PANTHEISM

Naturalistic (Scientific) Pantheism:

Reverence of Nature and Cosmos
by Paul Harrison.
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.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot (1994)

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Are You a Pantheist?

When you look at the night sky or at the images of the Hubble Space Telescope, are
you filled with feelings of awe and wonder at the overwhelming beauty and power of the
universe? When you are in the midst of nature, in a forest, by the sea, on a mountain
peak - do you ever feel a sense of the sacred, like the feeling of being in a vast
cathedral? Do you believe that humans should be a part of Nature, rather than set above
it?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then you have pantheistic leanings.
Are you sceptical about a "God" other than Nature and the wider Universe, yet feel
an emotional need for a recognition of something greater than your own self or than the
human race?
If so, then pantheism is very probably your natural religious home. If
you want to see why others chose it, then check out Why I am a pantheist.
Pantheism is older than Buddhism or Christianity, and may already count hundreds
of millions among its members. Most Taoists are pantheists, along with many Chinese,
Japanese and Western Buddhists, deep ecologists, pagans, animists, followers of many
native religions, and many Unitarian Universalists. The central philosophical scriptures
of Hinduism are pantheistic. Many atheists and humanists may be naturalistic
pantheists without realizing it.
Scientific or natural pantheism is a modern form of pantheism that deeply reveres
the universe and nature and joyfully accepts and embraces life, the body and earth, but
does not believe in any supernatural deities, entities or powers.

What Pantheism believes

At the heart of pantheism is reverence of the universe as the ultimate focus of
reverence, and for the natural earth as sacred.
Scientific or Natural Pantheism - Pan for short - has a naturalistic approach which
simply accepts and reveres the universe and nature just as they are, and promotes an
ethic of respect for human and animal rights and for lifestyles that sustain rather than
destroy the environment.
When scientific pantheists say WE REVERE THE UNIVERSE we are not talking
about a supernatural being. We are talking about the way our senses and our emotions
force us to respond to the overwhelming mystery and power that surrounds us. We are
part of the universe. Our earth was created from the universe and will one day be
reabsorbed into the universe. We are made of the same matter and energy as the
universe. We are not in exile here: we are at home. It is only here that we will ever get
the chance to see paradise face to face. If we believe our real home is not here but in a
land that lies beyond death - if we believe that the numinous is found only in old books,
or old buildings, or inside our head, or outside this reality - then we will see this real,
vibrant, luminous world as if through a glass darkly. The universe creates us, preserves
us, destroys us. It is deep and old beyond our ability to reach with our senses. It is
beautiful beyond our ability to describe in words. It is complex beyond our ability to
fully grasp in science. We must relate to the universe with humility, awe, reverence,
celebration and the search for deeper understanding - in many of the ways that believers
relate to their God, minus the grovelling worship or the expectation that there is some
being out there who can answer our prayers.
This overwhelming presence is everywhere inside you and outside you and you can
never be separated from it.
Whatever else is taken from you, this can never be taken from you. Wherever you
are, it's there with you. Wherever you go, it goes with you. Whatever happens to you, it
remains with you.
When pantheists say WE REVERE AND CARE FOR NATURE, we mean it with just
as much commitment and reverence as believers speaking about their church or
mosque, or the relics of their saints. But again we are not talking about supernatural
beings. We are saying this:
We are part of nature. Nature made us and at our death we will be reabsorbed into
nature. We are at home in nature and in our bodies. This is where we belong. This is the
only place where we can find and make our paradise, not in some imaginary world on
the other side of the grave. If nature is the only paradise, then separation from nature is
the only hell. When we destroy nature, we create hell on earth for other species and for
ourselves.

Nature is our mother, our home, our security, our peace, our past and our future. We
should treat natural things and habitats as believers treat their temples and shrines, as
sacred - to be revered and preserved in all their intricate and fragile beauty.Top

A positive approach to life on earth.

Scientific Pantheism offers the most positive and embracing approach to life, the
body and nature of any philosophy or religion. Our bodies are not base and evil: they are
good. Nature is not a reflection of something higher: it is the highest. Life is not a path
to somewhere else: it is the destination. We must make the best of while we have it.
Scientific Pantheism is rooted in the present world. It reconciles concern for
humans, and concern for the planet. It places life, not death, in the focus of our concern.
Scientific Pantheism has as its central motto:

Healthy mind - healthy body - healthy earth.

Healthy mind
Pantheism fosters a mind that accepts the world: a mind alert to vibrant reality, in
touch with the senses, receptive to the energy of the body and the universe. A mind fully
awake to nature, open to new knowledge, responsive to the beauty of the natural world.
Pantheism fosters a mind that accepts life, the body, and the self: a mind that is free
from guilt about original sin or inability to be a martyr; free of anxiety about death or
the possibility of eternal punishment beyond death.
Pantheism fosters a sane and whole mind that respects reason and evidence, that
will not accept key beliefs without rational basis, simply on the claims of ancient
scripture or the assertion of gurus. Pantheism demands no faith in impossible events
and secret revelations.
Pantheism satisfies our need to revere something greater than ourselves - yet never
turns its back on the earth, and never departs from the evidence before us. Pantheism
fuses spirituality and science, mind and body, humans and nature.

Healthy body
Transcendental religions - especially primitive Christianity and Theravada
Buddhism - have a negative attitude to the body. The body is seen as a temporary
container for the soul, or as a disgusting bag of foul substances.
Pantheism has a totally positive attitude. The body is natural and is sacred like every
other part of nature. Its pleasures are good and not evi, as long as they are pursued
without harm to one's health, to other humans or to nature. Looking after the body,

preserving its health and fitness through a healthy diet and exercise, are things we can
and should do without slinking feelings of guilt.

Healthy earth
For transcendental religions the whole earth, like the body, is merely a temporary
stage which will be destroyed before the Last Judgement, or will vanish when we realize
that it is mere illusion.
But this earth is not a staging post and it is not an illusion. Pantheism affirms the
earth and upholds nature as the most sacred temples. Concern for the health of the
earth is not just a matter of human survival, not just a matter of preserving diversity and
wilderness for our enjoyment. It is a primary spiritual and ethical duty.Top

A spiritual approach in keeping with the age of

science and environment
On the eve of the Third Millennium we have become citizens of the cosmos. Through
the eyes of the Hubble telescope we have seen the universe as never before. We have
seen the emptiness of space strewn with galaxies as thick as snow. We have seen the
birth of stars. We have found planetary discs around many stars. We have found amino
acids in space.
In this situation it is becoming impossible to believe in gods other than the Universe
itself, or gods who created this ungraspable immensity just as a frame for our tiny
presence.
During this same generation we have lost our citizenship of this earth, and risk
losing our delicate foothold in the cosmos. We have acquired the power to modify life, to
alter ecosystems, to change the planet itself and threaten the future of every species,
including our own.
Today we need a spiritual approach that provide powerful backing for environmental
action. Yet the three largest Western religions provide only feeble support.
In this generation spirituality must come of age and be reborn into the age of space,
the age of science, the age of environment.
As Carl Sagan wrote in Pale Blue Dot (1994):
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.
Top

Introduction to this site

These pages are intended as a guide to Pantheism:

To the theory and practice of Scientific Pantheism - from the self-existence and
self-organization of the cosmos and nature, to the ways in which we can cement
and celebrate our belonging and connection with them and with each other, and
create the social and environmental conditions for everyone to enjoy this
connection. Scientific Pantheism is a consistent, non-dualistic, empirical and
logical approach to pantheism.
To the rich history of Pantheism, represented by thinkers and readings from
every tradition - from Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism to ancient Greece, Rome,
Islam and Christianity - and every age, from the sixth century BC to the present
day. For completeness, some Christian, Moslem and Jewish panentheists have
been included. Panentheists believe that God is greater than the universe, but is
also in the universe and nature.
The sister pages of the World Pantheist Movement provide resources for
community and action and communication among pantheists, religious atheists,
religious humanists, religious naturalists, philosophical Taoists, pagans and
Wiccans who like natural ceremony don't believe in magic or gods, natureworshippers, and others who share our beliefs whatever they call themselves.

Home
Paul
Ritual

Sacred time, sacred space: ceremony

and celebration in Pantheism
Practice of scientific pantheism* by Paul Harrison.

Pantheist ceremony celebrates the universe and

nature,
and reminds us of our place in them.

Rocks, sea and sun, St Agnes, Scilly Islands. Photo: Paul Harrison.

The function of traditional ritual.

Ritual and ceremony are found in almost all the world's religions. Usually
they celebrate seasons of the year, times of the agricultural cycle,
transitions in human life, or days of significance in the history of nation or
religion. They are usually symbolic, and follow fixed forms prescribed by
tradition.
Rituals have many functions. They cement the bonds of a society or community.
They allay anxiety in a hostile universe. They provide the support of others for religious
faith.
But in most religions they also have more primitive and selfish goals, similar to
magic. Prayer invokes the help of invisible beings. Sacrifice and offerings try to control
fate or to ward off the anger of the god or gods. Communion tries to acquire some of the
magical power of the deity. All ritual acts may be thought to help in achieving a
favourable afterlife.
Among the more sophisticated, ritual also has more noble functions: to remind
people of their fundamental beliefs on a regular basis, and to acknowledge humility
before the divine.

Ritual and ceremony in historical pantheism.

Most pantheists have emerged from specific religions and have practised
the normal rituals of that religion.
Some pantheist groups have practised their own special rituals - especially the sexual
pantheists like the Tantric Buddhists, or the Nicolaitan Gnostics, or the
Brethren of the Free Spirit.
But the largest school of pantheists in history, the Stoics, had no ceremonies or
rituals as far as is known. Most of them would have taken part in the traditional rites of
the Greek and Roman religions, though they probably did not believe in them, or
regarded them as symbolic.
Stoicism was primarily a school and a system of philosophy and ethics. Its practice
was limited to the thinking of one's thoughts and the living of one's life. The only public
expression was philosophical discussion and writing.

Ritual in modern pantheism.

Modern pantheism is not just a philosophy. It is a true religion, in the sense
of religio - a binding: a deeply emotional outlook that binds one's feelings,
thoughts and actions.
Pantheism does not need ritual for any primitive magical or egotistical purpose. It
accepts nature and the universe in their full reality, and allays anxiety through that
acceptance, not through ritual. It does not believe that events or the complexion of the
universe or the world can be influenced by prayer or magic.
Yet ceremony can be helpful in pantheism:

To express our reverence for nature and the universe.

To strengthen our understanding of the tight links between self, nature and
cosmos.
To see human life as part of the natural cycle.
To celebrate the beauty of nature and the universe.
To strengthen our beliefs.
To provide mental support at times of stress.
To provide mutual social support in our beliefs.
As a daily therapy.

Remembering our place.

It is all too easy to forget our place in the universe: easy to forget that we
dwell on a planet that turns once a day on its tilted axis and wheels around
the sun once a year, and is circled by its own large moon.
All life on earth evolved in the context of these cyclical rhythms, and still bears their
imprint in biological cycles of day and night, waking and sleep, growth and rest, and the
rise and fall of tides.
It's just as easy to forget our place in nature - to forget that we depend on plants for
the oxygen we respire, just as they depend on animals for the carbon dioxide they
breathe. Easy to forget that we are part of a mass of complex ecological cycles - many of
which, indeed, we are only just learning about.
And it matters if we forget that we are part of nature and part of the universe. For if
we do, we may imagine that we are independent of the rest of nature when we are not.
We may develop an arrogance and an indifference towards nature, an assumption that
we are her masters and can control her as we please.
Pantheist ceremony stresses the moments of significant connection between
ourselves and nature, ourselves and the dynamic solar system. Ceremony reminds us of
our links to nature, our dependence on nature.

Sacred time, sacred space.

Every moment of life is meaningful. Every moment is intrinsically as
important as every other. But there are certain moments in the year which
represent transitions and shifts in the cycles of nature and the solar system:
moments of peaks or troughs in the endless waves of change.
Many of Christianity's central rituals were taken from the ancient annual cycle.
These were celebrated in rival religions such as the worship of Sol Invictus ("the
unconquered sun"), and appropriated by Christianity to increase its appeal. Christmas,
for example, coincides with the ancient Winter solstice, Easter with the spring equinox
modulated by the lunar cycle.
But Christianity has forgotten the roots of what it celebrates. Its ritual has lost the
connection with nature.
Pantheist ceremony reestablishes that connection.
The central Pantheist ceremonies of the year focus on the solar cycle, the sequence of
seasons caused by the earth's tilt on her axis.

On March 21, pantheists in the Northern hemisphere celebrate the spring

equinox, the beginning of growth in plants and breeding among animals.

On June 21 we celebrate the summer solstice, the sun's highest point in the sky
each year.
On September 21, we celebrate the autumn equinox and the harvesting of fruits.
On December 21 the birth of the new solar year.

The sequence or character of these transitions varies from one part of the globe to
another. Pantheist celebrations should take account of this so as to be attuned to the
transitions locally. In the southern hemisphere the sequence comes in the same order,
but advanced or deferred by six months. Pantheists in tropical climates with less
dramatic seasonal variations may choose to celebrate the arrival of the rains, or the dry
season, or the cycle of particular plants.
In addition we may choose to celebrate certain days of the agricultural cycle: the
planting and the harvesting of the staple crop, for example.

Daily and monthly tidal rhythms and lunar phases.

Pantheists also celebrate the monthly lunar cycle, the dance of the moon with earth
and sun. The moon is closely linked to life on earth through the daily rise and fall of
tides, and the monthly sequence of spring tides and neap tides [see chart above]. Tides
are strongest at full moon - when our satellite is on the opposite side of the earth from
the sun - and at new moon, when it is on the same side, and the gravity of moon and sun
are pulling in the same direction. At half moon tides they are weakest.
Given clear skies we may also celebrate certain times in the year when there are the
strongest falls of shooting stars. These occur as the earth crosses the orbit of clouds of
meteors - especially the Perseids, peaking in early August, and the Geminids, peaking in
the second week in December [see chart below]. The place where ceremonies are held is
important for their effect. Wherever possible they should be held in the midst of nature.
The shooting star celebration should be held in areas of low light pollution to witness
the spectacle against the backdrop of the brilliant cosmos.

Frequency of visible shooting stars per hour at 3am.

Grounding.
The above ceremonies can be performed in any size of group from small to
large, or even by a single individual.
The cycle of the earth through night and day forms the basis for daily ceremony.
Pantheists should try to celebrate their connection with earth and cosmos not less than
twice a day, at sunrise or on rising, and at sunset and or on retiring.
These moments can be moments of celebration and of grounding or meditation moments in which we become conscious of our personal participation in the divinity of
the universe, our nature as parts of a whole, as beings made of the same matter as the
whole (see Mystical union with reality). At these moments we may greet the sun, or
gaze into a flame, or hold a favourite pebble or shell.
Such moments can also be deeply therapeutic, placing your personal problems in
perspective, reminding you that apart from your problems you have an ongoing,
permanent and unshakable participation in the divine Reality.

Rites of passage.
Just like the course of the year, the course of a human life has sacred times.
These too are transitions: passages from death to life, and life to death, and
the committed linking in marriage of two individuals into a couple, are the
most important. These are celebrated in all religions, and by civil law.
Pantheists should develop their own ceremonies for child naming, marriage and
burial. They should serve to remind us at these times of our place in nature and the
universe, and in the natural cycles of birth and death. Because death is perhaps the most
critical of these, the one that can arouse the greatest anxiety, there is a separate page
devoted to natural death.

Spontaneous expression.
The word ritual implies repetition according to rigid rules. Ritual that is
repeated without variation - like the endless reciting of prayers degenerates into form whose meaning has been forgotten.
Ritual that allows no space for personal expression, instead of celebrating divinity,
can actually block the view of divinity and make the form seem more important than the
content.
This is why in the case of pantheism it is better to use the words ceremony or
celebration, rather than ritual. A ceremony is a serious occasion - serious not in the
sense of without fun, but in the sense of marking a very special quality about the time
and place.
This does not mean that the same sacred time and place must always be celebrated
in the same way. Modern wedding ceremonies, for example, can take many forms, often
designed by the participants. But they are still ceremonies.
Therefore there should always be an element of spontaneity about pantheist
celebration - an element chosen by the participants, rather than imposed from outside.
Of course there is no form of compulsion about pantheist ceremony. No church
hierarchy, no invisible God will punish you if you do not observe sacred times. But you
yourself will miss a chance to reconnect with nature and the universe, in a charged way,
at moments of especial significance in the cycles of the year.

Realities, not symbols.

The purpose of pantheist ceremony is to celebrate the universe and nature
and remind us of our place in them. If it should ever obscure the underlying
reality, then it would be working against its own purpose.
Therefore pantheist ceremony should always be transparent to the reality that it
celebrates. Its purpose is to deepen perception and connection - not to stand in their
place.

SCIENTIFIC PANTHEISM
is the belief that the universe and nature are divine.
It fuses religion and science, and concern for humans with concern for
nature.

It provides the most realistic concept of life after death,

and the most solid basis for environmental ethics.
It is a religion that requires no faith other than common sense,
no revelation other than open eyes and a mind open to evidence,
no guru other than your own self.
For an outline, see Basic principles of scientific pantheism. Top.

Scientific pantheism: index.

History of pantheism.
Basic principles of scientific pantheism.
Join the World Pantheist Movement
If you would like to spread the message please include a link to Scientific
Pantheismin your pages and make sure your pages are indexed by the
main engines.
Suggestions, comments, criticisms to: Paul Harrison, email: pan@pantheism.net
Paul Harrison 1996.

http://www.pantheism.net/paul/ritual.htm

Mystical union and meditation.

Practice of scientific pantheism* by Paul Harrison.

As featured
in

December 12, 1996.

If we empty our mind of all thought and allow

ourselves to enter into the motion of things, and
the motion to enter into us, we can literally swim
in the ocean of existence and burn with its fire.

Star formation deep inside the Orion Nebula

(HST photo)

The mystic ecstasy.

One of the most distinctive facets of being human is being a distinct focus of
consciousness, separated from what we perceive. Sometimes it is like staring out
of a black sack with two holes in it.

Many, perhaps most people are not always entirely comfortable with this separate
existence as individuals. At times we yearn to be re-united - but we are not sure with
what.
Mystics in all religions have attempted to overcome this separation and achieve unity
with the source of being - God, Allah, the Tao, Brahma, emptiness.
Regardless of the religion, there are echoes among the diverse accounts of mystic
experience. The central experience is one of overcoming the gap between self and unity.
It is an experience often accompanied with ecstasy, and a sense of being in contact with
ultimate reality.

Scientific pantheism asserts that these mystical experiences are in fact states in
which the mind makes contact with the matter of which it is made, the matter which
makes up the entire universe. They are experiences of unity between self and cosmos,
between mind and body, between consciousness and matter.
But how we interpret these states is important. In transcendental religions, the
mystic interprets the experience as union with a spiritual being or a unity that lies
beyond the visible world. When such mystics return with a jolt to the everyday world,
they often feel a deep sense of separation, of dejection, of exile. The mystic experience,
instead of uniting them with the cosmos, separates them even further from daily life. So
they often seek isolation in monasteries, convents and hermitages.
Traditional mystics are forever complaining of falling away. The neoPlatonist Plotinus who devoted his life to teaching about and working towards union
with the One, achieved that state only once every year or two.
Moreover, the mystical quest is usually presented as mysterious, difficult to achieve,
requiring long and arduous training and mastery.
Pantheist union with Reality is easy to achieve and to repeat at will. And it involves
no gap with the reality of everyday life.

Union with the Real.

Scientific pantheism agrees with the mystics of all ages and traditions that it is
possible to achieve re-union. But it seeks a re-union with the Real, not with the
imaginary.

It is from the universe and from nature that we are separated. It is with the universe
and with nature that we must seek re-union.
In this re-union we can achieve all the feelings that mystics achieved - ecstasy, the
loss of self, the sense of belonging and being enveloped and of uniting with ultimate
reality and with the totality of existence.
We can achieve these experiences at will, without any of the doubt and falling away
that mystics of the imaginary experience. And we can be sure that they have a solid and
certain foundation in the real world.

Sacred places
Most people don't need to be told where to go to experience these feelings.
Instinctively, they head for forests, rivers, mountains, deserts, ocean coasts, as
unspoiled as possible by human intervention.

Nor do they need telling what to do when they get there. They just lie, and look, and
let existence permeate them.
We can unite with the universe on a clear night when the sky is streaked by the Milky
Way. This is a new experience that was not accessible to our distant ancestors. Although
people like Anaximander and Giordano Bruno understood that there were many worlds
out there, it is only in the last seventy years that we have been able to do this
and understand the true immensity of what we are looking at.
But light pollution from city street lamps has grown in parallel with the growth of
that knowledge. We are robbing ourselves of one of the most mystical experiences
available on earth.

Emptying the mind of all other thoughts.

Certain simple sensory techniques make it possible to attain a deeper loss of self
and sense of union with existence.

Perception can be dulled by preoccupation: just like a Buddhist meditator, we should

empty the mind of all worries, all memories, all internal thoughts except the scene right
before us.
But there is a difference between meditation on the Real and meditation on the
Unreal. The conscious mind always seeks a content; the neurones are always firing. So
when the outside world is shut off the mind creates its own content out of dreams or
anxieties. This is why eyes-closed meditation is so difficult and so esoteric: the mind still
has content, even when it is thinking of emptying itself of content. Easier by far to empty
the mind of all thoughts of self by looking at nature or the sky.
Perception can be obscured by preconceptions - clouding what we see like a white
cataract in the eye. We should empty the mind as far as possible of all prior conceptions
of what we are looking at, except where these help us to see it more clearly.
Perception can be veiled by ulterior motives. So even if we have gone into nature for
some purpose such as study or collecting, we should forget these for a while.

Burning with the fire of Being

Union with the real is not static, because the Real is never static. It is in constant
flux.

Because of this, one of the most effective ways to experience the exhilaration of
union is to watch natural things in motion: ripples on a pool, curling waves on a beach,
aspen leaves in a breeze, clouds forming on a humid day, showers of shooting stars.

If we empty our mind of all thought and allow ourselves to enter into the motion,
and the motion to enter into us, we can literally swim in the ocean of existence and burn
with its fire.
Perception can be veiled by names: so for the time we are experiencing mystical
contact, we should forget even the names of what we are looking at. These are not trees,
not rivers, not sunlight. They are forms in motion, flames of the divine Reality of which
we too are part.
My own favourite sight is of sunlight glinting on waves. In itself it has a hypnotic
effect and can put you into a trance of pure being if you allow it. But it also has a
precious symbolic value. I don't mean that it points to something different from itself,
but that it is the perfect embodiment of the nature of the reality of which it is a part. The
water is the sea of matter, the waves are the individual beings that it temporarily forms,
the light is the energy that all things transmit and reflect to each other.
But there are many other wonderful sites: wind in the leaves of aspen, ocean
breakers, eddies of a stream, clouds seething on a warm day.

Grounding and meditation

It is important to ground yourself in Reality as often as possible. I try to do it every
day, on waking or just before sleep. This grounding not only reminds you of the
Being of which you are a part. It can also be deeply therapeutic. Seeing your own
problems in the light of the totality of Being shapes them into perspective,
reminding you thatthe most central facet of your existence is simply being and
perceiving.

People often find it difficult to find places on a daily basis where they can experience
union with nature or with the universe in a clear night sky. Yet it is possible to
experience these feelings indoors, even in the middle of cities.
The sun rises everywhere. If we greet it each morning when we rise, we are not
personifying or deifying the sun: we are simply acknowledging that it is the sacred
source and sustainer of our particular being.
Objects can be helpful for meditation. I use beach pebbles, beautiful speckled
granites and smooth black basalts and greenstones. Pebbles are beautiful in themselves,
and they embody the interactions of reality, shaped by the endless pounding of waves
and the friction with other pebbles. Other objects that can be used are fossils, large tree
seeds, pieces of bark, shells, sand roses, geodes, crystals - any object that has been
crafted and shaped by natural forces.
We can ride the ocean of Being indoors, too. The most effective way is with flame,
the flame of a wood fire, or of a candle. When we watch flames dance, we are watching
the universe on fire, transmuting from matter to energy and back again to matter.

Even in the dark, even with our eyes closed, we can experience union with the Real,
because we too are part of reality. The atoms and particles of our bodies, the energy of
electrical messages flowing through the network of our nervous systems, are the same
matter and the same energy that permeate the universe. Lying quietly in bed, just before
sleep, we can attune ourselves with this energy, and realize that we too are a fire and a
flux.

Background image: The birth of solar systems: Proto-stars with planetary disks,
forming in the Orion nebula 1500 lights years away.
HST image taken on 29 December 1993. C. R O'Dell, Rice University/NASA.

SCIENTIFIC PANTHEISM
is the belief that the universe and nature are divine.
It fuses religion and science, and concern for humans with concern for nature.
It provides the most realistic concept of life after death,
and the most solid basis for environmental ethics.
It is a religion that requires no faith other than common sense,
no revelation other than open eyes and a mind open to evidence,
no guru other than your own self.
For an outline, see Basic principles of scientific pantheism. Top.

If you would like to spread the message of scientific pantheism please

include a link to Pantheist pages in your pages, or mirror the page at your
site by saving this and other pages.
http://www.pantheism.net/paul/union.htm

Scientific pantheism: basic principles

by Paul Harrison.

When our era was young, we believed as children believe. Now we

are adults, it is time to put away childish things. It is time to adopt
a religion that embraces the space age, and that supports our love
of nature and our efforts to preserve the earth.
That religion is pantheism.

Conchoidal fractures of pseudomalachite

Divine cosmos, sacred earth.

Pantheist religious practice: ritual, meditation and mysticism.
Ethical foundations.
Pantheism and environmental ethics.
Natural death
Mortal immortality.
Unity of religion and science.
Unity of religion and aesthetics.
Why traditional religion is not suited to the Third Millennium.
Why do we need religion at all?
How you can help spread pantheism.

Divine cosmos, sacred earth.

Pantheism has two central tenets:

The cosmos is divine.

The earth is sacred.
When we say the cosmos is divine, we mean it with just as much conviction, emotion
and commitment as believers when they say that their god is God.
But we are not making a vague statement about an invisible being who is beyond proof
or disproof. We are talking about our own emotional responses to the real universe and
the natural earth.
When we say "That tree is beautiful," we are not saying anything about the tree in
itself, but about the way we feel we must respond to the tree. We are talking about
the relationship between us and the tree.
In the same way, if we say THE UNIVERSE IS DIVINE we are making a statement about
the way our senses and our emotions force us to respond to the overwhelming mystery
and power that surrounds us. We are saying this:

We are part of the universe. Our earth was created from the universe and will one
day be reabsorbed into the universe.
We are made of the same matter as the universe. We are not in exile here: we are at
home. It is here and nowhere else that we can see the divine face to face. If we erect
barriers in our imagination - if we believe our real home is not here but in a land that
lies beyond death - if we believe that the divine is found only in old books, or old
buildings, or inside our head - then we will see this real, vibrant, luminous world as if
through a glass darkly.
The universe creates us, preserves us, destroys us. It is deep and old beyond our ability
to reach with our senses. It is beautiful beyond our ability to describe in words. It is
complex beyond our ability to fully grasp in science. We must relate to the universe with
humility, awe, reverence, celebration and the search for deeper understanding - in other
words, in many of the ways that believers relate to their God.
When we say THE EARTH IS SACRED, we mean it with just as much commitment
and reverence as believers speaking about their church or mosque, or the relics of their
saints. But we are not making a statement about the supernatural. We are saying this:
We are part of nature. Nature made us and at our death we will be reabsorbed into
nature. We are at home in nature and in our bodies. This is where we belong; this is
where we must find and make our paradise, not in some spirit world on the other side of
the grave. If nature is the only paradise, then separation from nature is the only hell.
When we destroy nature, we create hell on earth for other species and for ourselves.
Nature is our mother, our home, our security, our peace, our past and our future. We
should treat natural things and habitats as believers treat their temples and shrines, as
sacred - to be revered and preserved in all their intricate and fragile beauty.
The dominant religions describe their gods in many ways: mysterious, awesome, allpowerful, omnipresent, transcendent, infinite, eternal. These descriptions are not
simply projections of human characteristics. The traditional attributes of God are based
on the real properties of the universe (see The real divine attributes.)
When theists worship gods, they unknowingly worship the cosmos. If they believe
that God is also present in nature and the universe, they will perceive a part of the glory
of Being, yet still they will attribute this glory to something beyond Being. Still they will
fail to connect with nature and the universe in the deep intense way that pantheism
makes possible.
But theists who believe that God is separate from the universe separate themselves
from Reality. They turn their deepest attention away from the real divinity before their
eyes, towards an imaginary divinity inside their head. It veils Reality like a thick mist. It
turns believers into sleepwalkers.

Ritual, meditation and mysticism

Pantheist religious practice serves many purposes:

It establishes connection with the divine reality.

It expresses our reverence for nature and the universe.
It strengthens our understanding of the tight links between self, nature and
cosmos.
It helps us to see human life as part of the natural cycle.
It celebrates the beauty of nature and the universe.
It strengthens our beliefs.
It provide mental support at times of stress.
It provides mutual social support in our beliefs.
It offers a daily therapy.

Pantheistic ceremonies are similar to pagan ones. We celebrate special moments of

powerful connection between ourselves and nature, between ourselves and the dynamic
solar system. We celebrate the daily rising and setting of the sun, the monthly phases of
the moon and tides, the annual solar cycle of the solstices and equinoxes. When skies
are clear, we also celebrate the annual showers of shooting stars, the Perseids and the
Geminids.
We can also establish connection with Being independently of ritual, through
pantheistic meditation. The mystical experience has common features across all
religions. At its core is the experience of passing beyond the self and of uniting with the
divine. But the experience is often said to be difficult to achieve and to maintain.
Mystical union is more accessible through pantheism. The process does not depend
on imagination or mood. It is simple to understand, open to all, and repeatable.
Mystical union with Reality consists in total abandonment of consciousness to
the sensory experience of nature or material reality. The self becomes simply the vehicle
for the self-awareness of reality. The self is transcended, and re-united with the whole of
which it is part.
It is a charged and direct experience of the matter of which we are made, an
experience of grounding and connection with the whole.
It can be achieved under a clear sky full of stars and galaxies, or by a forest stream. It
can be experienced beside a pond ruffled by wind, or in front of a lit candle. It can be felt
while holding a granite pebble or a piece of birch bark.
It can be achieved at any time, by any person. It requires no arduous training, and it
never leaves behind that feeling of misery and dejection which so many mystics felt
when they lose `connection' with the imaginary God inside their head.

Ethical foundations.
All religions act as backing to ethical systems, often through the threat of hell, or the
promise of heaven. They foster the good, not for its own sake, but in the hope of gaining
rewards or avoiding punishment.
Pantheism begins as a statement about our relationship with Reality. However, it
leads on to an ethic and a politic. The ethic is based on the premise that the principal
good in human life is to connect with the cosmos, with nature, and with other humans,
through knowledge, love and loving action. Everything that furthers that connection,
in oneself and in others, is good. Everything that hinders it, is bad.
Certain strong emotions are obstacles to connection. Among these the foremost is
anxiety. Anxiety has many sources: emotional insecurity, from the absence or
withdrawal of love; economic insecurity, from poverty and from loss of livelihood;
physical insecurity, from disease, disaster, environmental catastrophe or violence. In
different ways, obsessive anger and envy can also make connection with the cosmos
impossible.
We must find ways of controlling these emotions in ourselves. This can be done
through pantheistic meditation and through contact with nature. These help us keep our
own problems in perspective. They remind us that whatever we suffer, whatever we lose,
one thing can never be taken from us: we are always and inseparably part of an immense
whole.
And we must help work towards social and political conditions which reduce them in
others. This means the encouragement of stable, loving families and caring
Communities; an end to poverty; equitable distribution of income and work; and the
peaceful resolution of disputes through true democracy and real participation.

Pantheism and environmental ethics.

Pantheism provides the strongest possible support for environmental ethics.

Most Eastern and native religions are very concerned with kindness to animals and
conservation of nature.
But the three leading Western religions, all deriving from ancient Palestine, are
much less favourable to environmental action. In the Old Testament God handed the
earth to Adam and Eve for them to use everything in it. That obviously doesn't mean we
should abuse it to the point of self-destruction, but it does mean that Nature is put there
only for humans and has no rights of her own. Judaism and Islam both contain some
environmental guidance and wisdom, but not as central tenets of the faith, not as
commandments or conditions for entering heaven.
Christianity says even less about our duty to care for the environment. Jesus, St Paul
and other writers and speakers quoted in The New Testament say absolutely nothing.
Instead the New Testament paints a lurid picture of God himself burning up the earth in
order to create a new one.
In pantheism concern about the natural world is central. Pantheists regard the
natural world as sacred, like a temple. Just as believers do everything they can to keep a
temple pristine and beautiful, pantheists are obliged to do everything they can to
preserve the diversity of life, and to help other people to connect with nature.
We must preserve as much as we can of the richness of species. That means not just
preserving species against total extinction - it is small consolation to know that skylarks
still exist somewhere, if I can never hear them in the fields near my home. We must
make sure that as many species as possible survive in as many places as possible. We
must preserve as many natural habitats as possible, and restore habitats that have been
destroyed. And of course we must stop polluting the air and the oceans, threatening
wider ecosystems and the whole planet. That will mean many changes in Western
lifestyles, production methods, energy, transport, waste disposal, taxation and so on.
Everyone has a need to see nature on a daily basis, and everyone has the right to
access to some natural area, even if it is only a small natural park. We must create
natural areas in cities or neighbourhoods that have none.
Connection demands easy access to the universe, too. Yet as the world urbanizes, the
radiance of the night sky is misted over with light streaming upwards from unshaded
street lamps. We need campaigns to end light pollution of our night skies, so we can see
them in their full splendor again. We need a massive increase in the number of large
telescopes, with free public access.

Natural death.
Belief in some kind of life after death is almost universal in human societies. In the
ancient mediterranean, the afterlife was thought to be a grim and ghostly half-life under
the ground. Belief in a heaven far better than the present world emerged later, usually in
the wake of famine, plague, or war.
Belief in heaven is not helpful in our attempts to preserve this world. If heaven
exists, then there is always another, better world awaiting us, even if we completely
destroy the earth. Even if there is a heaven, it would be better for earth if we did not
believe in it.
Belief in an apocalyptic end to the world, common to Christianity and Islam, is more
dangerous. If God himself will one day roll up the heavens like a scroll and rain fire
down on the earth, as Jesus, Mohammed and the Old Testament prophets all predicted,
then why should we struggle to preserve it? Some fundamentalists believe that the
environmental destruction we are creating is actually God's way of bringing about his
plan for the end of the world.
We should not hate death. Death is indispensable to nature. If there were no death
there could no birth either, and new individuals with different combinations of genes
must be born if species are to keep adapting to their changing environment.
Death is the price we pay for the miracles of love and birth and childhood. If there
were no death, the risk of over-population would mean that none of us could ever have
children.
Death is not something we should fear. When we are alive, we are not dead. When
we are dead, we are aware of nothing. So it's only the brief transition between life and
death that poses a problem. We cannot live our whole lives in the shadow of such a short
moment. To live in fear of death is to die a living death.
Pantheism can free us from fear. Our bodies are part of nature and part of matter.
For the brief span of our lives we have been separated from the whole. At our death we
are re-united with nature and the cosmos, and the matter of our bodies is recycled into
new life. During the process of dying we should relax into this realization. It is far more

calming than to worry whether we are headed for heaven or eternal torment - or
whether we'll be reborn as a cockroach or a king.
Natural forms of burial are of great importance to pantheists. We prefer to be buried
in special natural places such as woods, where our bodies can be recycled into plants
and trees. Such a prospect bears no terrors - indeed for those who love nature it is even
comforting. Pantheists should group together to create natural burial grounds, taking
care not to destroy any natural habitats while doing so.
Other natural deaths include burial at sea, or cremation in a simple casket and
dispersal of the ashes in nature.
[See Elemental death.]

Mortal immortality.
Many people hanker after some kind of personal survival after death. But we must
find a realistic approach, one that is compatible with the evidence. And the evidence is
that our minds are not separate from our bodies and do not survive after death. The
testimony of people who have returned from spells of apparent death are not evidence,
since none of them actually died.
Yet we can hope for a kind of personal survival - survival through the creations and
memories we leave behind ourselves in the real world.
First, descendance. Most people leave children and grandchildren, who carry
forward their genes and characteristics. Lineage links the present with past and future,
so that time becomes not just a succession of isolated moments, but a continuum.
Lineage ultimately links all human beings back to a common ancestor group, and may
link all living beings on earth back to a common species of origin.
Second, remembrance. Most people are remembered after their death. The
frequency and degree of affection with which they are remembered depends on their
kindness to others. This remembrance should be enshrined in tradition, as in East and
South East Asia. Once a year on the date of a person's death or birth, their descendants
should take out an image of them and celebrate their memory.
Third inheritance - the passing down of treasured possessions linked to a person's
memory: a favourite walking stick, a school sports prize, a fossil collected.
Fourth, achievement. A person's good deeds and accomplishments live after them, in
some cases for a very long time. The greater the achievement, the longer the survival.

These forms of `real-life afterlife' add up to a kind of survival which would satisfy
most people. They would almost certainly stimulate greater kindness and consideration,
better efforts to improve the world and to preserve nature, than the selfish hope of
heaven. The God of Christianity can forgive a lifetime of destructive egotism even on the
deathbed. The tribunal of descendants, and of the natural world, will not.

The unity of religion and science.

In scientific pantheism science and religion are one.
Science is inherently materialist. It always seek material explanations. It never
accepts as an explanation that some spiritual force was at work - if it did, then science
and technology would come to an end. Disease was once thought to be caused by
witchcraft. Science gave it a material explanation which allowed us to control it.
Magnetism at one time seemed like a spiritual force -Thales of Miletus thought that
magnets were full of spirits. But then science provided a material explanation.
In the same way scientific pantheism believes that everything that exists is matter or
energy in one form or another. Nothing can exist, be perceived, or act on other things if
it is not matter or energy. That does not mean that spiritual phenomena or forces cannot
exist. It means that, if they do, they must in fact be material.
In scientific pantheism, science becomes a part of the religious quest: the pursuit of
deeper understanding of the Reality of which we are all part, deeper knowledge about
the awe-inspiring cosmos in which we live, deeper knowledge of nature and the
environment, so that we can better preserve the earth's wealth of natural diversity.
In scientific pantheism, cognitive openness - listening to reality, to new evidence, to
all the evidence, to other people's needs and feelings - becomes a sacred duty in all
aspects of life from science to politics to domestic life (see What's scientific about
scientific pantheism?)

Of course, we cannot say that science endorses pantheism. Many religions today
state their beliefs in ways that no-one can disprove, so they can and do co-exist with
science.
But scientific pantheism positively thrives on science. scientific discoveries
continually underline the wonder and the mystery of Being, the immensity of the
universe, and the complexity of nature. They can never undermine these, because the
ultimate mystery of existence, the overwhelming awe of its presence, remains
impenetrable, and will always remain so.

Unity of religion and aesthetics.

Scientific pantheism opens the door to another union, between religion, aesthetics the appreciation of form - and art.
There is a resonance between the form of the physical universe, or of nature, and our
aesthetic faculties. That resonance is based the unity of self and world. We are made of
the same stuff as the cosmos, on the same patterns as the rest of nature.
Musical harmonies are relationships of simple numbers. We enjoy them because the
atoms, nuclei and electrons we are made of are related by simple numbers.
We respond to natural forms because we are part of nature. We respond to physical
and cosmic forms like those on these pages because we are part of the material universe.
Aesthetics is the sensory and intellectual response to the divinity of Being. Religion
is the emotional and ethical response. Science is the cognitive and manipulative
response.
Human art can never rival the fantastic images we find in nature, or those we see on
the cosmic or the microcosmic scale through telescopes or microscopes.
This realization should give a new stimulus and a new raison-d'etre to art. Art should
celebrate the divine cosmos and the sacred earth.

Why traditional religion is not suited to the Third

Millennium.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
But when I became a man, I put away childish things. [Paul, I Corinthians, 13.11]
We live in a world aware as never before of the vast reaches of the cosmos, of the
immense variety of species on earth, and of the links between things at all levels. We live
in an urban and industrial world based on science, technology and the rapid exchange of
information.
Yet the major religions that dominate the world today developed among agrarian
and pastoral peoples, in times when superstition was rife. Times when the sun was
thought to revolve around the earth, and the stars were just holes in a roof.
Following ancient agrarian religions in a post-industrial age has severe drawbacks.
First, their ethical schemes are not adapted to the challenges of the modern world.
As we have seen, no major Western religion gives powerful backing to environmental
action. The scriptures of all Western religions give support, in varying degrees, to those
who wish to resist women's equality.
Second, they often require beliefs in events which common experience and science
tell us are impossible, and sometimes in dogmas that defy logic. They force us to divide
our minds in two. In our everyday practical lives we are as wily as foxes, continually
investigating, experimenting, finding solutions, checking out the evidence.
But in the religious area of our lives we are as gullible as infants. We believe things
which defy experience and science - miracles, resurrections, divine or angelic voices,
saviours from the sky. Indeed some people seem ready to believe almost anything.
This religious area is of central importance to most people. It governs the most
important passages of our lives, from birth, through adolescence, to marriage,
parenthood and death. It governs our expectations about death and life after death.

But the schism between reason and religion is dangerous. The religious area helps to
shelter or incubate other, political or racial kinds of unreason and other refusals to
confront reality and evidence. We need to end the divide. We need a fully rational
religion that is open to reality and evidence. That religion is pantheism.

Why do we need religion at all?

Why not simply abandon religion in favour of science?
Because science alone cannot satisfy our deeper needs.
In an urban world, where isolation is so common, we need to believe in something
greater than ourselves. Something less divisive than our ethnic or national identity.
Something more encompassing than our fragmented neighbourhoods. Something more
enduring than our frantic global marketplace.
We need a source of value and meaning in life. Science explains things - but it
cannot endow things with value or meaning. Indeed some scientists couch their
explanations - especially of life or mind - in a way that diminishes value or meaning. Yet
people are not happy to be reduced to mere mechanisms, or the servants of blindly
selfish genes. Nor are these descriptions scientifically accurate.
We need a deeper grounding for our moral systems. Science deals with facts, not
with ethics. Many philosophers have tried to devise ethical systems based on
enlightened self-interest. But if self-interest is to rule the day, the temptation of
unenlightened self-interest will always be powerful.
Although some animals like elephants seem to be aware of the death of others in
their family, we humans are probably the only animals aware of our own impending
death. We need a way of coping with death, and a hope that at least part of us may live
on beyond our death.
We must seek some way of satisfying these deeper needs which traditional religions
try to satisfy.
Yet at the same time we must retain all the rigor of the scientific approach. We must
never depart from reason and evidence. We must never lose sight of the real world of
experience (SeeWhat's scientific about scientific pantheism?) When our era was
young, we believed as children believe and thought as children thought. Now we are
adults, it is time to put away childish things. It is time to adopt a religion that satisfies
our religious needs, that embraces the space age, that fully supports our love of nature
and our efforts to preserve the earth. That religion is pantheism. If you love nature, if

you love the night sky, if you see divinity in all natural things, then you are a
pantheist.

Help spread pantheism.

Pantheism needs your help to spread. If you would like to help spread pantheism,
then please:

Use the words pantheism and pantheist as often as possible and explain to others
what they mean.
Include a reference to Scientific pantheism on your pages, and make sure your
own pages are indexed by the large Web databases like Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos,
Excite, Webcrawler etc.
If you would like to find out more ways in which you could help, please
consult How you can help.