Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
Yeah, I can't really think of anything that's a good source for pantheism specifically. I mostly just picked things up as it related to other studies.
ETA: rough theological frameworks are like that.
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Why pantheism?
- Thread starter Yerda
- Start date
ETA: rough theological frameworks are like that.
This book right here: Elements of Pantheism: A Spirituality of Nature and the Universe by Dr Paul Harrison | 9781490494937 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble
I have an older edition of the book, so I don't know what all has changed in this one. The old edition approached things more from the angle of naturalistic pantheism, but that would probably be better for self-described skeptics.
Yerda
Veteran Member
Thanks.
I'm sceptical, by I'm not really 'a sceptic' anymore. I suppose I've realised I know almost nothing and it turns out that the ideas coming from you folks appeal to me right now.
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
Well, the way I see it there are skeptics who don't believe anything without thinking it through on their own and analyzing as best they can, and Skeptics who don't believe anything unless Science Says.
I always preferred the former, myself.
Ouroboros
Coincidentia oppositorum
I just noticed this thread.
For 30 years, I was a very dedicated and at times hardcore/fundamentalist (almost cultish) Christian. Then I lost my belief in God and practically became an atheist. I was still open to the possibility to a God, but required to have something more than just belief. 10 years later, I started to see that naturalistic pantheism is basically the same as atheism, it's just a matter of perspective. And I've been on that road since.
For 30 years, I was a very dedicated and at times hardcore/fundamentalist (almost cultish) Christian. Then I lost my belief in God and practically became an atheist. I was still open to the possibility to a God, but required to have something more than just belief. 10 years later, I started to see that naturalistic pantheism is basically the same as atheism, it's just a matter of perspective. And I've been on that road since.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
A lot of "world views" I dont label myself direct as a religion, pantheism is one of them.
It just makes sense. A somoan writer I always quote says "God was in the food they ate, the watee they drank, the air they breath." Divinity isnt separate from life itself. Everything and everyone is divine. It made sense when I practiced Buddhism where in Mahayana teaching, we all have a Buddha nature. We all have a pure (or divine) nature under this mess.
I learned it through practicing Christianity to. When you see yourself as sin you realize more and more that you are not. Its like digging through a dirty, dark, mine and finding jewls on the otherside. We are divine; everything is.
When I associate with this identity I am in Union with all, the divine. Thats how I see pantheism. Union In the Divine.
It just makes sense. A somoan writer I always quote says "God was in the food they ate, the watee they drank, the air they breath." Divinity isnt separate from life itself. Everything and everyone is divine. It made sense when I practiced Buddhism where in Mahayana teaching, we all have a Buddha nature. We all have a pure (or divine) nature under this mess.
I learned it through practicing Christianity to. When you see yourself as sin you realize more and more that you are not. Its like digging through a dirty, dark, mine and finding jewls on the otherside. We are divine; everything is.
When I associate with this identity I am in Union with all, the divine. Thats how I see pantheism. Union In the Divine.
I think it would be too reductionist to equate the physical, observable world to God and close our eyes on the possiblity of anything else that could lie beyond as so many pantheists are doing nowadays.
If the Universe as a 'soul', if it is alive at all, if it has a purpose as it's governing dynamics suggest, then it must be the manifestation, realization of another and perhaps grander principle which we know nothing about or are simply unaware of in our (very convincing) illusion of concreteness. Hence, Panentheism seems like a much more reasonable position to me, as it takes into account every possiblities that the human mind can account for, acknowledging that the Universe/Multiverse is in fact 'God' but probably not the whole of 'God'.
If the Universe as a 'soul', if it is alive at all, if it has a purpose as it's governing dynamics suggest, then it must be the manifestation, realization of another and perhaps grander principle which we know nothing about or are simply unaware of in our (very convincing) illusion of concreteness. Hence, Panentheism seems like a much more reasonable position to me, as it takes into account every possiblities that the human mind can account for, acknowledging that the Universe/Multiverse is in fact 'God' but probably not the whole of 'God'.
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Politesse
Amor Vincit Omnia
I was a pantheist instinctively; I was raised Christian but took it a bit too literally when I was told that God was in everyone, and Jesus in the least of things; dualism took me by surprise later on. I won't rule anything out when it comes to cosmology- that's like a fish insisting that it knows everything it needs to know about the outside of the fishbowl - but I've never encountered a model of natural and supernatural that makes rational sense to me, save to declare the latter non-existent as some have been known to do. Am I right? Who knows? But in general, the practice of seeking and finding the God in everything has made me a pretty happy Christiany Pagany Buddhisty whatever I am.
Heard once in meditation "In this space and time, we are gods in spirit, children in knowledge."
Heard once in meditation "In this space and time, we are gods in spirit, children in knowledge."
I like that last line. Can I use it?
Should the "supernatural" exist as some form of reality (and I personally think it does, although it's not really relevant...), I suspect that it does not work according to principles that would make "rational sense" in the same way the mundane world operates.