pan·the·ism: A doctrine that identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God.
Pantheism is the idea that God is in everything. That God does not sit within the world in judgement but is in all things at all times. God is intrinsic to the universe and immanent, something immanent is spread throughout something, it’s innate, intrinsic and inborn.
Although the word “pantheism” is originated with the 16th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza the concept has been around for ages in all religions. Socrates was a pantheist as was Aristotle, Christian thinkers such as Jakob Boehme and Giordano Bruno, Islamic thinkers such as the great philosopher Al-Ghazali, the poet Rumi and the Sufis and modern Western scientists such as physicists Neils Bohr, Albert Einstein and many many others.
The New England Transcendentalists such as Emerson, Thoreau and the poet Walt Whitman were pantheists as were author John Steinbeck and poet Robinson Jeffers. Even Mikhail Gorbachev former president of the Soviet Union was an outspoken pantheist. All of these people reject the idea that there is a benevolence in nature. The universe is entirely indifferent to our particular plight. Yet, this is not to say that there is no purpose to existence or to life. Life is the most “purposeful” thing in the universe. Some would say the ONLY purposeful thing in the universe. Other than living creatures what other thing in the universe acts with a directed intelligent purpose?
The astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, an agnostic by declaration but one who seems to hold pantheistic beliefs has been quoted as saying “Every account of a higher power that I’ve seen described, of all religions that I’ve seen, include many statements with regard to the benevolence of that power. When I look at the universe and all the ways the universe wants to kill us, I find it hard to reconcile that with statements of beneficence”. He also said “After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?”
Many, including the Dalai Lama consider Buddhism as pantheistic. Many people, especially those in the west who were raised in the Abrahamic religions Christianity, Islam and Judaism, do not understand the difference between pantheism and atheism. They can only comprehend “God” as a personal God like Yahweh who is within the world. The idea that God is something else to them seems atheistic. However, the idea of a “God as everything” is more readily accepted in Islam because it is seen as blasphemous to limit Allah who is by definition without limits.
The universal symbols for pantheism are the spiral and the Nautilus shell. I wear a spiral pendant at all times. It is a great way to meet other pantheists. We are everywhere!
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