Reverend Jack Carlson

Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion, has described Pantheism as “sexed-up atheism.” That may seem flippant, but it is accurate. Of all religious or spiritual traditions, Pantheism – the approach of Einstein, Hawking and many other scientists – is the only one that passes the muster of the world’s most militant atheist.

So what’s the difference between Atheism and Pantheism? As far as disbelief in supernatural beings, forces or realms, there is no difference. World Pantheism also shares the respect for evidence, science, and logic that’s typical of atheism.

However, Pantheism goes further, and adds to atheism an embracing, positive and reverential feeling about our lives on planet Earth, our place in Nature and the wider Universe, and uses nature as our basis for dealing with stress, grief and bereavement. (Source of all quotes)

Prior to reading this, I confess my perception of pantheism was very different. Based almost solely on my interpretation of “pan” as meaning broad or all encompassing, and theism as god belief, I heard “pantheism” and thought “a group who believes all gods exist”.

Since I have no reason to suppose that a description put together by those who espouse these attitudes is inaccurate, I will accept that the above fairly describes the positions of a pantheist.

By those standards, I could be a pantheist. But why should I? Does “pantheist” better sum up my attitudes toward life, death and the universe than the group with which I currently identify, humanists?

Where the author draws a distinction between atheism and pantheism (“Pantheism goes further, and adds to atheism an embracing, positive and reverential feeling about our lives on planet Earth, our place in Nature and the wider Universe, and uses nature as our basis for dealing with stress, grief and bereavement“), they fail to draw a clear distinction between humanism and pantheism.

As far as atheism is concerned, the last sentence in the following paragraph struck a chord.

If you are looking for atheist groups or freethought groups or brights groups and email lists, and if you would like ones that do a lot more than just attack religion, then you may well find World Pantheism the place you were looking for.

I agree that the worst part about using the term “atheist” is that it’s such a negative and limited concept. It’s the description of one among many “dis-beliefs” I have. It’s vague and potentially inaccurate. It’s not descriptive of the positive beliefs I hold. There does seem to be an emphasis on attacking religion in the word “atheist” that doesn’t accurately reflect my position on theism.

So I prefer to describe myself as a humanist. I believe in humans, I appreciate humanity and am learning every day about our place on this planet. That, to me, is what “spirituality” is all about.

I don’t see what pantheism has to offer that can’t be embraced under the banner of humanism. It does have a negative aspect to its name that humanism doesn’t. Those who are no better informed than I was about what pantheism stands for will, as I did, suspect that it’s some form of theism. Humanists may frequently be considered atheists, which isn’t always accurate but is in my case, so I don’t mind that association. I perceive pantheism as a bit too vague a name (though not in the same way as “atheist”) and potentially misleading.

Any pantheists out there want to correct my perceptions?