I like the idea of Pantheism

[NobleSavage]

Could it be reconciled with atheism? My biggest hangup is all the suffering in the world.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Could it be reconciled with atheism?

If by pantheism, you mean that every single thing that exists is part of the divine being? Sure. A god-concept so far-ranging as to make it meaningless? That's a friendly version of noncognitivism.

 

[NobleSavage]

OK, I'm done with Pantheism.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Pantheism is theism for theists who don't like arguing about theism. If you take away every single one of the properties of God, then God has zero illogical properties and all the arguments for or against him are meaningless. No matter what it is that someone says to argue that God doesn't exist, they can simply respond that that argument isn't relevant because it doesn't refer to the God they're talking about.

It can basically be summed up as "God exists because ... because fuck you, that's why".

 

[No Robots]

There are two principal flavours of atheism: materialist and spiritual. The latter has sometimes been called pantheism.

 

[untermensche]

To be an atheist is to have no gods.

Even big all-encompassing gods.

 

[No Robots]

But atheism can entail believing in mind/intellect as something not derived from matter.

 

[abaddon]

Pantheism is every single thing that exists is part of a whole. And the whole, the “All That Is”, is awesome and venerable. Anything more, like about a “being”, is optional. How silly the pantheism is or isn’t, how obscure or replete or meaningful or meaningless, what relevance suffering has, whether All-That-Is constitutes a “being” different than how the universe is scientifically understood, is all up to the individual pantheist.

The most basic pantheist metaphysics is “the whole” constitutes a dynamic interrelated system. But for some (the “scientific pantheists”) it’s much more an emotional response: feeling awe at the universe, then establishing a spiritual practice that celebrates and venerates the cosmos and enhances the feeling of human-and-nature connectivity.

It’s hard getting around the habit of thinking about “a being” wherever the word “god” pops up. The phrase “a being” suggests a person. But there’s no good reason to conceive of God as a being (ie, as a sort of person however nebulous that is in the mind). "God" is optional in pantheism; it's inevitably just a place-holder word so it's easy to say it means nothing but you'd have to discuss it with the pantheist rather than mindread and be too-quickly dismissive.

The central thing of significance in pantheism, to smush it all down to a single word, is sacredness. It's trying to find a way to explore and express that is the pantheist's project.

The difference from atheism is atheists tend not to go on about nature's sacredness, nor want to develop a fairly systematized way of celebrating it. They'll claim they're awed, but then go back to obsessing over metaphysics claims.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism#Definitions

Pantheism is derived from the Greek πᾶν pan (meaning "all") and Θεός Theos (meaning "God"). There are a variety of definitions of pantheism. Some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God.[4].8

As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism.[5] From this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God.[2] All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, or identical with it.[7] Others hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical.[8]

How are we defining pantheism?

 

[GenesisNemesis]

But atheism can entail believing in mind/intellect as something not derived from matter.

So?

 

[No Robots]

The word was originally coined to describe Spinoza's philosophy.

- - - Updated - - -

But atheism can entail believing in mind/intellect as something not derived from matter.

So?

So, a spiritual atheist may be called or call himself a pantheist. This shows that indeed pantheism is not necessarily incompatible with atheism.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

The word was originally coined to describe Spinoza's philosophy.

- - - Updated - - -

So?

So, a spiritual atheist may be called or call himself a pantheist. This shows that indeed pantheism is not necessarily incompatible with atheism.

Pantheism is the belief that "All" is god. Atheism is the lack of belief in god. There is no compatibility between any theism and atheism.

 

[No Robots]

Pantheism is the belief that "All" is god. Atheism is the lack of belief in god. There is no compatibility between any theism and atheism.

Technically, you are correct. So a spiritual atheist should call himself just that. I'm just saying that someone who calls himself a pantheist may in fact be a spiritual atheist.

 

[skepticalbip]

Pantheism is theism for theists who don't like arguing about theism. If you take away every single one of the properties of God, then God has zero illogical properties and all the arguments for or against him are meaningless. No matter what it is that someone says to argue that God doesn't exist, they can simply respond that that argument isn't relevant because it doesn't refer to the God they're talking about.

It can basically be summed up as "God exists because ... because fuck you, that's why".

That sounds more like Deism.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

So, a spiritual atheist may be called or call himself a pantheist. This shows that indeed pantheism is not necessarily incompatible with atheism.

And a Muslim may call himself a Christian because he thinks that the main message of the Koran is about how much Jesus loves us. That's somebody using a word wrong, not somebody making a philosophical point.

If you call yourself an atheist while believing in a god, you're doing nothing more than using a word wrong. There may be many similarities in the beliefs of the theistic philosophy called pantheism and many atheistic philosophies, but that's very different from their being the same thing.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Pantheism is theism for theists who don't like arguing about theism. If you take away every single one of the properties of God, then God has zero illogical properties and all the arguments for or against him are meaningless. No matter what it is that someone says to argue that God doesn't exist, they can simply respond that that argument isn't relevant because it doesn't refer to the God they're talking about.

It can basically be summed up as "God exists because ... because fuck you, that's why".

That sounds more like Deism.

Vague and Muddled Bullshit Philosophy A or Vague and Muddled Bullshit Philosophy B. Potato potahto.

If someone's going to define their beliefs in such a way that they defy definitions then one of the consequences of that is that their beliefs are going to overlap with someone else's who also defined them in such a way that they defy definition.

If God can't be defined because he's unknowable in one way or God can't be defined because he's unknowable in another way then both are equally useless paths to the exact same lack of saying anything.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Pantheism is the belief that "All" is god. Atheism is the lack of belief in god. There is no compatibility between any theism and atheism.

Technically, you are correct. So a spiritual atheist should call himself just that. I'm just saying that someone who calls himself a pantheist may in fact be a spiritual atheist.

I'll agree with that I suppose.

 

[No Robots]

Sometimes, people are looking for the right words to describe their viewpoint. It may be helpful to suggest options. In particular, atheists who have a spiritual bent should be encouraged to see their views as having nothing to do with theism.

 

[untermensche]

But atheism can entail believing in mind/intellect as something not derived from matter.

To have a mind is to be distinct and separated from the universe.

It is the opposite of being one with the universe.

 

[No Robots]

But atheism can entail believing in mind/intellect as something not derived from matter.

To have a mind is to be distinct and separated from the universe.

It is the opposite of being one with the universe.

Not if the whole universe is beminded.