Some critics argue that pantheism is little more than a redefinition of the word "God" to mean "existence" "life"or "reality". Many pantheists reply that even if this is so, such a shift in the way we think about these ideas can serve to create both a new and a potentially far more insightful conception of both existence and God. Perhaps the most significant debate within the pantheistic community is about the nature of God. Classical pantheism believes in a personal, conscious, and omniscient God, and sees this God as uniting all tru ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Debate

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Related concepts

This article distinguishes between two divergent groups of pantheists: Classical pantheism, which is expressed in the immanent God of Kabalistic Judaism, Advaita Vedanta Sanatana Dharma, and Monism, generally viewing God in a personal manner. Naturalistic pantheism, based on the relatively recent views of Baruch Spinoza and John Toland (who coined the term "pantheism"), as well as contemporary influences. The vast majority of persons who can be identified as "pantheistic" are of the classical va ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism

Pantheism (Greek: pan = all and Theos = God) literally means "God is All" and "All is God". It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that natural law, existence, and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) is represented or personified in the theological principle of 'God'. Pantheism - History. The term "pantheist" — of which th ...

Including:

• Pantheism - History
• Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism
• Pantheism - Methods of explanation
• Pantheism - Debate
• Pantheism - Related concepts
• Pantheism - Panentheism
• Pantheism - Cosmotheism
• Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion
• Pantheism - Hinduism
• Pantheism - Ayyavazhi
• Pantheism - Judaism
• Pantheism - Christian
• Pantheism - Islam
• Pantheism - Other religions
• Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia - Pantheism

ANTI-CHRISTIAN STRATEGIES

"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years," said Abraham Lincoln, a century and a half ago. "What are the fruits of Christianity? Bigotry, superstition and persecution," said President James Madison some two centuries ago. "For seventeen hundred years the Christian sect has done nothing but harm" said Voltaire 230 years ago. Quotations of this sort by the wisest of thinkers and leaders, extending as they do back through the millennia, should serve as a skull and crossbones over the door of the church.

Xtianity, obviously, is the worst of all worlds (with the possible exception of Islam). On the one hand, it exhorts its believers to live vicariously, to reach for nothing, inasmuch as Christ has done all the work of redemption for them. In this way it thoroughly discourages individualism, especially in its most creative aspects. On the other hand, it pledges salvation to the dregs of mankind - the lowest ranks of morality - to the mindless and the vicious. Thus it espouses egoism at the cheapest level.

Arrogant Xtians are fond of saying, "You can't have it both ways." By that they mean that you can't accept the interconnectedness of everything and at the same time believe in the separation of the individual. But Xtianity, founded as it is on the veneration of stupidity, has always confused paradox with inconsistency.

The wise man leans neither on belief nor on non-belief. The whole issue of God/Not-God is unnecessarily dichotomous, as is our analysis of morality/immorality. The Either-Or world is dangerous. Indeed, it is so dangerous that even to proceed in a line midway between this Scylla and Charybdis is to hem oneself in by unwanted limitations. "God" is a word that has yet to be defined and even the certainty of divine singularity vs. plurality is debatable. It is a common conceit that monotheism is a step is a step forward from polytheism and one which some serious metaphysicians are finally beginning to question. The initiate may declare that there is but one "God", but he means that in a quite different sense from the common notion of exclusivity.

Monotheism (see MONOLATRY) always leads to monolithism. We are one another only be differing from one another. It is uniqueness that makes us divine. It is quite possible to deny the existence of "God" without elevating man (in his present condition) to apotheosis. There is, for example, the teaching of Pantheism, in which all plants, animals and, in fact, matter itself, are all equally God. This is also one God.

Anti-christians are admittedly defensive about "Salvation through Christ". First of all, non-Christians insist, there can be no salvation without one's own immolation - not the crucifiction of some 2000 year old personage of legend. Secondly, Christ is a type of supraconsciousness already potential, but undeveloped, in all men and women. It must not be confused with the self-pitying figures depicted in stained glass windows. The Christ level of consciousness is, in fact, certainly not available to the average, plastic-coated, postmodern illiterate, whose vision scarcely extends beyond that of an insect and whose tenacity is no firmer than a worm's pull. Therefore, to make salvation available to all men on a believe-as-you-go basis is idiotic. And finally, the Galilean mode is only one of many modes of consciousness - most of which are a lot more interesting. (See 666.)

(See also: ANTI-CHRISTIAN STRATEGIES, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Pantheism - Hinduism. In Hindu theology Moksha and achieving godness is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent, the absolute infinite existence, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or ever shall be. As the sun has rays of light which emanate from the same source, the same holds true for the multifaceted aspects of God emanating from Brahman, like many colors of the same prism. This concept of God is of one unity, with the individual personal Gods being aspects of the One; thus, different deities are seen by different adherents as particularly well suited to their worship. Pan ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion

Islamic Sufism is regarded by some as being influenced by eastern philosophies (Indian and Persian) and has Pantheistic doctrines within its many varieties. Pantheism - Other religions. There are elements of pantheism in Theosophy, some forms of Buddhism, and Taoism along with many varying denominations and individuals within and without denominations. Many Unitarian Universali ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Islam

An oft-cited feature of pantheism is that each individual human, being part of the universe or nature, is part of God. One issue discussed by pantheists is how, if this is so, humans can have free will. In answer, the following analogy is sometimes given (particularly by classical pantheists): "you are to God, as an individual blood cell in your vein is to you." The analogy further maintains that while a cell may be aware of its own environs, and even has some choices (free will) between right and wrong (killing a bacterium, becoming maligna ...

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Pantheism, Pantheism - History, Pantheism - Varieties of pantheism, Pantheism - Methods of explanation, Pantheism - Debate, Pantheism - Related concepts, Pantheism - Panentheism, Pantheism - Cosmotheism, Pantheism - Pantheistic concepts in religion, Pantheism - Hinduism, Pantheism - Ayyavazhi, Pantheism - Judaism, Pantheism - Christian, Pantheism - Islam, Pantheism - Other religions, Pantheism - Quotations

Read more here: » Pantheism: Encyclopedia II - Pantheism - Methods of explanation