I think maybe a central theme in pantheism should be that every life form with a nervous system experiences life as immediately as a human does. A dog, cat, or frog may not be as intelligent as a human, but that doesn't mean its consciousness is dimmer or further removed from experience, or that its experiential, internal universe is smaller. (If ( Read more... )

Hm. Have I mentioned lately that I despise the World Pantheist Movement?

Almost everything on there is shallowly anti-Christian. And what's not anti-Christian is a bunch of burbling about how pretty and shiny nature is (*cough*the Barlows*cough*). There is little to no genuine philosophy of pantheism--anywhereWhich makes it rather sucky and ( Read more... )

( So, yeah, this is gonna be a long one... )

So I found a review of the Levine book here.

Levine offers his book as prolegomena to a fuller, more detailed study of pantheism. And given the contemporary climate of religious belief and practice, there is reason to expect that a detailed pantheistic system would be received with some interest. Should an ambitious philosopher be inclined to take ( Read more... )

Someone in the humanist class asked me what use pantheism was. A religion must have some sort of benefit for its practitioners, so what's the benefit of pantheism?

My church is full of people who always kick the tires.

( Pantheism: Yes, but what's the use? )