Why Pantheism Makes Sense

by metatron 2 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  The Watchtower loves to print articles (recent Awake) on design
  and purpose in nature. That done, they make the HUGE LEAP OF LOGIC
  into belief in a personal creator. Yet, belief in an impersonal
  creator - that the whole universe is ,in effect, God - is quickly
  dismissed.

  Give me your imagination for just 2 minutes:

  Imagine that you are confronted with a magic door that allows you
  to step into a parallel universe similar to ours.

  In this separate universe, there is order and design - but no
  personal creator - and the inhabitants are primitive.

  You step thru the door,
  What do you find? What kind of beliefs exist there?
  Answer below:

  The inhabitants are confused and divided by various religions
  that all claim to be the true path to The Creator - WHO NEVER
  DIRECTLY SPEAKS TO ANY OF THEM. Since there is no personal
  creator, speculations fill the vacuum. Lots of holy books are
  written, all asserting to be written by one or more Gods.

  Crazy people are the only ones to claim that this otherwise
  silent creator speaks to them.

  Ordinary people pray to this personal creator, with widely
  variable results - often unrelated to their devotion to 'him'.

  And, amazingly, no religion ever clearly explains why a personal
  creator would be so distant, if he exists and cares. Why doesn't
  he just talk to people everywhere and tell them what he wants
  DIRECTLY and PERSONALLY?

  Do you (and I) actually live in this 'parallel universe'?

  I have to marvel at the Society's quotations about God
  and design in nature when the authorities cited actually
  believed in pantheistic ideas (Freeman Dyson and Einstein).

  metatron
• 

  ThiChi

  A CHRISTIAN COMPLIMENT
  A pantheistic conception of God is "the deity affirmed by most scientists who are philosophically or theologically inclined," according to Jeffery G. Sobosan, a Christian professor of theology. He points to Albert Einstein who "believed in the God of Spinoza."

  In Romancing the Universe, Theology, Science, and Cosmology (1999), Sobosan describes why Pantheism appealed to Einstein. He also contrasts pantheistic and Christian ideas of deity, and suggests intermingling Pantheism with Christianity.

  The excerpt below shows just how far some Christian thinkers have come in their assessment of Pantheism, namely from condemnations to compliments.

  PAN values Sobosan's praise and positivity. It behooves Pantheists to extend respect and understanding to Christian believers whenever possible to further their open-mindedness toward Pantheism.

  "...pantheism has at least three implications that are exquisitely beautiful and were enormously attractive to Einstein. First and foremost among them is that all creation must be treated as sacred since comportment toward it is the same as comportment toward God. Secondly, if one's understanding of deity is also of a purposeful and ordering presence, then the universe, too, must be so described: a matter of profound importance to the success of any scientist's craft. Thirdly, pantheism tends to obscure the alienation that can occur when God is held as distinct from the universe and claims are made that proper access to this distinctiveness is reserved to revelatory institutions and historical events that themselves are distinct. This third point, of course, is precisely where the major departure between pantheistic and traditional Judeo-Christian understandings of God occurs, since that latter wishes to insist...that God is qualitatively other from everything else and thus accessible only through privileged communications. Somehow, I think, we must learn to blend the beauty of the pantheistic vision into Christian theology..."
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  Satanus

  Makes sense to me.

  SS