The doctrines of most forms of the three big Western religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) include a belief that God preceded the existence of matter. God either created the material universe, or is a necessary element as its sole perceiver prior to Man. The existence of an omnipresent and omniscient God implies that the physical universe is the object of at least one conscious being – God. So, one might argue that the major Western religions are somewhat idealistic in that “mind” precedes “body”, where “body” is the material world, and that without the original Mind of God, there would be no universe.
Various modern synthesized religions and spiritual organizations have adopted smatterings of mystical content from Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American traditions, and 19th century “mind cure” philosophies. Included in these are “New Thought” variants such as the Unity Church with its “Course in Miracles”, Science of Mind/Religious Science, the Church of Divine Science, and “The Secret” with its Law of Attraction. These do not uniformly and specifically deny external reality, but treat it as something that one’s mental attitudes, meditation, and committed belief can alter, through undefined mystical mechanisms, to the benefit of the believer.
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