About
Community
Bad Ideas
Drugs
Ego
Erotica
Fringe
Abductees / Contactees
Area 51 / Groom Lake / Roswell
Crop Circles and Cattle Mutilations
Cydonia and Moon Mountains
Dreams / Auras / Astral Projection
Flying Saucers from Andromeda
Free Energy
Fringe Science
Government UFO Coverups
Gravity / Anti-gravity
Life Extension
MJ-12 - The Alien-Government Conspiracy
Men In Black
Tesla
Society
Technology
register | bbs | search | rss | faq | about
meet up | add to del.icio.us | digg it

The Principles of Scientific Pantheism


Scientific pantheism: basic principles
by Paul Harrison.

When our era was young, we believed as children believe. Now we
are adults, it is time to put away childish things.
It is time to adopt a religion that embraces the space age, and that
supports our love of nature and our efforts to preserve the earth.
That religion is pantheism.

Divine cosmos, sacred earth.
Pantheist religious practice: ritual, meditation and mysticism.
Ethical foundations.
Pantheism and environmental ethics.
Natural death
Mortal immortality.
Unity of religion and science.
Unity of religion and aesthetics.
Why traditional religion is not suited to the Third Millennium.
Why do we need religion at all?
How you can help spread pantheism.

Divine cosmos, sacred earth.


Pantheism has two central tenets:



The cosmos is divine.
The earth is sacred.


When we say the cosmos is divine, we mean it with just as much
conviction, emotion and commitment as believers when they say
that their god is God.
But we are not making a vague statement about an invisible being
who is beyond proof or disproof. We are talking about our own
emotional responses to the real universe and the natural earth.

When we say "That tree is beautiful," we are not saying anything
about the tree in itself, but about the way we feel we must respond
to the tree. We are talking about the relationship between us and
the tree.
In the same way, if we say THE UNIVERSE IS DIVINE we are
making a statement about the way our senses and our emotions
force us to respond to the overwhelming mystery and power that
surrounds us. We are saying this: We are part of the universe. Our
earth was created from the universe and will one day be reabsorbed
into the universe.
We are made of the same matter as the universe. We are not in exile
here: we are at home. It is here and nowhere else that we can see the
divine face to face. If we erect barriers in our imagination - if we
believe our real home is not here but in a land that lies beyond
death - if we believe that the divine is found only in old books, or
old buildings, or inside our head - then we will see this real,
vibrant, luminous world as if through a glass darkly.
The universe creates us, preserves us, destroys us. It is deep and old
beyond our ability to reach with our senses. It is beautiful beyond
our ability to describe in words. It is complex beyond our ability to
fully grasp in science. We must relate to the universe with humility,
awe, reverence, celebration and the search for deeper understanding
- in other words, in many of the ways that believers relate to their
God.

When we say THE EARTH IS SACRED, we mean it with just as
much commitment and reverence as believers speaking about their
church or mosque, or the relics of their saints. But we are not
making a statement about the supernatural. We are saying this: We
are part of nature. Nature made us and at our death we will be
reabsorbed into nature. We are at home in nature and in our bodies.
This is where we belong; this is where we must find and make our
paradise, not in some spirit world on the other side of the grave. If
nature is the only paradise, then separation from nature is the only
hell. When we destroy nature, we create hell on earth for other
species and for ourselves.

Nature is our mother, our home, our security, our peace, our past
and our future. We should treat natural things and habitats as
believers treat their temples and shrines, as sacred - to be revered
and preserved in all their intricate and fragile beauty.

The dominant religions describe their gods in many ways:
mysterious, awesome, all-powerful, omnipresent, transcendent,
infinite, eternal. These descriptions are not simply projections of
human characteristics. The traditional attributes of God are based
on the real properties of the universe (see The real divine
attributes.)

When theists worship gods, they unknowingly worship the cosmos.
If they believe that God is also present in nature and the universe,
they will perceive a part of the glory of Being, yet still they will
attribute this glory to something beyond Being. Still they will fail
to connect with nature and the universe in the deep intense way that
pantheism makes possible.

But theists who believe that God is separate from the universe
separate themselves from Reality. They turn their deepest attention
away from the real divinity before their eyes, towards an imaginary
divinity inside their head. It veils Reality like a thick mist. It turns
believers into sleepwalkers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ritual, meditation and mysticism

Pantheist religious practice serves many purposes:

It establishes connection with the divine reality. It expresses our
reverence for nature and the universe.
It strengthens our understanding of the tight links between self,
nature and cosmos.
It helps us to see human life as part of the natural cycle.
It celebrates the beauty of nature and the universe.
It strengthens our beliefs.
It provide mental support at times of stress.
It provides mutual social support in our beliefs.
It offers a daily therapy.


Pantheistic ceremonies are similar to pagan ones. We celebrate
special moments of powerful connection between ourselves and
nature, between ourselves and the dynamic solar system. We
celebrate the daily rising and setting of the sun, the monthly phases
of the moon and tides, the annual solar cycle of the solstices and
equinoxes. When skies are clear, we also celebrate the annual
showers of shooting stars, the Perseids and the Geminids.

We can also establish connection with Being independently of
ritual, through pantheistic meditation. The mystical experience has
common features across all religions. At its core is the experience
of passing beyond the self and of uniting with the divine. But the
experience is often said to be difficult to achieve and to maintain.

Mystical union is more accessible through pantheism. The process
does not depend on imagination or mood. It is simple to
understand, open to all, and repeatable.

Mystical union with Reality consists in total abandonment of
consciousness to the sensory experience of nature or material
reality. The self becomes simply the vehicle for the self-awareness
of reality. The self is transcended, and re-united with the whole of
which it is part.

It is a charged and direct experience of the matter of which we are
made, an experience of grounding and connection with the whole.

It can be achieved under a clear sky full of stars and galaxies, or by
a forest stream. It can be experienced beside a pond ruffled by
wind, or in front of a lit candle. It can be felt while holding a
granite pebble or a piece of birch bark.

It can be achieved at any time, by any person. It requires no arduous
training, and it never leaves behind that feeling of misery and
dejection which so many mystics felt when they lose `connection'
with the imaginary God inside their head.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ethical foundations.


All religions act as backing to ethical systems, often through the
threat of hell, or the promise of heaven. They foster the good, not
for its own sake, but in the hope of gaining rewards or avoiding
punishment.

Pantheism begins as a statement about our relationship with
Reality. However, it leads on to an ethic and a politic. The ethic is
based on the premise that the principal good in human life is to
connect with the cosmos, with nature, and with other humans,
through knowledge, love and loving action. Everything that furthers
that connection, in oneself and in others, is good. Everything that
hinders it, is bad.

Certain strong emotions are obstacles to connection. Among these
the foremost is anxiety. Anxiety has many sources: emotional
insecurity, from the absence or withdrawal of love; economic
insecurity, from poverty and from loss of livelihood; physical
insecurity, from disease, disaster, environmental catastrophe or
violence. In different ways, obsessive anger and envy can also make
connection with the cosmos impossible.

We must find ways of controlling these emotions in ourselves. This
can be done through pantheistic meditation and through contact
with nature. These help us keep our own problems in perspective.
They remind us that whatever we suffer, whatever we lose, one
thing can never be taken from us: we are always and inseparably
part of an immense whole.

And we must help work towards social and political conditions
which reduce them in others. This means the encouragement of
stable, loving families and caring Communities; an end to poverty;
equitable distribution of income and work; and the peaceful
resolution of disputes through true democracy and real
participation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pantheism and environmental ethics.

Pantheism provides the strongest possible support for
environmental ethics.

Most Eastern and native religions are very concerned with kindness
to animals and conservation of nature.

But the three leading Western religions, all deriving from ancient
Palestine, are much less favourable to environmental action. In the
Old Testament God handed the earth to Adam and Eve for them to
use everything in it. That obviously doesn't mean we should abuse
it to the point of self-destruction, but it does mean that Nature is
put there only for humans and has no rights of her own. Judaism
and Islam both contain some environmental guidance and wisdom,
but not as central tenets of the faith, not as commandments or
conditions for entering heaven.

Christianity says even less about our duty to care for the
environment. Jesus, St Paul and other writers and speakers quoted
in The New Testament say absolutely nothing. Instead the New
Testament paints a lurid picture of God himself burning up the
earth in order to create a new one.

In pantheism concern about the natural world is central. Pantheists
regard the natural world as sacred, like a temple. Just as believers
do everything they can to keep a temple pristine and beautiful,
pantheists are obliged to do everything they can to preserve the
diversity of life, and to help other people to connect with nature.

We must preserve as much as we can of the richness of species.
That means not just preserving species against total extinction - it
is small consolation to know that skylarks still exist somewhere, if
I can never hear them in the fields near my home. We must make
sure that as many species as possible survive in as many places as
possible. We must preserve as many natural habitats as possible,
and restore habitats that have been destroyed. And of course we
must stop polluting the air and the oceans, threatening wider
ecosystems and the whole planet. That will mean many changes in
Western lifestyles, production methods, energy, transport, waste
disposal, taxation and so on.

Everyone has a need to see nature on a daily basis, and everyone
has the right to access to some natural area, even if it is only a small
natural park. We must create natural areas in cities or
neighbourhoods that have none.

Connection demands easy access to the universe, too. Yet as the
world urbanizes, the radiance of the night sky is misted over with
light streaming upwards from unshaded street lamps. We need
campaigns to end light pollution of our night skies, so we can see
them in their full splendor again. We need a massive increase in the
number of large telescopes, with free public access.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natural death.

Belief in some kind of life after death is almost universal in human
societies. In the ancient mediterranean, the afterlife was thought to
be a grim and ghostly half-life under the ground. Belief in a heaven
far better than the present world emerged later, usually in the wake
of famine, plague, or war.

Belief in heaven is not helpful in our attempts to preserve this
world. If heaven exists, then there is always another, better world
awaiting us, even if we completely destroy the earth. Even if there
is a heaven, it would be better for earth if we did not believe in it.

Belief in an apocalyptic end to the world, common to Christianity
and Islam, is more dangerous. If God himself will one day roll up
the heavens like a scroll and rain fire down on the earth, as Jesus,
Mohammed and the Old Testament prophets all predicted, then
why should we struggle to preserve it? Some fundamentalists
believe that the environmental destruction we are creating is
actually God's way of bringing about his plan for the end of the
world.

We should not hate death. Death is indispensable to nature. If there
were no death there could no birth either, and new individuals with
different combinations of genes must be born if species are to keep
adapting to their changing environment.

Death is the price we pay for the miracles of love and birth and
childhood. If there were no death, the risk of over-population
would mean that none of us could ever have children.

Death is not something we should fear. When we are alive, we are
not dead. When we are dead, we are aware of nothing. So it's only
the brief transition between life and death that poses a problem. We
cannot live our whole lives in the shadow of such a short moment.
To live in fear of death is to die a living death.

Pantheism can free us from fear. Our bodies are part of nature and
part of matter. For the brief span of our lives we have been
separated from the whole. At our death we are re-united with nature
and the cosmos, and the matter of our bodies is recycled into new
life. During the process of dying we should relax into this
realization. It is far more calming than to worry whether we are
headed for heaven or eternal torment - or whether we'll be reborn as
a cockroach or a king.

Natural forms of burial are of great importance to pantheists. We
prefer to be buried in special natural places such as woods, where
our bodies can be recycled into plants and trees. Such a prospect
bears no terrors - indeed for those who love nature it is even
comforting. Pantheists should group together to create natural
burial grounds, taking care not to destroy any natural habitats while
doing so.

Other natural deaths include burial at sea, or cremation in a simple
casket and dispersal of the ashes in nature.

[See Elemental death.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mortal immortality.

Many people hanker after some kind of personal survival after
death. But we must find a realistic approach, one that is compatible
with the evidence. And the evidence is that our minds are not
separate from our bodies and do not survive after death. The
testimony of people who have returned from spells of apparent
death are not evidence, since none of them actually died.

Yet we can hope for a kind of personal survival - survival through
the creations and memories we leave behind ourselves in the real
world.

First, descendance. Most people leave children and grandchildren,
who carry forward their genes and characteristics. Lineage links the
present with past and future, so that time becomes not just a
succession of isolated moments, but a continuum. Lineage
ultimately links all human beings back to a common ancestor
group, and may link all living beings on earth back to a common
species of origin.

Second, remembrance. Most people are remembered after their
death. The frequency and degree of affection with which they are
remembered depends on their kindness to others. This remembrance
should be enshrined in tradition, as in East and South East Asia.
Once a year on the date of a person's death or birth, their
descendants should take out an image of them and celebrate their
memory.

Third inheritance - the passing down of treasured possessions
linked to a person's memory: a favourite walking stick, a school
sports prize, a fossil collected.

Fourth, achievement. A person's good deeds and accomplishments
live after them, in some cases for a very long time. The greater the
achievement, the longer the survival.

These forms of `real-life afterlife' add up to a kind of survival which
would satisfy most people. They would almost certainly stimulate
greater kindness and consideration, better efforts to improve the
world and to preserve nature, than the selfish hope of heaven. The
God of Christianity can forgive a lifetime of destructive egotism
even on the deathbed. The tribunal of descendants, and of the
natural world, will not.



The unity of religion and science.


In scientific pantheism science and religion are one.

Science is inherently materialist. It always seek material
explanations. It never accepts as an explanation that some spiritual
force was at work - if it did, then science and technology would
come to an end. Disease was once thought to be caused by
witchcraft. Science gave it a material explanation which allowed us
to control it. Magnetism at one time seemed like a spiritual force -
Thales of Miletus thought that magnets were full of spirits. But
then science provided a material explanation.

In the same way scientific pantheism believes that everything that
exists is matter or energy in one form or another. Nothing can exist,
be perceived, or act on other things if it is not matter or energy.
That does not mean that spiritual phenomena or forces cannot exist.
It means that, if they do, they must in fact be material.

In scientific pantheism, science becomes a part of the religious
quest: the pursuit of deeper understanding of the Reality of which
we are all part, deeper knowledge about the awe-inspiring cosmos
in which we live, deeper knowledge of nature and the environment,
so that we can better preserve the earth's wealth of natural diversity.

In scientific pantheism, cognitive openness - listening to reality, to
new evidence, to all the evidence, to other people's needs and
feelings - becomes a sacred duty in all aspects of life from science
to politics to domestic life (see What's scientific about scientific
pantheism?)

Of course, we cannot say that science endorses pantheism. Many
religions today state their beliefs in ways that no-one can disprove,
so they can and do co-exist with science.

But scientific pantheism positively thrives on science. scientific
discoveries continually underline the wonder and the mystery of
Being, the immensity of the universe, and the complexity of nature.
They can never undermine these, because the ultimate mystery of
existence, the overwhelming awe of its presence, remains
impenetrable, and will always remain so.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unity of religion and aesthetics.

Scientific pantheism opens the door to another union, between
religion, aesthetics - the appreciation of form - and art.

There is a resonance between the form of the physical universe, or
of nature, and our aesthetic faculties. That resonance is based the
unity of self and world. We are made of the same stuff as the
cosmos, on the same patterns as the rest of nature.

Musical harmonies are relationships of simple numbers. We enjoy
them because the atoms, nuclei and electrons we are made of are
related by simple numbers.

We respond to natural forms because we are part of nature. We
respond to physical and cosmic forms like those on these pages
because we are part of the material universe.

Aesthetics is the sensory and intellectual response to the divinity of
Being. Religion is the emotional and ethical response. Science is
the cognitive and manipulative response.

Human art can never rival the fantastic images we find in nature, or
those we see on the cosmic or the microcosmic scale through
telescopes or microscopes.

This realization should give a new stimulus and a new raison-d'?tre
to art. Art should celebrate the divine cosmos and the sacred earth.




------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why traditional religion is not suited to the Third Millennium.


When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish
things. [Paul, I Corinthians, 13.11]

We live in a world aware as never before of the vast reaches of the
cosmos, of the immense variety of species on earth, and of the links
between things at all levels. We live in an urban and industrial
world based on science, technology and the rapid exchange of
information.

Yet the major religions that dominate the world today developed
among agrarian and pastoral peoples, in times when superstition
was rife. Times when the sun was thought to revolve around the
earth, and the stars were just holes in a roof.

Following ancient agrarian religions in a post-industrial age has
severe drawbacks.

First, their ethical schemes are not adapted to the challenges of the
modern world. As we have seen, no major Western religion gives
powerful backing to environmental action. The scriptures of all
Western religions give support, in varying degrees, to those who
wish to resist women's equality.

Second, they often require beliefs in events which common
experience and science tell us are impossible, and sometimes in
dogmas that defy logic. They force us to divide our minds in two. In
our everyday practical lives we are as wily as foxes, continually
investigating, experimenting, finding solutions, checking out the
evidence.

But in the religious area of our lives we are as gullible as infants.
We believe things which defy experience and science - miracles,
resurrections, divine or angelic voices, saviours from the sky.
Indeed some people seem ready to believe almost anything.

This religious area is of central importance to most people. It
governs the most important passages of our lives, from birth,
through adolescence, to marriage, parenthood and death. It governs
our expectations about death and life after death.

But the schism between reason and religion is dangerous. The
religious area helps to shelter or incubate other, political or racial
kinds of unreason and other refusals to confront reality and
evidence. We need to end the divide. We need a fully rational
religion that is open to reality and evidence. That religion is
pantheism.




------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do we need religion at all?


Why not simply abandon religion in favour of science?

Because science alone cannot satisfy our deeper needs.

In an urban world, where isolation is so common, we need to
believe in something greater than ourselves. Something less divisive
than our ethnic or national identity. Something more encompassing
than our fragmented neighbourhoods. Something more enduring
than our frantic global marketplace.

We need a source of value and meaning in life. Science explains
things - but it cannot endow things with value or meaning. Indeed
some scientists couch their explanations - especially of life or mind
- in a way that diminishes value or meaning. Yet people are not
happy to be reduced to mere mechanisms, or the servants of blindly
selfish genes. Nor are these descriptions scientifically accurate.

We need a deeper grounding for our moral systems. Science deals
with facts, not with ethics. Many philosophers have tried to devise
ethical systems based on enlightened self-interest. But if self-
interest is to rule the day, the temptation of unenlightened self-
interest will always be powerful.

Although some animals like elephants seem to be aware of the
death of others in their family, we humans are probably the only
animals aware of our own impending death. We need a way of
coping with death, and a hope that at least part of us may live on
beyond our death.

We must seek some way of satisfying these deeper needs which
traditional religions try to satisfy.

Yet at the same time we must retain all the rigor of the scientific
approach. We must never depart from reason and evidence. We
must never lose sight of the real world of experience (See What's
scientific about scientific pantheism?) When our era was young, we
believed as children believe and thought as children thought. Now
we are adults, it is time to put away childish things. It is time to
adopt a religion that satisfies our religious needs, that embraces the
space age, that fully supports our love of nature and our efforts to
preserve the earth. That religion is pantheism. If you love nature, if
you love the night sky, if you see divinity in all natural things, then
you are a pantheist.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Help spread pantheism.

Potential donors, sponsors and investors click here.

Pantheism needs your help to spread. If you would like to help
spread pantheism, then please:

Use the words pantheism and pantheist as often as possible and
explain to others what they mean. Join the Universal Pantheist
Society, the society that welcomes all pantheists of all persuasions.
Include a reference to Scientific pantheism and the Universal
Pantheist Society 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 ways in
which you could help, please consult How you can help.

Scientific pantheism: index.
History of pantheism.
The divine cosmos.
Join the Universal Pantheist Society

Copyright & copy: Paul Harrison 1996.
 
To the best of our knowledge, the text on this page may be freely reproduced and distributed.
If you have any questions about this, please check out our Copyright Policy.

 

totse.com certificate signatures
 
 
About | Advertise | Bad Ideas | Community | Contact Us | Copyright Policy | Drugs | Ego | Erotica
FAQ | Fringe | Link to totse.com | Search | Society | Submissions | Technology
Hot Topics
here is a fun question to think about...
Miscibility
Possible proof that we came from apes.
speed of light problem
Absolute Zero: Why won't it work?
Why did love evolve?
Capacitators
Intersection of two quads
 
Sponsored Links
 
Ads presented by the
AdBrite Ad Network

 

TSHIRT HELL T-SHIRTS