Philip Osborne

Actually, I know of at least one argument for pantheism, which is based on mereology (the formal study of part/whole relationships), particularly a proposition from mereology which says that if some things exists, there is something of which they are all parts. Graham Oppy does an interesting analysis of the argument in his article, "Mereological Ontological Arguments and Pantheism," which is available on the II website.

tommyc

Ok, Im going to be really naive here:

Do pantheists believe that there's basically some floaty god person sitting in space and everything physical that we see in existence is merely a figment of his/her/its imagination?

Is it just a more spiritual "Brain in a jar" theory?

Miss Piggy

Hmm, I think you're describing deism or panentheism. Pantheism usually makes no difference between god, space and god's imagination.

From the page http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQ...theism_pan.htm

Theomonistic Pantheism: Only God exists and the independent existence of nature is denied - also referred to as acosmism (a-*cos-mism, or "no-world")

Physiomonistic Pantheism: Only nature or the universe exist, but they are referred to with the term "God" - thus, God is denied having independent existence.

Transcendental or Mystical Pantheism: Actually panentheism, dealt with below.

Immanent-Transcendant Pantheism: God works through and is revealed through nature (also called Idealism sometimes).

Galan

This is probably worthy an entire thread on its own, but as a sidenote I'd like to also point out that there is now a god(world)-view called holotheism developed (refined?) by Christopher Michael Langan as part of his Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (CTMU). From what I understand, this view is closely related to panentheism but also considered more compatible with monotheism.

It's some heavy stuff (this guy is very smart, his IQ is literally off the charts), so you'll need to put your thinking cap on. But it's worth the effort. His theory contains some original and interesting morsels, and a lot of people are starting to give it serious attention:
http://www.ctmu.org/
http://www.teleologic.org/

Uni-Universe

The Universe is a macrocosm. "God" is supposed to be a macrocosm. I am in awe of the Universe like many religious people are in awe of "God."

The Universe holds everything that "created" life and the earth and all other stars, galaxies, and planets, etc. "God" is supposedly behind "creation."

I believe the Universe is a system with many other subsystems inside it. Humans have decided to give the Universe a beard, a human form and mind, human emotions, magic, etc, and call it "God." I say, the Universe is the Universe. Don't attach human characteristics to it and don't make it magical. The end.


Some people like to call the Universe their God and give the Universe similar God attributes like Wiccan's call their Goddesses a variety of names. I say people have been calling the Universe "God" for a long time because they couldn't explain scientific laws. "God" denotes mystery and superhuman-ness. The more scientific our world becomes the more I see the Universe was falsely being called "God" throughout history much like previously unexplained phenomenon was being attributed to spirits or demons.

I can call my "God" the Universe and just think of it as the Universe. I don't have to use the word "God" at all.

Uni-Universe

I have heard of this vary thing. I believe what is meant by this is that the "Universal" energy of Quatum mechanics, Strings is at the core of all things. Universal energy is you and all objects and molecules. It has a scientific meaning if one looks beyond the "God" thing. The illusion part is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Perhaps the people who assert this is all an illusion ask themselves:

If all things are made of energy, are they really there? If all things are percieved through the human brain and biological senses, are they really there? What is the true nature of reality? etc.

villagesmithy

Uni-Universe said:

I believe what is meant by this is that the "Universal" energy of Quatum mechanics, Strings is at the core of all things. Universal energy is you and all objects and molecules.

I personally agree that the key to the physical universe is at the quantum level. Take, for example, the famous "two-slit" experiment, which has been repeated numerous times in physics labs around the world. The setup consists of an electron gun pointed at a plate having two closely-spaced parallel slits that allow electrons to pass through. A photographic film is mounted behind the slits. The electron gun is far enough away that it can't be determined ahead of time which slit any particular electron will go through. The electron gun is then turned on, and everybody goes away for a while. When they return and develop the film, they find an interference pattern of light and dark bands on the film. Thus, the electrons behaved as waves as they passed through the slits, and the positive and negative amplitudes of the waves coming through each slit either added to each other or canceled each other out (i.e., constructive or destructive interference). However, (and here's the real interesting part) if an observer stays and watches while the electrons pass through the slits and build up on the film, the interference pattern does not form. What forms, instead, is two parallel lines on the film, one behind each of the slits, meaning that the electrons behaved as particles, not waves. And the only difference was the presence of a consciousness (the observer).

One could deduce from this that consciousness creates matter. Quantum physicists also tell us that the individual quantum-level particles fluctuate in and out of 3D space at an incredibly rapid rate. If that's true, then the universe is literally being recreated trillions of times per second. Thus, the granddaddy consciousness of them all (i.e., God) could not only be the creater of the universe, He could be continually recreating it through His continual observation.

Amos

And if we are the observer we are God and if each one of us is observer each one of us is God in our own turf (world).