Pantheist-To be one or not

I have been calling myself a Pantheist now for a few years, happy to have found my true spiritual home, happy to have the freedom to do my own rituals and my own celebrations as I saw fit and happy to be able to be very spiritual while being in what I thought was a fairly Naturalistic spiritual path.

Then I come across a Pantheist forum and join: The members there tell me that a Pantheist is someone who believes that EVERYTHING is God-Do not get upset that man is tearing the trees down in the forest to build a house-The House is God, the trees and forest are also God, as is my car, my ex boyfriend's gun and my cat. God is everything. I dont believe this. I believe that everything Natural is divine-Sacred, Everything found in Nature-Waterfalls, stars, energy, people, rain, etc are Holy.

Not cars, radios, microwaves.
They claim that an Atheist would never make the statement that everything is God
I claim I would also never make that statement-They say-Then you are definately NOT a Pantheist
I say well then Im a Naturalistic Pagan which is what I was calling myself before I thought I was a Pantheist.
What is Natural they ask because to them, everything that exists comes frm Nature and is therefore God.

Dancing around outside around a tree is something some Pagans might do, some Pantheists also might do this in Ritual. Dancing around a pile of empty Pepsi cans is something a Pantheist might do because the pepsi cans are God. :) and I thought I was nutz!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Harrison on September 16, 2010 at 1:44pm
Ace, I don't know what pantheist forum you joined, or who were the "pantheists" who said this to you. I would like to know if you can remember.
But believe me, what you describe above does not represent a typical Naturalistic Pantheist view like you will find in the World Pantheist Movement.
WPM pantheism means a profound reverence for Nature and the Universe. It does not imply any creator God, in fact most of us do not even use the word God because it's misleading.
By "Nature" most of us mean natural, not human-made.
A small minority say it means "everything" including oil slicks, bits of chewing gum stuck to the pavement, torture sessions, war, pollution, deforestation. These people are in a small minority.
What you describe of your own position sounds perfectly pantheist to me and would fit well with most of the pantheists I know. (I am president of the World Pantheist Movement)
Permalink Reply by Paul Harrison on September 16, 2010 at 1:55pm
The key to understanding this, by the way, is that for Naturalistic Pantheism it is a deliberate human choice to revere Nature and the Universe, it is not a requirement or an act of faith.
Because it is a free choice, we are free to exclude or include what we want. Most of us exclude anything that is damaging to the health or diversity of nature. It would in fact be very strange to revere Nature and also revere those human-made things that destroy Nature.
Permalink Reply by Ace on September 16, 2010 at 4:24pm
Its Earth song forums found here: www.earthsongforums.com
They have a Pantheist section of which I am a regular poster, it was just yesterday that they made claim that I am not a Pantheist based on my denial that war, cars, guns and houses are Divine or God.
Permalink Reply by Ace on September 17, 2010 at 2:48pm
Now I am at Religiousforums.com and they are telling me that toasters and bags of potato chips are also God, thats Pantheism so Im as confused as ever, I really dont believe in God at all, I certainly dont believe microwaves and toasters to be sacred or holy, you wont catch me outside dancing around my toaster.

Thats dumb.

Sigh
Permalink Reply by Nerdlass on July 25, 2011 at 9:09pm
Just because a bag of chips is made of stardust, like everything else on this planet, doesn't mean it should be looked at in awe or reverence. I think some folks are taking it to extremes, on those forums.

It'd had better be MIGHTY tasty to be revered. ;)

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