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FAQ on Scientific Pantheism
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PANTHEISM.
by Paul Harrison.
December 12, 1996.
CONTENTS.
What is the central belief of pantheism?
Why do pantheists believe in pantheism?
What's the evidence for pantheism? How do you know the universe
is divine?
If I accept pantheism, what difference would it make?
Is pantheism just theism in disguise?
Is Pantheism just atheism or humanism in disguise?
What is the difference between pantheism and panentheism?
Does pantheism have anything to do with pantheon or polytheism?
What is the relationship between paganism and pantheism?
Has pantheism got anything to do with animism?
Does pantheism believe that all things are one?
Does pantheism believe that humans are one with nature and the
cosmos?
If God is everything, then surely all actions are God's actions, and
there is no distinction between good and evil?
Does pantheism believe that everything is predetermined and there
is no free will?
Does Pantheism believe in an afterlife for the individual soul?
Without the hope of heaven, what incentive is there to morality?
If there is no personal creator God, wouldn't the universe and
human life have no meaning or purpose?
Nature and the universe are changeable, and sometimes hostile. Isn't
that incompatible with the idea of divinity?
How can we feel gratitude or love or worship towards impersonal
matter?
How can we pray to the universe and nature?
Isn't it idolatry to worship the creation and not the Creator?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the central belief of pantheism?
Pantheism believes that the universe and nature are divine. By this
it means that they deserve a religious reverence. Understanding
them, appreciating their beauty, and preserving nature, should be
the central focus of our lives.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why do pantheists believe in pantheism?
There are several compelling reasons.
1. Most traditional religions have elements which are hard to
believe or to reconcile with common sense, evidence or modern
science. Most pantheists are reared in another religion, and as they
mature come to question what they have been taught. This leads
many people to atheism or humanism.
2. Atheism and humanism don't suffer from the logical or empirical
problems of traditional religions - but many people find them too
cold and dry. They don't provide a sense of positive belonging to
nature and the universe.
3. Nearly everyone feels religious feelings when looking at nature
or the night sky. Most people explain those feelings in terms of the
religion they were taught as children.
Pantheism believes that those feelings are older and more basic
than any traditional religion: they are a natural part of our existence
as natural material beings. They are a recognition of our
participation and belonging as members of nature and the universe.
Pantheism takes those feelings as its basic foundation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What's the evidence for pantheism? How do you know the universe
is divine?
We define the word "divine" by reference to our feelings. If
something is "divine," it means that humans regard it with awe,
reverence, love, feelings of belonging and a recognition of
tremendous power, beauty and mystery.
Almost everyone regards the universe or nature in that way. We
need no faith, no ancient books, to reveal these feelings and
experiences to us. The visions are right in front of our eyes, the
feelings are in our hearts. We only need to recognize them frankly
to accept the universe as divine.
The evidence for this approach is infinitely stronger than for belief
in a personal creator God.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I accept pantheism, what difference would it make?
You would acquire the most positive attitude to existence on earth
in a human body that any religion or philosophy can offer. You
would focus your religious energy on nature and the universe.
Instead of admiring these as evidence of a creator God's glory, you
would love them for themselves. You would gain a much stronger
basis for concern about the environment than any Western religion
can offer.
You would overcome all sense of separation from the earth and
from your own body. If you belong to a traditional religion, you
would replace faith with common sense and science, and reconcile
the religious and the everyday parts of your thinking. You would
express Pantheism through seasonal rituals which would link you
to the earth and universe of which you are part, and through
meditation techniques which allow a direct mystical experience of
nature and matter.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is pantheism just theism in disguise?
No. Theism means belief in a personal God who is greater and
older than the universe. This God may or may not be present in the
universe.
Pantheism says simply that the universe is divine. This is a
statement about the attitude we should adopt towards the universe
and nature - an attitude which we have no choice but to adopt of we
open our eyes to the full awe and mystery of reality.
The universe has some features in common with the God of
traditional religions - its power, immensity, and mystery. But it is
not personal. It has no mind apart from the minds of intelligent
species within it. It is neither loving nor vengeful. It does not sit in
judgement over us and mete out rewards and punishments in an
afterlife.
Before we can really understand the divine cosmos, we must forget
everything we have learned about traditional gods, and learn to look
at what is in front of our eyes with an open mind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
So is Pantheism just atheism or humanism in disguise?
Again: no. Like atheism and humanism, pantheism does not believe
in a personal God separate from the Universe. Like them it is
critical of beliefs that depend on faith in impossibilities, or
unproven revelations in ancient books.
But unlike atheism and humanism, Pantheism adopts a reverent and
religious attitude towards nature and the universe. It affirms our
unity with these, and rejects the idea of human mastery over nature
or human pre-eminence in the cosmos. It takes our relationship to
nature and to the universe as the centre of our religion, our ethics
and our aesthetics.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the difference between pantheism and panentheism?
Panentheists and pantheists share the view that the universe and
every natural thing in it is pervaded by divinity.
However, pan-en-theos means "all-in-God" - that is, the universe is
contained within God, not God in the universe. Panentheists
believe in a God who is present in everything but also extends
beyond the universe. In other words, God is greater than the
universe. Often they also believe that this God has a mind, created
the universe, and cares about each of us personally.
Pantheists believe that the universe itself is divine. They do not
believe in personal or creator gods.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does pantheism have anything to do with pantheon or polytheism?
Only the etymology. In Greek pan means all, theos means god,
while poly means many.
POLYTHEISM is belief in many gods.
The PANTHEON (=all gods) is the collection of classical deities
like Zeus, Hera and so on, or a building in which they are
worshipped.
PANTHEISM (all=god) is a term coined in the eighteenth century
for the belief that everything is God. Very confusingly, some
dictionaries give an alternative definition of pantheism as "belief in
all the gods." However, this use is uncommon today, overlaps with
polytheism, and is quite unrelated to the ideas of modern
pantheism. Hopefully it will die out as understanding of modern
pantheism spreads.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the relationship between paganism and pantheism?
There are many points in common between paganism and
Pantheism. Most pagans say they are pantheists. They too believe
that divinity is manifested everywhere. They too celebrate solstices,
equinoxes and other natural passages. They too have a strong
environmental ethic and a deep love of nature.
Many pagans are straight pantheists, using polytheism as a
metaphoric way of approaching the cosmic divinity. Some people
feel the need for symbols and personages to mediate their
relationship with nature and the cosmos. There is no harm in this,
as long as the symbols help us to connect to Reality and do not
block or distort our view of Reality.
Pantheists can also relate directly to the universe and to nature,
without the need for any intermediary symbols or deities. The
divine cosmos manifests itself directly to us in nature and the night
sky.
However, many pagans are literal polytheists, and believe in magic,
reincarnation, and the irrational. Modern pantheists are not
polytheists, and do not believe in magic, or disembodied spirits.
Most of them do not believe in a personal afterlife, whether through
reincarnation or transport to any kind of non-material "heaven."
If by the irrational, people mean a strongly emotional and aesthetic
approach to nature and the universe, then we support it just as
strongly as any pagan. But we see no conflict in principle between
this and science, reason or logic. The findings of science have often
been abused to harm nature and humans, but to correct the harm we
need better, more ethical science and better public control over
science and technology - not an abandonment of science. Without
science we would have no hope of saving the earth, and no hope of
understanding the universe we live in.
However, if the irrational means abandonment of science, reason
and logic, then pantheists reject it. Once these are abandoned, all
beliefs are equally valid - including racism, fascism and the wildest
superstitions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Has pantheism got anything to do with animism?
Animism is the belief that every living thing in nature - including
trees, plants and even rocks or streams - has its own spirit or
divinity. In primitive societies animism often requires that before
anyone can kill an animal or fell a tree, its natural spirit must be
placated.
Pantheism is in a sense a natural development of animism.
Pantheism celebrates the divinity inherent in the whole of the
universe and nature. This whole possesses the power, the creativity,
the awe and mystery that we need for a supreme divinity.
However, the whole exists through and in its parts. Every natural
thing from the sun to a grain of sand, from a giant sequoia to a
bacterium, partakes of the divinity. Every natural thing has the
numinous quality of being an incarnation of reality, a distinctive
organization of matter with its own unique character and dignity.
Some natural things - like the sun, or the ocean, or trees - possess
that numinous quality in larger measure.
Only animals have nervous systems. But all living things have
communication systems, through which information about the
external world is transmitted by way of chemical and electrical
messages. In this sense they have "spirits." Even inanimate objects
are shaped by and shape their environment and in that sense are
responsive.
The pantheist attitude to all individual natural phenomena is one of
appreciation of beauty, quiet and respectful observation, love and
care. Since it is impossible for us to perceive or grasp the whole
universe or the whole of nature at once, we can revere it in and
through its constituent parts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does pantheism believe that all things are one?
Spinoza, the first modern pantheist, believed that there was only
one substance in the universe, and that was God. This position is
known as substantial monism.
Most modern pantheists are monists in the sense that they believe
there is only one type of substance - matter - rather than two
different and distinct types, spirit and matter. They believe that all
individual things have a common origin with humans, and are
closely interlinked and interdependent in many ways. They and we
interconnect through social systems and ecosystems and the greater
system of Gaia, as well as through gravity and the universe-wide
spread of signals and impacts.
However few modern pantheists would agree with Spinoza's
extreme form of monism. Anyone with eyes can see that matter in
the universe is arranged into distinct individual things: galaxies,
stars, planets, trees, people. This diversity is an essential part of the
beauty of nature and the night sky. Without diversity everything
would be drably monotonous.
Attempts to deny diversity usually end up in claiming that the
visible world is mere illusion. Scientific pantheism believes the
universe is vibrantly real.
So things are one in some senses, and many in other senses. They
are linked in some senses, and separate in others. Anyone who
claims that things are totally united, or totally separate, is flying in
the face of everyday experience and of scientific evidence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does pantheism believe that humans are one with nature and the
cosmos?
Yes, there is a fundamental underlying unity. Humans are made of
the same substance as the rest of the universe. We don't have any
magic spiritual ingredient just for ourselves.
We developed as part of nature, and remain part of local and global
ecosystems.
However, humans do have consciousness, and that can be a
blessing or a curse. The conscious mind evolved to help survival,
and it can help us to relate to nature and the universe through love,
appreciation, study and action.
But consciousness also means awareness of one's own
individuality, so it can also give us a misleading sense of separation
from and radical difference from the world. Our ideas can also
develop out of tune with reality and with nature.
So it is important not just to state that there is a unity, but to learn
to perceive that unity, to understand it, and to act upon it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If God is everything, then surely all actions are God's actions, and
there is no distinction between right and wrong?
This is a misconceived Christian criticism of pantheism. Certainly a
few sects of Pantheists (like Tantric Buddhists and some
pantheistic Christian heresies have believed this.
But remember that pantheism does not say that "God is everything",
but rather that the universe is divine. Within that overall divinity, it
is possible for intelligent species or individuals to become
separated from the divinity and to act in conflict with it, by harming
nature or other people.
Modern pantheists are not amoral. They have very strong ideas
about right and wrong in relation to environmental ethics and social
justice. They would consider environmentally destructive or unjust
and oppressive actions as "evil."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does pantheism believe that everything is predetermined and there
is no free will?
Some pantheists, like Spinoza and Einstein, have believed this. The
Stoics believed in a divine providence, as if the universe had a plan
for its own evolution.
But there is no logical link between pantheism and determinism.
Many pantheists have not been determinists, and many believe in
free will.
Scientific pantheism does not believe in determinism. Of course
no-one could prove conclusively that things were not predetermined
- the future may already exist, and we may be simply moving into it.
In that case space time would be like a monolithic, rigid block with
no freedom of movement and no room for free will.
But there is no scientific evidence to suggest this. Indeed two
crucial branches of modern science strongly suggest the contrary.
Quantum physics suggests that although the overall pattern of sub-
atomic events is predictable, the outcome of any particular event is
unpredictable and seems to be undetermined - at least by any laws
we are presently aware of.
The science of chaos shows that very small differences in the
present can make enormous differences in the future - a butterfly
flapping its wings in China may cause a cyclone in the Bay of
Bengal. Therefore it would be possible for a tiny undetermined
sub-atomic event today to influence the future on a very large scale,
just as minute quantum fluctuations in the early universe may have
influenced events on the scale of galactic clusters today.
Scientific pantheism also believes in free will. Our actions are
usually shaped by our drives and the belief systems we have built
up over our lives. But we are also free to change our ideas, and
humans often do so. We can also learn to resist our selfish drives.
Everyone has examples from their own lives of agonizing between
alternative decisions that were very finely balanced.
The future is undetermined. The future of life on earth is ours to
make - or unmake.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does Pantheism believe in an afterlife for the individual soul?
Some idealistic versions of pantheism - such as neo-Platonism or
Hinduism have held such beliefs.
No-one could completely exclude this possibility. But there is no
scientific evidence for such beliefs.
Most modern Pantheists believe that the mind is an aspect of the
body, and at death dissolves with the body to merge into the
elements from which it was formed. If there is any validity at all to
near-death experiences, then this is what they are expressing.
For environmental as well as religious reasons, Pantheism strongly
prefers natural burials in special woodlands, at sea, or in other
natural areas, where the individual can be reabsorbed into the
nature of which they were, are and always will be a part.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Without the hope of heaven, what incentive is there to morality?
The idea that the hope of heaven is the only guarantee of moral
behaviour is absurd. Highly ethical behaviour is found among
peoples who do not believe in heaven - for example, many Chinese,
or Japanese. Conversely, crime and corruption are rife in Christian
societies. Nowhere was the hope of heaven stronger than in
medieval Europe - yet few places on earth have seen injustice,
oppression, and violence on such a scale, much of it in the name of
Christianity.
The strongest stimuli to moral behaviour in all human societies are
parental and social discipline, either externally imposed, or
internalized. Plus the direct rewards for good behaviour - love and
social recognition. These factors ensure that we are often punished
and rewarded for our deeds before we die - though chance and
social injustice can often distort the outcome.
Of course, religion can provide support for ethics, and Pantheism
provides better support than religions which believe in heaven.
Pantheism believes that we live on in nature where we are re-
absorbed, but also in people's memories and in the achievements we
leave behind. Therefore we have a powerful incentive to be good
and kind to people, and to achieve lasting good in our lives. The
kinder we are, the more good we do, the longer will be our
"afterlife" in people's memories. If we do harm, then our memory
will be execrated.
Contrast this with the God of Christianity who forgives mortal sins
even on the deathbed and can reward mass murderers with heaven if
they are truly penitent. What kind of incentive for lifelong morality
is that?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there is no personal creator God, wouldn't the universe and
human life have no meaning or purpose?
There are two meanings for the word purpose. One is purpose in
relation to something external. By definition the Universe
comprises all that exists: there is no outside in relation to which it
could have purpose. If God exists, we can include him in this All,
and the totality "God plus universe" would have and could have no
conceivable purpose. Theists claim that God is self sufficient and
can exist without purpose. So why can't the universe?
But we can have purpose in the second sense: purpose and goals
for our lives which we freely choose for ourselves, in the light of
the needs of others humans, animals and ecosystems. The fact that
our lives have no external purpose designed by some dictator in the
sky liberates us to create our own purposes! For the pantheist, the
purpose of life is to connect more deeply and harmoniously with
the universe, nature and other humans, and to help others to do so.
Finally consider the so-called "purpose" the God of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam has planned for us: to struggle through a
miserable brief spell on a stage designed as a testing ground for
eternity, and prove we are good enough to get into the real show
which only starts when we're dead. What on earth would be the
"purpose" of setting up such a show, creating little puppets and
seeing whether they're good enough and burning the ones that aren't
for all eternity? The truth is that theists cannot provide any
convincing purpose for life or for the universe either.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nature and the universe are changeable and sometimes hostile. Isn't
that incompatible with the idea of divinity?
Change and flux are facts of life throughout the divine cosmos. So
are the risks on earth of disease, accident, collision with meteorites
and so on. [See God and Reality]
It is true that these attributes of the universe and nature are not
compatible with pre-conceived ideas about God as an unchanging,
loving being. But pantheism does not believe in such a God, and
accepts the universe as it is - wonderful, mysterious, creative,
exuberant, joyful, and yet also at times chaotic and destructive. Evil
and pain exist for theists too, and they are extremely difficult to
reconcile with the idea of an omnipotent, yet loving God. Christian
apologetics have still not come up with any satisfactory explanation
of why God should have created them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can we feel gratitude or love or worship towards impersonal
matter?
Matter is not impersonal: it is our very substance. If we cannot love
matter, then we cannot love ourselves as we are. Almost everyone
loves nature, even though it is impersonal, and often seems
indifferent or cruel. We can feel gratitude, too, to nature and the
universe, for giving us the privilege of conscious life. People love
mountains, oceans, stars - even though they know these things are
material and impersonal and cannot love them in return.
Consider the reverse of the coin: how can Christians feel love and
gratitude towards an all-powerful God who has created disease and
pain; a God who has given humans the free-will to do evil, and then
if they use it punishes them for all eternity; a God who is planning
to wrap up creation, destroy the earth violently, and create a new
heaven and a new earth?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can we pray to the universe and nature?
The short answer is that we can't. But can we pray to a God and
realistically hope that out of nearly six billion humans in an
immense universe he will come to our personal assistance? Could
we really expect any kind of just God to alter his decisions and
laws simply because we asked him to do us a favour?
Apart from outside forces, it is we ourselves - our thoughts, our
feelings, our determination, our action - who decide what happens
to us. So Pantheists can meditate on the right course of action, and
pray to themselves, to summon up the determination to act.
They can also meditate on nature, and achieve states of mental
union with nature and the universe akin to mystical states.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isn't it idolatry to worship the creation and not the Creator?
It is not idolatry at all if there is no Creator. Even supposing there
was a Creator who has left no visible trace of himself, if he were
just then surely he would not punish us for worshipping his visible
works? Creation itself cannot be an idol or a graven image.
But pantheists believe that the universe created itself [see The Self-
existent Cosmos] and designed itself [see The Self-organizing
Cosmos.
If this is the case then the true idolatry is to worship an imaginary
Creator rather than the visible and vibrant reality that surrounds us.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help spread scientific pantheism.
If you would like to help spread pantheism, then please:
Use the words pantheism and pantheist as often as possible. There
are millions of people who may already be pantheists, but who are
not even aware of the name, or of the fact that their beliefs are
shared by many others. Include a reference to Scientific pantheism
index page on your pages, and make sure your own pages are
indexed by the large Web databases like Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos,
Excite, Webcrawler etc. If you would like to find out more
detailed ways in which you could help, please consult How you can
help.
Suggestions, comments, criticisms to:
Paul Harrison, e-mail: [email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright & copy: Paul Harrison 1996.
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