What is Pantheism and what is the point of it?
An atheist, in the style of a person with no use for religion at all, I have no objection to observing the norms of funeral/wedding attendance, as this is community-based, but religion is generally pointless to me and I do not understand how modern people can accept some of the blatantly fictional premises upon which much of religion is constructed.
"The emperor has no clothes"...
This does not mean I don't see the social values emanating from structured religious community. If people want the support and stability of that and emotional fantasycushionagainstreality which religion provides, each to his own. I have no issue and religion has many positives, as the attached article details.
I do, however, have concerns with exclusivity and mob mentality sometimes arising from religion. Obviously religious war extends back in time through centuries past. It is no recent problem. Terrorism is another matter...
Some types of exclusion seem to be decreasing in range, as closed minds are forced open through education, exposure to other cultures and mindsets. For example, requirement to bury a person who committed suicide outwith church grounds (how comforting to the family) has passed away. Stoning/branding of adulterers; though stoning continues to be practised in some regressive cultures it seems to be lessening. Yet, dubiously exclusive practices remain. Roman Catholics still do not allow the divorced to take communion or remarry within the church as far as I know. (if you know different, please post
)
There is also hurtful and pointless exclusion of gay/lesbians from the church. Necessarily, these people have the same right to inclusion and happiness within the community as any other and realistically, exclusion can simply result in misery and sometimes deceit as disapproval forces secrecy. Homosexual people already exist within the framework of the church, it appears pretty pointless and a surface exercise to attempt to exclude them, when their inclination is the business of no one and harms no one. The Pope's recent comment that homosexuality threatens the reproductive cycle appears quite limited. If this is a concern, the Pope need only allow Catholic priests to marry and produce children...
Anyway, religion is of no interest to me personally, has no place in my daily affairs, but my approach is live and let live. So, I find it quite strange that others with similarly atheist views may wish to push atheistic perspective on people in much the same way as religious fanatics push religion...
Why negate religion, then effectively construct a replacement system for community life which is basically different in the omission of an actual "God"? If your view is that religion has no point, God does not exist and to believe otherwise is to deny reality...the logical progession would surely be to completely disperse with religion?
Researching, I found this article enlightening. It gives some insight into how Pantheism works. The article is not that lengthy (depending on your attention span).
Interested to hear your views on the Pantheist perspective and if you believe science will disprove and destroy religion as many fear, or if it a religion will take hold which simply replaces mythical aspects with natural realism, as seems to be the case with Pantheism:
http://www.pantheism.net/atheism.htm?gclid=CJHwi9Okj50CFVtm4wodskbE3Q
An atheist, in the style of a person with no use for religion at all, I have no objection to observing the norms of funeral/wedding attendance, as this is community-based, but religion is generally pointless to me and I do not understand how modern people can accept some of the blatantly fictional premises upon which much of religion is constructed.
"The emperor has no clothes"...
This does not mean I don't see the social values emanating from structured religious community. If people want the support and stability of that and emotional fantasycushionagainstreality which religion provides, each to his own. I have no issue and religion has many positives, as the attached article details.
I do, however, have concerns with exclusivity and mob mentality sometimes arising from religion. Obviously religious war extends back in time through centuries past. It is no recent problem. Terrorism is another matter...
Some types of exclusion seem to be decreasing in range, as closed minds are forced open through education, exposure to other cultures and mindsets. For example, requirement to bury a person who committed suicide outwith church grounds (how comforting to the family) has passed away. Stoning/branding of adulterers; though stoning continues to be practised in some regressive cultures it seems to be lessening. Yet, dubiously exclusive practices remain. Roman Catholics still do not allow the divorced to take communion or remarry within the church as far as I know. (if you know different, please post
)There is also hurtful and pointless exclusion of gay/lesbians from the church. Necessarily, these people have the same right to inclusion and happiness within the community as any other and realistically, exclusion can simply result in misery and sometimes deceit as disapproval forces secrecy. Homosexual people already exist within the framework of the church, it appears pretty pointless and a surface exercise to attempt to exclude them, when their inclination is the business of no one and harms no one. The Pope's recent comment that homosexuality threatens the reproductive cycle appears quite limited. If this is a concern, the Pope need only allow Catholic priests to marry and produce children...
Anyway, religion is of no interest to me personally, has no place in my daily affairs, but my approach is live and let live. So, I find it quite strange that others with similarly atheist views may wish to push atheistic perspective on people in much the same way as religious fanatics push religion...
Why negate religion, then effectively construct a replacement system for community life which is basically different in the omission of an actual "God"? If your view is that religion has no point, God does not exist and to believe otherwise is to deny reality...the logical progession would surely be to completely disperse with religion?
Researching, I found this article enlightening. It gives some insight into how Pantheism works. The article is not that lengthy (depending on your attention span
).Interested to hear your views on the Pantheist perspective and if you believe science will disprove and destroy religion as many fear, or if it a religion will take hold which simply replaces mythical aspects with natural realism, as seems to be the case with Pantheism:
http://www.pantheism.net/atheism.htm?gclid=CJHwi9Okj50CFVtm4wodskbE3Q
Last edited:
