Pantheism

From Wikinfo

Pantheism, simply stated, means "God is All". It is the view that everything is of an all encompassing God. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that natural law, existence and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is was and shall be) is personified in the theological principle of 'God.'

One way to describe certain interpretations of pantheism is to say "you are to God, as an individual blood cell in your vein is to you." While a cell may be aware of its own environs, and even has some choices (free will) between right and wrong (killing a bacteria, becoming cancerous, or perhaps, just doing nothing, among countless others) it has little conception of the greater being of which it is a part. This conception of God can be seen as included within Brahman Hinduism and Taoism. It is important to note that not all modern interpretations of pantheism would find this analogy meaningful; for that matter, not even all pantheists believe in free will. This is indicative of the wide diversity of pantheist belief.

Pantheism is often considered to be tautology by atheists, since it appears to many of them to do little more than re-define the word "God" to mean "world" or "universe." However, there is no significant agreement that making "God" synonymous with "universe" must necessarily make either term any less meaningful. Pantheists maintain that such an arrangement serves to create both a new and a potentially far more insightful conception of both of these terms. One method of explaining this is called the "Absolute Infinite."

Perhaps the most significant debate within the pantheistic community is as to the nature of God. Classical pantheism believes in a personal, conscious, and omniscient deity, and see this deity as uniting all true religions. Others, such as Naturalistic Pantheism, believe in an unconscious, non-sentient universe, which, while being holy and beautiful, is only seen as being a God in an extremely non-traditional and impersonal sense. Finally, some in the United States (see Cosmotheism) have brought the ideas of a hierarchical religious community and worldview, as well as other controversial views (white separatism) of Dr. William Pierce.

The viewpoints encompassed within the pantheistic community are necessarily diverse, but the central ideas of the universe being an all-encompassing unity, a common purpose, and the sanctity of both nature and its natural laws are found throughout. One interesting area is the distinction with Panentheism. While technically the two are separate, based on a subtlety wherein Pantheism finds God synonymous with nature, and Panentheism finds God to be greater than nature alone, many find this distinction unhelpful, and most of the major faiths described as Pantheistic could also be described as Panentheistic.

A few of the more notable people who have held pantheistic world views include Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Stephen Hawking, Giordano Bruno, Henry David Thoreau, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Baruch Spinoza and Lao Tzu. Note that few of these are known to have specifically described themselves by the term "Pantheist."

Quotes

A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge. �Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (1994)

To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals. � Mikhail Gorbachev [1]