Pantheism
Introduction
Pantheism is the philosophical view that the
universe and GOD are one and the same substance. This philosophy rejects the
traditional concept of a personal, anthropomorphic creator residing within a
distant, heavenly realm. Instead, pantheism views the sacred as something
deeply embedded in the natural world. It locates divine wonder in trees, stars,
and the fabric of everyday life, viewing them as interconnected strands of the
singular substance that constitutes the universe.
While pantheism equates GOD with nature, panentheism
offers a subtle distinction by suggesting the divine infuses the cosmos while
simultaneously transcending it. This tension is highly relevant to contemporary
eco-theology.
There are profound parallels between eco-theology
and classic pantheism, most notably in their mutual rejection of dualism. Whilst
one might argue against a mechanical worldview that separates the spiritual
from the material, pantheism completely collapses the divide between Creator
and creation, denying the existence of a separate "supernatural"
realm.
To trace the lineage of these ideas is to observe a
brilliant thread weaving through human history—bridging ancient mysticism,
rigorous logic, and romantic literature to attempt a bridge into Christianity
and into modern science through figures like Baruch Spinoza and Albert
Einstein.
Finally one finds in Albert Schweitzer’s philosophy
of reverence for life his pantheism in action. He was a philosopher that both
acknowledged that competition and killing were essential elements to the
survival of the food chain but perhaps of far greater importance was the
cooperation and tolerance which have evolved in the shared struggle of
survival.
The ethical consideration as to ultimate
sustainability can have no better focus than that aligned to the
"Reverence for Life" principle. It blends in with concerns over
“Mother Earth” and her ultimate sustainability in the face of depletion, waste
and pollution attributable to mankind.
The missing link is the principle that establishes our conscious “will to live”
that affirms our relationship with the world but requires us to create values
that in turn generate outcomes sustainable to all life. In essence Schweitzer
was ahead of his times and one of the first modern day philosophers to
introduce to us a life affirming bio centred ethics.
Note 2 & 7- Pantheism and
Panentheism.
2 The Stoic Foundation and Medieval
Transitions
The roots of Western pantheism anchor deeply in the
ancient world. Stoic philosophers believed that a rational, ordering principle
rules the cosmos. They called this active, universal force the Logos,
or GOD. To the Stoics, the universe was a single, living organism. Wisdom meant
aligning one's personal will with the natural flow of this world, recognizing
that every human carries a fragment of the cosmic divine within.
During the medieval era, this concept of an
indwelling, worldly divine faced intense suppression. Traditional church
authorities insisted on a strict separation between a perfect Creator and a
fallen, physical Earth. When the 9th-century Irish philosopher John Scotus
Eriugena argued that GOD and creation are ultimately one, his ideas pushed the
absolute boundaries of orthodoxy. For most medieval mystics, hinting that
nature itself was divine was a highly dangerous position. It threatened the established
church hierarchy and challenged the concept of a heavenly judge, carrying the
heavy risk of being branded a heretic.
3 Spinoza’s Strict Logic and the
Synagogue’s Fury
The dangerous undercurrent of pantheism erupted with
mathematical clarity in 17th-century Amsterdam through Baruch Spinoza. Growing
up in the Portuguese-Jewish community, the young thinker used geometric proofs
to strip away the human-like attributes of the traditional deity. He argued
that only one infinite substance exists, coining the famous phrase Deus
sive Natura — GOD or Nature. Spinoza asserted that GOD is the
indwelling cause of the universe, not an outside maker. In his view, everything
in nature operates by absolute necessity; there is no free will, only the
beautiful, deterministic clockwork of reality.
Through this framework, he categorized the world
into different "modes" of that single, overall substance. For humans,
understanding reality requires understanding our emotions. He believed certain
emotions, like anger, negate our sense of cosmic unity, while emotions of awe
and joy unite us to the whole. While our human experience is limited to these
rational and emotive responses, Spinoza reminded us that infinite other modes
of existence exist — mysteries of the cosmos to which we are simply not privy.
Note 3.
4 The Romantic Awakening: Feeling the
Cosmic Sublime.
By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the cold,
geometric clockwork of Spinoza’s universe was infused with passion, poetry, and
profound emotion. The Romantic movement arose as a fierce rebellion against the
industrial revolution, which threatened to turn nature into mere raw material
for human exploitation. Poets like William Blake and William Wordsworth looked
out at the world and saw something deeply alive, re-enchanting the landscape
with pantheistic fervour.
William Blake looked at the natural world and saw
the infinite contained within the finite. To him, a grain of sand or a wild
flower were not just physical objects, but windows into eternity. Note
4
Meanwhile, William Wordsworth became the ultimate
high priest of this nature-mysticism. In his famous poem, Lines
Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, he described a profound spiritual
experience that perfectly mirrors pantheistic philosophy:
"And I have felt / A presence that
disturbs me with the joy / Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime / Of something
far more deeply interfused, / Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, /
And the round ocean and the living air, / And the blue sky, and in the mind of
man..." Note 5
For the Romantics, GOD was not an old man in the
clouds handing down commandments. GOD was the lightning, the mist rolling over
the mountains, and the deep, emotional resonance felt when standing before the
grandeur of the wilderness. They transformed pantheism from a rigorous logical
theory into a lived, breathless experience of awe.
5 Modern Science: Einstein and the
Cosmic Religious Feeling- Note 6
In the 20th century, this ancient thread of thought
made a surprising and triumphant return in the realm of theoretical physics.
When the world's most famous scientist, Albert Einstein, was asked whether he
believed in GOD , his answer was clear and unequivocal:
"I believe in Spinoza's GOD, who
reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a GOD who concerns
Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."
How Albert Einstein Found Faith at the
Edge of Reason.
Though wary of organized religion, the physicist
believed that the harmony of universal laws pointed to a higher power.
Einstein, along with many pioneers of modern
physics, found that the deeper science peered into the fabric of reality, the
more unified and awe-inspiring the universe became. The old view of the
universe as a collection of separate, isolated objects was replaced by a
reality of interconnected fields of energy and spacetime.
Einstein described this as a "cosmic religious
feeling." He noted that this feeling knows no dogma and no GOD conceived
in man's image. Instead, it is a profound sense of humility and admiration for
the sublime order revealed in the laws of nature. In a beautiful twist of
history, the very tools of modern science — once feared to be the destruction
of spirituality — ended up validating the core intuition of pantheism: that the
universe is a singular, deeply interconnected masterpiece.
6 The Humanitarian perspective _ Albert
Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer's philosophy of "reverence
for life" is more closely analogous to pantheism than panentheism. He
viewed the universe as a single, sacred, and unified surge of living
energy—summarized by his famous maxim, "I am life that wants to live,
in the midst of life that wants to live"—rather than seeing a
transcendent God who exists beyond or above the physical world.
Core Pantheistic Elements in
Schweitzer's Thought
· Immanence of the Divine: Schweitzer
did not look for a personal GOD residing in a supernatural realm above the
cosmos. Instead, he located the holy within the immediate, tangible reality of
the natural world.
· The Unified Will: He viewed the
life-force as a single, universal urge. Every living thing shares this
identical spiritual and physical essence.
· Dissolution of the Creator-Creation
Divide: In his view, the universe is not an external object made by
GOD ; the universe is the manifestation of the divine
will-to-live knowing itself.
Key Quotes and his Philosophical Proofs
· The Universal Identity: Schweitzer
wrote, "True philosophy must start from the most immediate and
comprehensive fact of consciousness: 'I am life that wants to live, in the
midst of life that wants to live.'" This places humanity on an exact
horizontal plane with all existence, rather than under a transcendent
hierarchy.
· Ethical Mysticism: He described
his ethics not as a set of commands given by an external lawgiver, but as a
mystical experience of the unity of all beings. To injure another creature is
to injure the singular divine life-force pulsing through oneself.
· Rejection of Teleology: Schweitzer
saw the universe as mysterious and devoid of a human-centric, transcendent
plan. The sacredness is raw, present, and active in the physical struggle of
every organism, which aligns cleanly with pantheism rather than panentheism's
dual layer of immanence and transcendence.
Note 8
7 Theistic Backlash, Christian
Reconciliation and pantheistic rationality
The response from religious authorities to Spinoza
was swift and merciless. The synagogue elders issued a harsh decree of
excommunication against him, known as a cherem. They condemned him
for "abominable heresies" issuing a public curse, forbidding anyone
from speaking to him, reading his writing, or coming within four cubits of him.
Christian authorities were equally outraged. The Catholic Church placed Spinoza's
books on the List of Prohibited Books and Protestant leaders banned his work as
blasphemous atheism. They equated such views as collapsing GOD into nature as
equivalent to destroying the concept of GOD altogether. Note 6
The Principal Critiques
· The Problem of Evil: If the universe
and GOD are identical, then everything in the universe is divine. This means
that disease, cruelty, and moral evil must also be parts of GOD.
· The Loss of a personal GOD : Such
a GOD has no mind, no intentions, and no personal care for humanity to
communicate love, forgiveness or hear prayers- one that therefore, by
necessity, is unworthy of devotion.
· The Collapse of Free Will: Without
free will and a final judgment in the afterlife, human moral accountability
collapses. If there is no divine judge to reward virtue and punish sin, the
traditional foundation for ethics is undermined.
· The Accusation of Atheism: Critics
argued pantheism is atheism in a polite coat. Hence, calling the universe
"GOD " means you are only believing in physical matter. If GOD is
nothing more than nature, then the word "GOD" becomes redundant.
The attempted Christian reconciliations:
In a nutshell GODs presence in nature is preserved
as a personal, transcendent Creator with the world contained within GOD, but
GOD also transcends the physical universe. The German Idealists (Karl Krause
& Hegel) argued the universe is a manifestation of God's spirit unfolding
through history, yet GOD remains a conscious spirit greater than the sum of the
physical world. Similarly Alfred North Whitehead & Charles Hartshorne
argued that GOD has two "natures". God's primordial nature
is eternal and transcendent, while God's consequent nature is
immanent, changing, and deeply intertwined with the evolving universe. Note
2 & 7.
How pantheists see these issues:
1. The Problem of Evil: Cosmic Harmony vs.
Human Bias.
· Einstein and Spinoza argued the universe cannot be
seen through a lens of human good and evil which is a mistake. Nature is not
designed to cater to human comfort.
· Relative vs. Absolute: What humans
experience as "evil" (like a virus, an earthquake, or death) is
simply local friction. From a cosmic viewpoint, these are necessary expressions
of immutable physical laws.
· Perfection as Completeness: GOD’s
perfection does not mean a lack of suffering; it means the flawless, unbroken
operation of deterministic laws where cause and effect always balance out.
2. The "Impersonal" God: Cosmic
Religious Feeling
· Beyond Human Traits: Einstein argued
that a GOD who rewards and punishes is just a primitive projection of human
parental figures. Assigning a human mind, gender, or personality to the cosmos
limits the infinite.
· The Cosmic Religious Feeling: Einstein
described the highest form of religion as a feeling of sublime wonder. It is
the realization of the marvellous structure of the universe, which makes human
desires and goals seem insignificant yet deeply connected.
· Prayer as Alignment: Pantheists
do not pray to change GOD’s mind. Instead, contemplation and scientific
discovery are forms of communion, aligning human consciousness with the supreme
intelligence embedded in natural law.
3. Loss of Free Will: Liberation
Through Determinism
· The Illusion of Will: Einstein
famously quoted Schopenhauer: "A man can do what he wants, but not
want what he wants." Everything, from the orbit of a planet to a
human thought, is bound by causal necessity.
· Mitigating Blame, Increasing
Empathy: Realizing that human actions are determined eliminates bitter
resentment, hatred, and self-righteousness. If a criminal is seen as a broken
machine rather than a purely evil agent, justice shifts from punishment to
rehabilitation.
· Enlightened Responsibility: Ethics do
not require a celestial judge or an afterlife. We behave morally because we
recognize our oneness with the whole. Harming another is as irrational as a
person's left hand cutting their right hand.
4. "Pantheism is Just Atheism":
The Sublime Universe
· The Sacredness of the Laws: An atheist
looks at the universe and sees a blank, accidental mechanism. A pantheist or
new age atheist such Dennett looks at the exact same universe and experiences a
profound sense of awe and holiness at its mathematical precision and beauty.
· Mind and Matter Are One: Following
Spinoza, the universe is not just "dead matter." Matter and
consciousness are two sides of the same coin. The universe thinks through us;
our intellect is a tiny spark of the cosmic intellect.
· The Library Analogy: Einstein summed
up this distinction by comparing humanity to a child entering a colossal
library. The child does not understand all the books or the language they are
written in, but they note a definite plan in the arrangement—a mysterious,
overwhelming order that commands reverence, not dismissal.
Einstein’s Captivation and the Quantum
Disruption versus Indian mystical insights
Despite these fierce theological objections, Spinoza
captivated the modern scientific mind, most notably Albert Einstein. To
reiterate, Einstein openly stated, "I believe in Spinoza's God, who
reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists." For Einstein, the
laws of physics were not cold mechanics, but the very manifestation of a cosmic
religious feeling.
However, the rise of quantum physics in the 20th
century shattered the strict, predictable world that Spinoza and Einstein
cherished. Quantum mechanics demonstrated that at the subatomic level, nature
is not a deterministic clock. Instead, particles operate on probabilities and
random chance. Einstein famously rejected this randomness, declaring, "GOD
does not play dice with the universe." Furthermore, the discovery of
quantum entanglement—where two distant particles instantly influence each other—violated
Einstein’s sense of localized physical order, leading him to dismiss it as
"spooky action at a distance."
Strangely, modern physicists often use Spinoza’s
framework to make sense of these quantum oddities. If the cosmos is a single,
interconnected substance, then distant, entangled particles are not truly
separate; they are fundamentally united expressions of the same whole. This
idea was also underpinned by Hinduism.
8 Shared World Views and final thoughts
Ancient traditions recognised Spinoza’s geometric
deduction of a single substance contained in the Indian philosophy of Advaita
Vedanta (non-dualism), formalized by Adi Shankara in the 8th century. Where
Spinoza saw Thought and Extension as
attributes of one reality, Advaita Vedanta teaches that Purusha (pure
consciousness) and Prakriti (physical nature) emerge from the
singular, absolute reality of Brahman. Both systems conclude that
individual separation is an illusion—a concept Advaita Vedanta calls Maya.
This worldview shares some common ground across the
globe:
Buddhism: Mahayana
and Zen traditions emphasize Pratītyasamutpāda (interdependence),
asserting that nothing exists in isolation. The sacred essence, or Buddha-nature,
is present in all sentient beings and matter, dissolving the rigid human ego
into a grand, interconnected whole.
Daoism: In ancient
Chinese philosophy, the Dao (The Way) is the source, pattern,
and substance of everything that exists. As the sage Zhuangzi noted,
"Heaven and I were created together, and all things and I are one."
Wisdom means practicing Wu Wei—living in effortless alignment with
this natural flow.
Australian First Nations Spirituality:
Within the concept of the Dreaming, the landscape is ancestral, and
deeply sacred. The philosophy of "Caring for Country" rests on the
realization that humans and the earth are the same entity; harming the land is
an act of self-harm.
First Nations Cultures: Indigenous
philosophies throughout the world describe a unifying life force, such as the
Lakota Wakan Tanka (the Great Mystery). This animating energy
is infused into every tree, animal, and stone, fostering a profound sense of
kinship summarized by the phrase "All My Relations."
Deep Ecology: In
the modern era, contemporary philosophers like Michael Levine and Paul Harrison
have stripped pantheism of speculative metaphysics, grounding it in ecology and
astronomy. This modern framework finds its ultimate practical expression. That
translates pantheistic reverence into direct environmental activism. It
replaces anthropocentric (human-centered) thinking with biocentric
equality, arguing that all living things have an inherent right to
flourish, completely independent of their usefulness to human beings. By
expanding the human sense of identity to include the entire ecosystem—the
"Ecological Self"—environmental degradation is recognized as literal
self-harm. This philosophy directly inspires global movements to engage in the
fierce, protective defence of our endangered planet.
Mortality and Grief in the Indwelling
Cosmos
Because pantheism rejects a traditional paradise or
an individualized soul that survives death, it approaches mortality and grief
through a unique, deeply comforting lens of cosmic recycling and eternal
belonging.
Death as Conservation, Not
End: In a pantheistic universe, energy and matter are never destroyed; they
merely change form. Death is not a plunge into a void, but a returning home.
The physical elements that compose a person are borrowed from the earth and the
stars; passing away is simply returning those elements to the divine whole.
The Wave and the Ocean:
Spinoza described individual lives as temporary "modes" or ripples in
the one eternal substance. When a person dies, the individual wave subsides,
but the ocean remains. We do not cease to exist; we simply dissolve back into
the ultimate reality that birthed us.
Reframing Grief:
Grief remains an honest, profound expression of love, but it is stripped of
existential horror. Pantheism comforts the grieving by reminding them that
their lost loved ones are not vanished or stranded in a distant realm—they are
physically present all around us. They are in the soil, the wind, the twining
ivy, and the rustling trees.
An Eternal Present:
Because the entire timeline of the universe belongs to the single divine
substance, what has happened is preserved forever in the fabric of reality. A
life lived is an indelible, eternal fact within the cosmos. We belong to the
cosmic process, and dying is as natural a function of the universe as is birth.
9 Conclusion: Standing in
Affirmation
Ultimately, pantheism offers a profound spiritual
and philosophical home for the reflective mind. It allows us to discard rigid
dogmas, superstitious fears, and the historical anxieties of an angry, judging
deity, while fully retaining a deep, reverent sense of the sacred.
We return to the grounded insights of our guiding
thinkers. We may not pray to this universe realising it will not alter the laws
of physics to answer our worries with miracles. Yet, as we look at the ivy
twining, the wild flowers blooming, and the stars running above us, we can shed
the illusion of isolation. We hold infinity in the palm of our hand. We may
feel we do not need a magical creator to experience sacred awe; the universe
itself is the miracle and it is miraculous that matter should bind together to
form you and me as complex human beings. We stand in complete, joyful
affirmation of its magnificence. This world is sacred as Schweizer observed and
we see pantheism in action for this Nobel Peace Prize recipient who devoted her
life to the service of humanity.
Group Discussion Questions
1. Awe vs. Prayer: Daniel Dennett
states that he could not pray to the "Tree of Life," but he can
"stand in affirmation of its magnificence." What is the difference
between praying to a deity and feeling a sense of cosmic awe? Is awe really a
form of worship?
2. Spinoza’s Unity: Spinoza argued
that emotions like anger distance us from the truth of our cosmic unity, while
joy and awe bring us closer to it. In your own life, have you experienced
moments where awe or a connection to nature melted away negative emotions?
3. The Romantic Lens: William Blake
spoke of seeing "a World in a Grain of Sand." As we grow older and
hopefully wiser , do we become more attuned to finding deep meaning in small,
everyday natural details (like our garden or in the changing season or maybe even
in studying philosophy or poems, in reading or singing and so forth ? or did
you feel it more intensely when we were young?
4. Science and Spirituality: For
centuries, science and religion were often viewed as enemies. Yet Einstein
found his spirituality through physics and the laws of nature.
Do you think modern science makes the universe feel colder and more mechanical,
or more sacred and mysterious?
5. The Stoic Mindset: Albert
Scwotzer made the comment that sometimes he looked up at the stars to see
himself running with them as the previous mystery was made clear. But can also
look at the vastness of the universe and find peace or perspective during times
of personal change, loss, or hardship? What do you think of his reverence for
life insight?
Note 1. Daniel C. Dennett (1942–2024)
was an influential American philosopher and cognitive scientist known for his
naturalistic approach to the Philosophy of Mind, evolutionary biology, and
religion. He served as co-director of the Centre for Cognitive Studies at Tufts
University and was a prominent figure in the New Atheism movement.
Dennett argued that understanding the natural
evolution of life does not diminish its wonder. When he references Anselm’s
"Being greater than which nothing can be conceived," he is pointing
to the classic 11th-century ontological argument for a traditional, personal
GOD. Dennett twists this to argue that the literal, physical Tree of
Life (evolutionary history) is grander than any human imagination can
ever fully grasp, shifting the concept of "the sacred" from a
supernatural sky-deity to the literal cosmos.
https://as.tufts.edu/psychology/research/centers-programs
Note 2- Pantheism,
the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is GOD and, conversely,
that there is no GOD but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are
manifested in the existing universe. The cognate doctrine of panentheism
asserts that God includes the universe as a part though not the whole of his
being.
As reflected in the prefix “pan-” (Greek pas,
“all”), both of the terms stress the all-embracing inclusiveness of GOD , as
compared with his separateness as emphasized in many versions of theism. On the
other hand, pantheism and panentheism, since they stress the theme of
immanence—i.e., of the indwelling presence of GOD —are themselves versions of
theism conceived in its broadest meaning. Pantheism stresses the identity
between GOD and the world, panentheism (Greek en, “in”) that the
world is included in GOD but that GOD is more than the world.
Britanica https://www.britannica.com/topic/pantheism
Note 3- Baruch Spinoza
PART I. CONCERNING GOD.
I. By that which is self—caused, I mean that of
which the essence involves existence, or that of which nature is only
conceivable as existent.
II. A thing is called finite after its kind, when it
can be limited by another thing of the same nature; for instance, a body is
called finite because we always conceive another greater body. So, also, a
thought is limited by another thought, but a body is not limited by thought,
nor a thought by body.
III. By substance, I mean that which is in itself,
and is conceived through itself: in other words, that of which a conception can
be formed independently of any other conception.
IV. By attribute, I mean that which the intellect
perceives as constituting the essence of substance.
V. By mode, I mean the modifications[1] of
substance, or that which exists in, and is conceived through, something other
than itself.
[1] "Affectiones"
VI. By GOD, I mean a being absolutely infinite—that
is, a substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each expresses
eternal and infinite essentiality.
Explanation—I
say absolutely infinite, not infinite after its kind: for, of a thing infinite
only after its kind, infinite attributes may be denied; but that which is
absolutely infinite, contains in its essence whatever expresses reality, and
involves no negation.
VII. That thing is
called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of
which the action is determined by itself alone. On the other hand, that thing
is necessary, or rather constrained, which is determined by something external
to itself to a fixed and definite method of existence or action.
VIII. By
eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to
follow solely from the definition of that which is eternal.
Explanation—Existence
of this kind is conceived as an eternal truth, like the essence of a thing,
and, therefore, cannot be explained by means of continuance or time, though
continuance may be conceived without a beginning or end.
For the entire text https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3800/3800-h/3800-h.htm
Brad Rappaport 2021- in Philosophy Now talks
about Baruch Spinoza’s astonishing book in that it takes the general approach
of the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid and applies it to philosophy and
theology.
Philosophy
Brad Rappaport 2021- from extracts in
Philosophy Now, talks about Sigmund Freud who would
teach that we are initiated by our parents into certain habits and routines,
and that we continue on in them, gradually sloughing off what is inessential as
we go. But for Spinoza in his Treatise on the Improvement of the
Intellect (1677), however, this describes the process we go through in
coming to learn what there is to be known: sifting through received opinion to
see what holds true, discarding what is false, and passing down to the next
generation the knowledge remaining.
Spinoza’s real coup comes not in the form of a
critique of orthodox Judaism, but in his construction of an alternative
theology in the Ethics (1677). The God who emerges in the
first chapter is not the stern father rebuking his children so they might be
edified, but rather something of a cross between the God of Israel, in His
unity, and the Aristotelian god who is the uncaused cause of the universe. This
is Spinoza’s famous ‘God, or Nature’ (Deus, sive Natura). He gets this
idea from reading the Aristotelian concept of ‘substance’ as one thing, rather
than many things. Substance for Spinoza means whatever can exist without
relying on anything else to exist. He argues that there can only be one such
substance – God – and everything else that exists is dependent on it for its
existence. Spinoza reduces morality to conventions that have arisen from
and been tested by our lives in society, calling ‘bad’ the things that we find
bad, and ‘good’ the things that we find good. Spinoza never exactly broke with
the ancestral morality in which the Commandments had been given; he merely
questioned their origin and talked past them. Indeed, Spinoza reduces such
morality as derives from the Torah to a minimum in his thinking, but it remains
an integral element thereof. However, he characterizes Mosaic revelation as
having been given to the people because they could not discern the truth
without its prompt, although wise philosophers (himself included) could. This
laid the ground for a less tactful turn of his story, in which he identifies
Christianity as more naturally coinciding with what lies open to reason than
Judaism. So it’s the Gentiles before whom he’s casting his pearls, not the
Jews.
The ban placed on Spinoza by Orthodox Judaism still
hasn’t been lifted.
© Brad Rappaport 2021- Philosophy
Now
Brad Rappaport is a civil servant in New
York, which he also makes his home.
William Blake- Note 4
Auguries of Innocence is
a poem by the Romantic poet, artist, and mystic William Blake. The full poem
runs to 132 lines—a powerful, cryptic, even hypnotic litany of aphoristic
lines, mostly couplets. Blake never published the poem, and it did not appear
in print until 1866. But it is quintessentially Blakean in its surprising,
sometimes shocking, juxtapositions and contradictions.
“Auguries of Innocence.” An “augury” is an omen, a sign, and “innocence” is one
of the central concerns of Blake’s poetry. Probably his best-known poems are
the Songs of Innocence and Experience. In Blake’s work, innocence and
experience are not opposites. They are more like states of being. Innocence is
characterized by freedom and abundance; experience is associated with
repression, injustice, and tyranny. In Blake’s world, Innocence enjoys;
Experience exploits. “Auguries of Innocence” gives us a clear sense of how
humans can destroy or damage innocence.
The first lines of the poem are justly famous:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
Everything matters, no matter how small. One grain
of sand, one moment in time, offers us glimpses of whole worlds—of eternity. If
we have the eyes to see it, there is heaven in a wildflower. Blake is perhaps
recalling the words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel: “Notice how the flowers grow….
not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of them.” Jesus took
little things seriously—and so does Blake.
The portion of the poem Scott read has a long sequence of couplets about
animals. Robins, doves, pigeons, dogs, horses, rabbits, skylarks, cocks,
wolves, lions, deer, oxen, spiders, moths, butterflies—Blake turns his
attention to each of these creatures, and laments the cruelty done to them by
human beings. When they are caged, hunted, neglected, or abused, it really
matters: “A Robin Red breast in a Cage / Puts all Heaven in a Rage.” “A Skylark
wounded in the wing / A Cherubim does cease to sing.” These creatures that
don’t matter much to human beings matter immensely in heaven.
In Blake’s ecology, our cruelty to animals has consequences in our ability to
care for one another. “he who the Ox to wrath has moved / Shall never be loved
by woman loved.” “A dog starved at his master’s gate / Predicts the ruin of the
State.” If we do not care for these creatures, we cannot truly care for each
other. Our individual relationships, and our societal relationships, are
damaged.
Blake does not speak only of the harm we do to creation. He also sees creation
as fruitfully bound up with our life—even our salvation. “Every Wolves &
Lions howl / Raise from Hell a Human Soul.” “The wild deer, wand’ring here
& there / Keeps the Human Soul from Care.” When animals are free to be
themselves – wolves and lions howling, deer wandering at will – human beings
are free, too, emotionally and spiritually. For Blake, innocence is not blank,
but rich and fruitful.
For Blake, the moral and spiritual dimensions of human existence are
inextricably bound up with the rest of the natural world. All of life is a
balance between “Joy & Woe”—in fact, these realities are inextricably
connected, woven together. When we are cruel to other creatures, we tip the
balance; we destroy the innocence of the world.
Pope Francis has written:
His response to the world around him was so much
more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and
every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection… Such a
conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it affects the
choices which determine our behaviour. If we approach nature and the
environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the
language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our
attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set
limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with
all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously.”
In these words from Laudato Si, Pope
Francis is talking about St. Francis of Assisi. But the same could be said of
William Blake. Not unlike St. Francis’ Canticle of the Sun, Blake’s Auguries of
Innocence demands an examination of conscience from each of us, because how we
treat the creatures we share this planet with matters, here and hereafter.
https://www.stjames-cathedral.org/PoemoftheWeek/blake-auguries.aspx
Note 5 Tintern Abbey,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lines_Written_a_Few_Miles_above_Tintern_Abbey
Note 6
How Albert Einstein Found Faith at the
Edge of Reason
Though wary of organized religion, the physicist
believed that the harmony of universal laws pointed to a higher power. Read
about his personal journey. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-albert-einstein-found-faith-at-the-edge-of-reason/
Note 7
Karl Rahner (born March 5, 1904,
Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, Ger.—died March 30, 1984, Innsbruck,
Austria) was a German Jesuit priest who is widely
considered to have been one of the foremost Roman Catholic theologians of the
20th century. He is best known for his work in Christology and for his
integration of an existential philosophy of personalism with Thomistic realism,
by which human self-consciousness and self-transcendence are placed within a
sphere in which the ultimate determinant is GOD.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Rahner
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (born
May 6, 1781, Eisenberg, Rhenish Palatinate [Germany]—died Sept. 27, 1832,
Munich, Bavaria) was a German philosopher who
attracted a considerable following, especially in Spain, where his disciples,
known as krausistas, greatly influenced the direction of
Spanish education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Krause’s system of philosophy, which he called
“panentheism” (essentially an attempt to reconcile pantheism and theism),
asserts that GOD is an essence that contains the entire universe within itself
but is not exhausted by it. He put particular emphasis on the development of
the individual as an integral part of the life of the whole. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Christian-Friedrich-Krause
Note 8 Albert Scweitzer
Schweitzer’s world view was influenced by Spinoza,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Native American religions and aimed at providing a
bridge for Christianity to be revitalized; to return to the ancient mystical
links for a naturalistic worldview. His ideas embrace life (life affirmation as
he calls it) to share with all living things in the world in which we live. His
ideas came from his concern about civilization which he thought had lost its
spiritual roots because of our lack of reverence for life as in the post
enlightenment worldview which had become too reliant on reason. After he had
obtained Doctorates in philosophy and theology he felt the call to be a jungle
Doctor. It was during his time in Africa that he abandoned his incomplete work
on the Mysticism of St Paul to return to the Philosophy of Civilization. It was
an attempt to provide a philosophy which would guard against the terrors of war
which he witnessed first- hand.
He encouraged a way of thinking which would return
us to our spiritual roots, a way of being to share in the communal ancestry of
all living things which he referred to as ethical mysticism. His thinking is
much deeper seated than a casual observation might first conclude. It requires
crucial self-examination, to ensure the values we hold show reverence for all
living things, in respect to how we might lead more purposeful lives.
Albert Schweitzer’s "reverence for life"
fits a pantheist framework by bridging the gap between abstract cosmic unity
and active moral duty, arguing that because the divine or whole universe lives
within all beings, harming any life harms oneself.
Key Themes to Connect
· The Core Idea: Schweitzer taught that
"I am life which wills to live, in the midst of life which wills to
live."
· The Pantheist Link: Pantheism views
God and the universe as one. Schweitzer’s view sees all existence as sacred and
interconnected, matching the pantheist belief that divinity exists in every
living thing.
· The Ethical Call: Ethics are not just
abstract rules. Loving and protecting all living things is the natural duty of
realizing we are part of the whole cosmos.
References
https://as.tufts.edu/psychology/research/centers-programs
https://www.britannica.com/topic/pantheism
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2025/entries/pantheism/
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3800/3800-h/3800-h.htm
https://www.stjames-cathedral.org/PoemoftheWeek/blake-auguries.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lines_Written_a_Few_Miles_above_Tintern_Abbey
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-albert-einstein-found-faith-at-the-edge-of-reason/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Rahner
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Christian-Friedrich-Krause
Tutorial
The Single Hand of Reality: How Science
and Philosophy Converge in Pantheism
[Introduction: The Great Inheritance]
The seeds of pantheism—the belief that the universe
and GOD are one and the same—were forged by our deepest ancestors. Imagine them
embarking on those first perilous migratory journeys out of Africa and across
Asia. Some 60,000 years ago, the First Nations people of Australia brought
these foundational intuitions with them. They looked at the land and the starry
heavens, weaving an unbreakable affinity with nature into what we know as the
Dreaming.
During those hazardous migrations, the stars and the
environment were not just physical terrain; they were spiritual guides.
Thousands of years later, these same celestial forces re-emerged in human
culture—first anthropomorphized as Homer’s warring gods in polytheism, and
later intellectualized in Western philosophy. Human culture has always sought a
name for the infinite.
[The Cosmic Realization]
Yet, what is truly miraculous is not just that our
ancestors survived these journeys, though we did, at times precariously come
close to the very edge of extinction. The true miracle is where that journey
has led us.
Today, we look through the Hubble and James Webb
telescopes to peer back to the very dawn of creation. We now know, with
scientific certainty, that our collective ancestry dates back 4.5 billion years
to the swirling stardust of a dying supernova—the very dust that condensed to
form planet Earth. We are not merely visitors in the universe.
We are a piece of the universe that has become self-aware.
This cosmic realization brings us face-to-face with
the ancient philosophy of Stoicism and the rigorous lens of modern physics.
Both meet at a profound concept: causal determinism. This is the scientific
proposition that every event is necessitated by what came before it, governed
entirely by the laws of nature. In a perfectly deterministic universe, there is
no true randomness—only a harmonious, unfolding order.
[The Convergence]
This is where science and philosophy seamlessly
converge. The 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza famously argued that GOD
and the physical universe are the exact same entity—Deus sive Natura. In
this view, the laws of physics are not separate from GOD; they are the
mind and will of GOD.
Centuries later, Albert Einstein famously shared
this exact belief. When Einstein stated that "GOD does not play
dice," he wasn't defending a traditional deity in the clouds. He was
expressing his reverence for a Spinozian GOD—a reality of strict, beautiful,
cosmic causality.
[The Roadmap: The Single Hand]
What I want to examine with you today is this
remarkable convergence: how ancestral intuition, philosophical genius, and
empirical science unite into a singular truth.
To help us visualize this, picture a single hand.
The palm of this hand represents Pantheism—the
foundational truth of cosmic unity. Extending from this palm are four distinct
fingers, each representing a pillar of our journey today:
· Finger
One: Baruch Spinoza and his metaphysical framework.
· Finger
Two: Astrophysics and the reality of our swirling stardust origins.
· Finger
Three: Quantum Mechanics and the illusion of separation.
· Finger
Four: Evolutionary Biology and the interconnected tree of life.
From the four fingers later on we may discern, by
way of another’s views, what would be the thumb - the fifth? - What
should humans do given this knowledge ? How does your view influence reason and
morals?
Ultimately, we will then close where we began:
sharing Einstein’s "cosmic religious feeling."
So that today we will demonstrate how the
ancient, deeply embedded intuition of our ancestors has finally been vindicated
by modern science and philosophy—proving that cosmic unity is not just a
spiritual hope, but an empirical truth.
Finger One: Baruch Spinoza and the
Metaphysical Palm
To understand how the fingers of our talk connect to
the palm of cosmic unity, we must travel back to the seventeenth century, to
the brilliant, quiet mind of Baruch Spinoza.
Spinoza looked at the traditional concepts of his
day and completely rewrote them. He did not see GOD as a cosmic monarch sitting
on a distant throne, pulling the strings of creation from the outside. To
Spinoza, a split reality made no logical sense. He reasoned: if GOD is truly
infinite, then there can be absolutely nothing outside of GOD.
Therefore, GOD and the physical universe must be the exact same thing. He
immortalized this truth in his famous Latin phrase: Deus sive Natura—"GOD
, or Nature."
For Spinoza, this universe operates with absolute,
deterministic precision. Everything that happens in the cosmos unfolds by way
of mathematical necessity. It flows from the very nature of reality, just like
geometric theorems flow from a single point. In this grand architecture, there
is no random chance, no cosmic whimsy, and no divine intervention. Why? Because
the unchanging laws of nature are the mind of GOD.
Think about the profound bridge this builds. Spinoza
arrived at this conclusion using nothing but pure logic, pencil, paper, and the
principles of geometry. Yet today, we can point our most advanced telescopes
into deep space and capture the physical reality of the very creation he
described.
Spinoza stripped away the ancient mythologies of
warring, temperamental GOD’s. In their place, he gave us an infinite,
self-sustaining substance—a universe that is its own creative force. He reminds
us that we are not an accident occurring inside a cold, indifferent room. We
are internal, necessary, beautiful expressions of an infinite, divine
architecture.
Finger Two: Astrophysics and the
Swirling Stardust
If Spinoza gave us philosophical geometry, modern
astrophysics gave us empirical blood and bone. This is our second finger.
For millennia, humanity felt profoundly separate
from the cosmos. We looked up at the stars as distant, cold diamonds passing
over our heads—beautiful, but entirely detached from us. But the dawn of modern
astronomy, culminating in the breathtaking images from the Hubble and James
Webb Space Telescopes, completely shattered that illusion.
When we peer through these deep-space lenses, we are
doing something incredible: we are not just looking across space; we are
looking back across time. We are witnessing the cosmic nursery. We
watch supernovas collapse and explode in brilliant, violent displays. And it is
precisely within those stellar furnaces that the heavy elements of our
universe—carbon, iron, oxygen, and nitrogen—are forged.
Science has verified a beautifully poetic truth: the
cosmic ancestry of the matter that makes you dates back 13.8 billion
years to the dawn of time. The iron running through your veins at this very
moment, the calcium reinforcing your bones, and the carbon forming the
double-helix of your DNA were cooked inside the scorching hearts of dying
stars.
When those ancient supernovas exploded, their dust
swirled through the vacuum of space. Gravity slowly pulled that dust together,
condensing it into a molten rock we now call Earth—a process that began 4.5
billion years ago.
Astrophysics has turned the ancient idealism of
pantheism into an undeniable, material fact. We are not visitors to this
planet. We did not drop into this universe from some external, supernatural
realm. We grew out of it. We are the stardust that has
organized itself over eons to look back up at the sky and wonder where it came
from. The telescope has ultimately proved what those ancient nomads intuited on
their migratory journeys: the observer and the observed are one.
[U Tube : THE FIRE OF CREATION]
To understand the visceral reality of this ancestry,
we do not have to rely solely on our imaginations. We can look directly at the
cosmic forge. I want to show you this remarkable footage captured by
the Hubble Space Telescope, documenting the remnants of a dying star—a
supernova explosion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK7PEU7cwTk&t=21s
Look at that swirling matter. Look at that radiant
energy. It is easy to view that video as a distant, isolated event in deep
space. But what you are actually looking at is a mirror. You are looking at the
delivery room of our solar system. That violent, beautiful cosmic expansion is
the exact process that generated the heavy elements currently keeping your
heart beating right now. That is your history. That is our genesis.
Finger Three: Quantum Mechanics and the
Illusion of Separation
As we look closer at the very fabric of this
stardust, we find our third finger: quantum mechanics. If astrophysics shows us
our grand, macro-cosmic scale, quantum physics reveals the fundamental nature
of our microscopic reality.
For centuries, classical science attempted to break
the universe down into isolated, mechanical parts—viewing reality like a giant
clock made of separate, independent cogs. But quantum physics completely
dismantled this fractured view.
At the subatomic level, scientists discovered that
particles do not behave like isolated marbles. Instead, they can exist in a
state of deep, non-local connection known as quantum entanglement. Two
particles, once entangled, share a single, indivisible quantum state. Even if
you separate them by billions of light-years of space, measuring a property of
one particle instantly reveals the corresponding state of the other. It is a
profound reality that entirely defies our classical concepts of distance.
Furthermore, Quantum Field Theory reveals that what
we perceive as solid matter or empty space is actually an illusion. There is no
truly "empty" space. Reality is an unbroken, undulating ocean of
underlying energy fields. Matter is not separate from space; matter is simply a
localized, highly concentrated vibration of the field itself.
This is pantheism quantified in the laboratory.
Quantum mechanics proves that the rigid boundaries
we draw between "self" and "other," between
"human" and "nature," or between "matter" and
"space" are fundamentally illusions of human scale and perception.
Beneath the surface of our daily lives, there is an unbroken, flowing
continuum. The universe is not a collection of separate parts. It is a single,
undivided whole, constantly dancing with itself.
Finger Four: Evolutionary Biology
The fourth finger is evolutionary biology, which
beautifully bridges the gap between the silent stardust of physics and the
vibrant, breathing world we inhabit today.
When our ancestors walked out of Africa and across
Asia, they carried within them an unspoken, sacred understanding of their
connection to the living world. They did not view themselves as masters over
nature; they saw the animals, the trees, and the earth itself as kin.
Today, evolutionary biology has completely validated
this ancient kinship. Through the revolution of genetics, we now know that
every single living organism on this planet shares an unbroken lineage. The
double-helix of your DNA is a living chronicle of the cosmos. We can trace our
exact biological roots back to the very same, single-celled organisms that
emerged in the ancient oceans billions of years ago.
This is the biological expression of pantheism’s
deterministic framework. Life did not burst forth spontaneously in fragmented,
isolated pockets. Instead, it unfolded as a continuous, elegant process of
becoming. It is an unbroken wave of life, steadily transforming raw rock and
water into living, breathing consciousness.
Yet, a purely scientific or mathematical view of the
universe can sometimes feel cold. If we stop at Spinoza, astrophysics, and
quantum fields, we risk viewing the cosmos as a magnificent, but ultimately
heartless machine.
To reiterate, were we to believe these
four fingers what would be the thumb - the fifth? What should humans
do given this knowledge ? How does your view influence reason and morals?
Here I will introduce the profound
humanitarian philosophy of Albert Schweitzer as an inspiring example.
Schweitzer, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, polymath,
and physician, searched deeply for a universal framework for ethics that could
unite humanity. He found it on a boat trip along the Ogooué River in Africa
when the phrase Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben—"Reverence for
Life"—flashed into his mind.
Schweitzer’s ethical mysticism carries a deeply
pantheistic resonance. He wrote: "I am life which wills to live, in the
midst of life which wills to live." Schweitzer recognized that the same
mysterious, divine cosmic force that surges through our own conscious minds is
simultaneously surging through every animal, every bird, every blade of grass,
and every microscopic organism on Earth.
By adding Schweitzer to our understanding, we
elevate pantheism from a cold, cosmic equation into an active, loving way of
life. Schweitzer argued that true ethics do not apply only to how humans treat
other humans. True ethics require us to extend our compassion to all of
existence. To harm any form of life unnecessarily is to harm a piece of the
divine whole; to preserve, nurture, and assist life is to participate in the
ultimate good of the cosmos.
Through Schweitzer, the deterministic universe finds
its beating, compassionate heart.
Conclusion
This is the great convergence that allows us to
stand in the light of the twenty-first century and fully share Albert
Einstein's profound cosmic worldview.
When Einstein was asked if he believed in God, he
famously replied: "I believe in Spinoza's GOD —who reveals Himself
in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a GOD who concerns himself with
fates and actions of human beings."
For Einstein, science was not the destroyer of
religion, but its ultimate fulfillment.
We no longer need to look for the divine in ancient
myths, in warring deities, or in fearful superstitions. Instead, we can look
directly at the cosmos with the clarity of reason and the warmth of devotion.
We can look at the person sitting right next to us, at the natural world around
us, and out into the deepest reaches of space, and realize that we are looking
at the face of the infinite.
We are the stardust. We are the universe looking
back at itself. And in that realization, our science and our spirituality
finally become one.
Q&A
Question 1: If Pantheism rests on a
deterministic basis, does that mean free will is completely an illusion? If
everything is predetermined by cosmic law, how can we be held morally
responsible for our actions?
Provisional Answer:
"Spinoza addressed this beautifully. He argued that classical free
will—the idea that we can act completely independently of the laws of nature—is
indeed an illusion. It is an illusion born out of our ignorance of the forces
moving us.
However, Spinoza didn't leave us helpless. He
replaced that illusion with a far grander concept: freedom through
understanding.
When you act purely out of blind reaction, fear, or
ignorance, you are operating as a passive, helpless cog in a machine. But when
you use reason to understand why you think, feel, and react,
you transform. You shift from being a passive object to an active participant.
True freedom is the alignment of your mind with the rational necessity of the
universe.
Furthermore, Albert Schweitzer’s 'Reverence for
Life' shows us that determinism doesn't destroy responsibility; it clarifies
it. Because we are deterministic expressions of a universe that 'wills to
live,' we are naturally wired to value and protect life once we awaken to our
true nature. Our moral responsibility isn't driven by fear of a cosmic judge in
the clouds. It is driven by the structural reality of our absolute,
mathematical interconnectedness."
Question 2: Pantheism is described as
fundamentally monotheistic. How can it be monotheistic if it doesn't believe in
a personal GOD who listens to prayers or intervenes in human history?
Provisional Answer:
"When we use the word 'monotheistic' in Pantheism, we are using the
prefix mono- to signify absolute, undivided singularity.
Traditional monotheism posits a binary: a
Creator and a creation. Pantheism completely collapses that
binary. There is only One Substance, One Energy, One Reality.
Pantheism strips away the anthropomorphic qualities
of GOD—the human-like ego, anger, favouritism, and gender—and focuses entirely
on the divine quality of the infinite whole. Einstein called this the 'cosmic
religious feeling.'
It doesn't require a personal GOD to listen to
prayers, because you aren't an outsider begging a king for favours. You are an
intrinsic wave in the cosmic ocean. Prayer, in a pantheistic sense, is
transformed. It becomes deep meditation, rigorous scientific inquiry, and an
awe-struck appreciation of cosmic laws. It is monotheism taken to its absolute,
logical conclusion.
Question 3: How do we reconcile the
violent, destructive side of nature—like the exploding supernova we saw in the
Hubble video, or recent natural disasters on Earth—with the idea of a divine
universe?
Provisional Answer:
"This hits at the very core of why Stoicism and Pantheism are so closely
linked.
From a human-centric perspective, a supernova, a
volcanic eruption, or a predator hunting its prey looks like tragedy, chaos,
and destruction. But from a cosmic perspective, destruction is the mandatory
precursor to creation.
Without the violent, terrifying death of that star,
the heavy elements required for biological life would literally not exist. The
supernova is not 'evil'; it is nature elegantly reorganizing itself.
Schweitzer’s 'Reverence for Life' acknowledges this
exact tension. He didn't preach a naive, painless utopia. He recognized that
life must constantly navigate a deterministic universe. Reverence for life
means choosing to align ourselves with the creative, nurturing side of that
cosmic dance, even while respecting the immense, sometimes terrifying forces
that make our very existence possible."
