|
|
Famous Pantheists
|
Rachel Carson
Those who dwell...among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are
never alone or weary of life. The more clearly we can focus our attention on
the
wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we
shall have for destruction.
Carl
Sagan
A religion old
or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed
by modern science,
might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly
tapped by the conventional faiths.
Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.
Pale Blue Dot
Albert Einstein
A
knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the
manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant
beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the
truly religious attitude; in this sense, and this alone, I am a
deeply religious man.
The World as I See It
Margaret Atwood
god is not the voice in the whirlwind
god is the whirlwind |
|
Mikhail
Gorbachev
I believe in the cosmos.
All of us are linked to the cosmos.
So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples
and forests
are
my cathedrals.
|
|
Sitting Bull
Every seed is awakened
and
so is all animal life.
It is through this mysterious power that
we too have our being
and we therefore yield
to our animal neighbours
the same right as ourselves, to inhabit
this land.
|
|
Stephen Hawking
Larry King:
Do you believe in God?
Stephen Hawking:
Yes, if by God is meant the embodiment of the law of the universe.
Larry King Live, December 25, 1999
|
|
Henry David
Thoreau
We are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by
the perpetual instilling and drenching
of the reality that surrounds us. We can never have enough of nature. |
|
Can there be a spirituality that is based in
reality?
In the WPM we revere and care for
Nature, we accept this life as our only life, and this earth as our only
paradise, if we look after it. We revel in the beauty of Nature and the
night sky, and are full of wonder at their mystery and power.
By spirituality and spiritual we don't mean any
kind of supernatural or non-physical activity - we use the terms in a wider
sense. We mean that part of our lives that relates to our deeper emotions
and aesthetic responses towards Nature and the wider Universe - to our sense
of our place in these, and to the ethics that these feelings imply.
We take the real Universe and Nature as
our starting and finishing point, not some preconceived idea of God. We feel
a profound wonder and awe for these, similar to the reverence that believers
in more conventional gods feel towards their deity, but without
anthropomorphic worship or belief that Nature has a mind or personality that
we can influence through prayer or ritual.
Our ethics are humanistic and green, our metaphysics
naturalist and scientific. To these we add the emotional and aesthetic
dimensions which humans need to cope with life's challenges and to embrace
life's joys, and to motivate their concern for Nature and human welfare.
Our beliefs and values reconcile spirituality and
rationality, emotion and values and environmental concern with science and
respect for evidence. They are summarized in our
Statement of Principles, which
embodies the following basic principles:
- Reverence, awe, wonder and a feeling of belonging to Nature and
the wider Universe.
- Respect and active care for the rights of all humans and other
living beings.
- Celebration or our lives in our bodies on this beautiful earth as
a joy and a privilege.
- Strong naturalism - without belief in supernatural realms,
afterlives, beings or forces.
- Respect for reason, evidence and the scientific method as our
best ways of understanding nature and the Universe.
- Promotion of religious tolerance, freedom of religion and
complete separation of state and religion.
If you want to see why other people have chosen this spiritual
approach, then check
Members' Voices.
Most people have a sense that
there is something greater than the self or than the human race. And indeed
there is. It's the planet, and at a broader level the entire Cosmos.
The WPM's
naturalistic reverence for Nature can satisfy the need for a feeling of
belonging to a greater whole, without sacrificing
logic or respect for evidence and science. As one member put it, it is
spirituality without absurdity.
- It does not require faith in miracles, invisible entities or
supernatural powers.
- It accepts and affirms life joyously. It does not regard this life
as a waiting room or a staging post on the way to a better existence
after death.
- It has a healthy and positive attitude to sex and life in the body.
- It teaches reverence and love and active concern for Nature. Nature
was not created for us to use or abuse - Nature created us, we are an
inseparable part of her, and we have a duty of care towards her.
- It enthusiastically embraces the picture of a vast, creative and
often violent Universe revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. We need a
spirituality in keeping with this new knowledge, not one that seeks to
deny or explain away parts of it.
- It does not simply co-exist uncomfortably with science: it fully
embraces science as part of the human exploration of the awesome
Universe. However, this does not mean we believe that science can answer
all questions, nor that we endorse all modern technologies regardless of
their impact on Nature.
So why an organization?
Most people also have a deep need to belong to a
community - this is perhaps the main reason why people join or stick with
religions they may privately doubt. The WPM aims to provide a spiritual and
social "home base" for people who love Nature and the Universe but do
not believe in supernatural entities. A home base that provides the
community support of local groups, and facilitators to help celebrate
natural weddings, funerals and other special occasions in the style that
people really want. A base where you can share your beliefs and your
enthusiasms without fear of being ostracized or considered an outsider.
The WPM Statement
of Principles is not a requirement of
membership but simply a notice on our door, to show what we are about so
people can decide if it suits them or not.
Our aims
The major aims of the movement are:
- To promote the values of environmental concern
and human rights.
- To sponsor Nature conservation activities and help members to
conserve Nature
- To make earth-honoring life-affirming naturalistic beliefs
widely available as a spiritual option and a rational alternative to
traditional religions.
- To build up membership in localities and promote the formation of
local groups.
- To create a network of celebrants for Nature and life-oriented
child dedications, weddings, and funerals.
- To promote an expanding presence for these beliefs and values on
the Internet and in other media of all types.
- To assist in the production and publication of media
promoting these beliefs and values.
If you join the WPM you will be joining a young, rapidly growing and dynamic group
with an expanding range of activities. We have lively forums. Our
Facebook Fan Page has
over 10,000 members from all continents. Our richly
featured online community has many discussions, local groups, and groups
for practical pantheist living.
There have been many local meetings of members right
across the USA and in other parts of the world, where people have found a
rare level of fellowship and stimulation. Two of the major benefits, members
find, are gaining new like-minded friends and finding support for your own
beliefs and attitudes to life and Nature.
How we relate to closely allied
beliefs
The
core of what we stand for is our beliefs (see the
Statement of Principles). For convenience,
we use the name pantheism because it has a long and venerable history. But
our beliefs are entirely naturalistic, and compatible with atheism, humanism and naturalism.
Also with those forms of
paganism that see magic and the gods as symbols rather than realities. We
offer a home to all forms of naturalistic spirituality - scientific pantheism,
religious humanism, religious naturalism, positive atheism, deep ecology,
philosophical Taoism, modern Stoicism, Gaia religion, also Western forms of
Buddhism that celebrate Nature and everyday life, and to those in Unitarian
Universalism who do not believe in supernatural beings.
You are completely free to adopt the terms and practices
you prefer. Most of us avoid "god-language" and the sizeable minority
who use it do so metaphorically.
Please explore our pages. Check out the highlights on the left pane,
and browse the drop-down menu top left. If you have a question,
email us at
i n f o
a t p a n t h e i s m d o t n e t |
