The creation from nothing answers the universally tantalizing question about how we and the world came into being if there was once an infinite nothingness. Many religious systems have answered the question with the belief in, or creation of, a deity—a Supreme Being of some sort—who always existed in some sense and always will exist. Perhaps this concept leads inevitably to monotheism or, at least, monism, the belief that all gods are expressions of one central essence of creation, such as the Hindu Brahman, of whom the great gods and goddesses may be said to be emanations.