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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2005 : 08:35:22
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*sigh*
This is probably too similar to the Universism discussion to bother commenting about, but what the hell.
I was reading a NYTimes article and saw an ad for a website about "Atheist Pantheists". I thought, well that's an oxymoron, and just had to check it out. Here is where it led: http://www.pantheism.net/
As always, Carl Sagan and Einstein are dragged into this, and also Michael Shermer. (Does anyone know if Michael Shermer calls himself a "pantheist"?)
So here we have a another friggin' term for the same damn thing. I'm sorry, but this is just more atheism from people who don't want to call themselves atheists. But they claim this is not the case. Here is how they explain it:
Some atheists are so concerned with combatting the enemy - theism - that they leap to the opposite extreme, reducing life to blind selfish genes or the universe to bleak meaninglessness.
So our common enemy is theism? But pantheism is, by definition, a type of theism! Since these pantheists are not claiming an objective meaning to reality, they think the universe is just as "meaningless" as atheists. Also, their beliefs about humankind being integral to nature means they also agree with atheists about reducing life to the material. They even admite explicitely that they are just as materialistic as atheists.
The only real difference is that pantheists have strong feelings of reverence, awe, love and sense of belonging to nature and the universe, and they wish to express those feelings through meditation, ceremony, and ethical action.
So here we go - if you are an atheist in awe of the universe and who responds to that feeling of awe in some way, then apparently you stop being an atheist and start being a pantheist. Give me friggin' break. To stretch the meaning of pantheism in such a way drags the term into absurdity. Pantheist literally means that either one believes everything is God or they believe in all gods. If one only believes that in a symbolic sort of way (meaning they exclude belief in any supernatural elements) then they are not a pantheist, they are an atheist. Having "religious feeling" (whatever the heck that is) is not the same as having belief in God/gods. This is so intellectually dishonest it makes my head hurt.
Sheesh.
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Edited by - marfknox on 08/30/2005 08:41:08
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