Pantheism - A Spirituality to Suit the Times?

Paul Harrison wraps up his four-part series by explaining the complementary relationship between Pantheism and modern science - A Spirituality to Suit the Times. Harrison is the founder and president of the World Pantheist Movement.

The first three posts:

Loving life as a Pantheist
* 25 June 2008

Meeting spiritual needs naturally
* 24 June 2008

Adding emotion to atheism
* 23 June 2008

I already blogged the June 23rd post.

Here is the beginning of the current article.

One of the strongest attractions of Pantheism for me is that it seems perfectly attuned for our times. We are living in world where scripture-driven fundamentalists from the three Western monotheisms are threatening international security and peace. A world where human neglect of nature and the environment has reached the point where it threatens all our livelihoods and lives.

What we need at this time is a spirituality of Nature and environment. This current is growing in all religions, as they re-interpret their core writings in line with the needs of our crisis. But Pantheism, from square one, places Nature at their very centre.

We need a spirituality that is not afraid of science, that doesn’t seek to deny science, nor to gradually withdraw into a hidden corner of untestable claims that can’t be investigated. Pantheism is possibly the only spiritual path that fully embraces science and the scientific method (that doesn’t mean we embrace all the technological products of science). It’s also possibly the only path that is utterly at home in space, in the Universe revealed by the Hubble telescope.

I'm more than a little skeptical of any attempt to make anything into a religion, even pantheism, which has sort of been a religion from time to time anyway. The moment something "spiritual" becomes embodied as a religion, it's generally all downhill from there.

Harrison isn't so sure about pantheism becoming a religion either.

The prospects for Pantheism as an organized religion are less certain. The World Pantheist Movement has made the strongest shot at it so far, but it is not easy to encourage people to form local groups. One reason is that Pantheists are non-conformist by nature, and many have been turned off all organized religion by bad experiences with traditional religions. Pantheists also tend to be secure in their beliefs – we believe in what’s in front of our eyes, and we don’t need the confirmation of group gatherings to reassure us that our beliefs are not crazy. Nor does our “salvation” or peace of mind depend on recruiting others to our beliefs.

Just let people be pantheists if they want, and provide resources for them if they are interested. Why try to create a religion?

Tags: A Spirituality to Suit the Times, Religion, pantheism, culture, Paul Harrison, World Pantheist Movement, science