that He is knowable and involved in the world
View that all observable phenomena are dependent on but distinct from one supreme being
The view usually entails the idea that God is beyond human comprehension, perfect and self-sustained, but also peculiarly involved in the world and its events. Theists seek support for their view in rational argument and appeals to experience. Arguments for God's existence are of four principal types: cosmological, ontological, teleological, or moral. A central issue for theism is reconciling. God, usually understood as omnipotent and perfect, with the existence of evil. See also agnosticism, atheism, Deism, monotheism, polytheism, theodicy.

Monotheism:
    Belief in the existence of one god.
    It is distinguished from polytheism. The earliest known instance of monotheism dates to the reign of Akhenaton of Egypt in the 14th century BC. Monotheism is characteristic of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which view God as the creator of the world, who oversees and intervenes in human events, and as a beneficent and holy being, the source of the highest good. The monotheism that characterizes Judaism began in ancient Israel with the adoption of Yahweh as the single object of worship and the rejection of the gods of other tribes and nations without, initially, denying their existence. Islam is clear in confessing one, eternal, unbegotten, unequaled God, while Christianity holds that a single God is reflected in the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

Polytheism:
    Belief in many gods.
    Though Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are monotheistic, most other religions throughout history have been polytheistic. The numerous gods may be dominated by a supreme god or by a small group of powerful gods. The gods originated as abstractions of the forces of nature such as the sky or the sea and of human and social functions such as love, war, marriage, or the arts. In many religions the sky god is powerful and all-knowing (e.g., Dievs), and the earth goddess is maternal and associated with fertility. Gods of death and the underworld (e.g., Osiris and Hel) are also important. In addition to many gods, polytheistic religions generally also include malevolent or benevolent spiritual forces or powers. See also god and goddess.

Other Terms and definitions:

Determinism - The teaching that every event in the universe is caused and controlled by natural law

Empiricism - The proposition that the only source of true knowledge is experience.  Search for knowledge through experiment and observation.  Denial that knowledge can be obtained a priori.

Ethics - Study of right and wrong, good and bad, moral judgment, etc.

Evolution  - Change from simple to complex.  That system of study authored by Charles Darwin that seeks to explain the development of life. 

Freethinker - A person who forms his opinions about religion and God without regard to revelation, scripture, tradition, or experience.

Hedonism - That pleasure is the principle good and proper goal of all action.  Self indulgence.

Immanent:
God is a part of the world and immanent in it. Though only a part, however, his power extends throughout its totality. Pantheism of Hindus, Greeks, Romans

Monolatry - The belief that there are many gods but only one of them is served and worshipped.

Morals - Ethics, the codes, values, principles, and customs of a person or society.

Myth - Something not true, fiction, or falsehood.  A truth disguised and distorted.

Logical Positivism holds that propositions concerning the existence or nonexistence of God are nonsensical or meaningless.

Pragmatism - A method in philosophy where value is determined by practical results.

Rationalism - A branch of philosophy where truth is determined by reason. not by divine revelations

Relativism - The view that truth is relative and not absolute.  It varies from people to people, time to time.

Religion - Generally a belief in a deity and practice of worship, action, and/or thought related to that deity.  Loosely, any specific system of code of ethics, values, and belief.

Theodicy - The study of the problem of evil in the world in relation to the proposition that there is an all powerful good God.

Theology - The study of things pertaining to God and/or the relation of God to the world.  

Transcendent:
    That which is beyond our senses and experience.  Existing apart from matter.
    Transcending, or reaching beyond, the limits of human knowledge; -- applied to affirmations and speculations concerning what lies beyond the reach of the human intellect.

Trinity - The Christian doctrine that there is only one God in existence and that He consists of three separate and ontologically divine persons.

Yin and Yang - A dualistic philosophy of passive and active, good and bad, light and dark, positive and negative, male and female, etc., and that they are in opposition, each is part of the whole and works together.

http://www.britannica.com/
http://www.m-w.com/
http://www.carm.org/atheism/terms.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm