Pantheism- Naturalistic Spirituality

Comment

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on May 23, 2011 at 2:54pm

Hi y'all! Please be aware that there's been a very active discussion at  Hang With Friends on spirituality. If you decide to join, and add to that discussion, it will be an opportunity to link back to this group. I encourage Hang With Friends members to promote existing groups. BTW, that discussion is how I learned about your group, so I joined.

Comment by Gecko, Seth...brother of Richie! on May 11, 2011 at 12:53pm

 great article 

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003027/

Comment by Chris Highland on March 6, 2010 at 2:59pm

I'm with you on this explanation and clarification, Howard. Gives me another reason to consider tossing out the word "spirituality" altogether. We all want/need "something bigger" I suppose. I would say Nature is big enough.

Comment by Howard S. Dunn on January 12, 2010 at 2:37pm

meaningful inter-connection of natural relationships

very much along the lines that I would use the word. However, I have become convinced through discussion on this site (not this group) that such a definition is rendered moot by both theists and atheists propensity to automatically attach a supernatural aspect to it. In fact - I'm pretty certain that just your use of the word 'meaningful' might 'irrevocably suggest' to them that that is what you mean. Oh well ... I'm pretty sure that I get you mean nothing of the sort. Avatar actually suggested a purely scientific reason for an effect that was 'misinterpreted' by the indigenous population as 'super-natural.'

Comment by Chris Highland on January 12, 2010 at 1:12pm

If "spirituality" can be redefined as a meaningful inter-connection of natural relationships then I view "Avatar" as moving in the right direction. I enjoy the fantasy sci-fi and amazing effects while questioning the super-natural elements and clear borrowing of indigenous language, customs and ritual. As a (perhaps mythic, Nature-celebrating) story, I'd give it a greenthumb's up.

Comment by Paul Harrison on December 31, 2009 at 1:59pm

I haven't seem Avatar yet but it sounds like it has supernatural elements to it. Still, it's getting a lot of people to search the word "Pantheism" and find out about it, and the top search returns (apart from the appalling and crazy Wikipedia article, which we are trying to remedy) is the 100% naturalistic World Pantheist Movement.

Comment by Claudia M. Mazzucco on December 30, 2009 at 11:12am

According to Catholic Ross Douthat, Avatar is a pantheistic movie.

Douthat writes in the New York Times:

"The question is whether Nature actually deserves a religious response. Traditional theism has to wrestle with the problem of evil: if God is good, why does he allow suffering and death? But Nature is suffering and death. Its harmonies require violence. Its "circle of life" is really a cycle of mortality. And the human societies that hew closest to the natural order aren't the shining Edens of James Cameron's fond imaginings. They're places where existence tends to be nasty, brutish and short.

"Religion exists, in part, precisely because humans aren't at home amid these cruel rhythms. We stand half inside the natural world and half outside it. We're beasts with self-consciousness, predators with ethics, mortal creatures who yearn for immortality."

Comment by It's just Matt on December 29, 2009 at 3:57pm

Is Avatar a good movie for Pantheism or does it end up being supernatural?

Comment by Nate on December 18, 2009 at 9:09pm

Thanks for passing this on, Katrina. I like the Marcus Aurelius quote: "Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together they compose the world."

Comment by Chris Highland on October 21, 2009 at 5:14pm

Some of you may appreciate my new song with an old tune--Amazing Beauty, sung by Patty Ann Smith.

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