Friday, May 1, 2009

Pantheist: A disconnected ramble about why I believe what I believe.

So, upon further examination of my articles Theism or Atheism and Thin Places along with my own thoughts on the world and how it's composed, I've decided pretty solidly that I'm a Pantheist.

I figured out some time ago that if there was a God, it probably wasn't a sentient being. And what sentience that God does have is ours, because we are linked to God.

God is just as much a part of us as we are a part of God.

God is a part of his creation and the creation is a part of God.

And, to complete the triangle, We are a part of God's creation as much as the creation is a part of us.

God, Creation, Us


We watch over the creation. This is where I think that the parable of Adam and Eve has some validity. We, God, and the creation are one and the same, even if different in concept. If there ever was any such trinity, that would be where it is.

I came across this belief when I read a concept in the Hua Hu Ching that basically read that we are all a part of the same whole. When I threw my understanding of God into that mix, I realized that I was a pantheist without yet knowing the term.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes we as humans have empathy for even the tiniest of animals? Have you ever saved a ladybug from a puddle? Have you ever rescued a dog from execution in an animal shelter (like Obama decided not to)?

NOTE: Yeah, I threw the Obama thing in there. I'm just really pissed that he didn't get a pound puppy instead of some purebred fancy breed. As an owner of two pound-pups, I'm kinda pissed that he didn't follow through on his promise to get a dog from a shelter. When he made that announcement, I was like... oh cool, at least I can like him for something. Turns out... not so much. Watching this guy break promise after promise is infuriating.[/rant]

Anywho.

Our empathy for animals of other species (as a whole) surpasses that of any other animal. Though sometimes the animal kingdom has its heroes.

As awesome as this is, why didn't anyone help that dog?


For any of you that want to know what the result is: The dog that was rescued died shortly afterward and no one can find the hero dog. After about a month of searching they called it off.

My point is that humans have a respect for life that far surpasses any other species. Even the hero dog of Chile only saved another of his species. If it'd been a cat, or raccoon in the road, no such action would have been taken (most likely, can't say for sure. That dog is pretty impressive).

But there's constant stories even among our own childhoods of finding a wounded bird and nursing it back to health, or feeding a stray cat. When we see the death of animals with our own eyes, sometimes we cry because those are our brothers.

Plants are People too


Sometimes we eat those brothers (both plants and animals), as we cannot survive otherwise. But this is the natural order of things as life consumes life all the time. But humanity will eat plants and animals while still having a pet dog and a garden. It's not hypocrisy as much as it's balance. There's a balance in life, death, and God. The responsibility of the human is to watch over it carefully.

In the parable of Adam and Eve, God charges us with the responsibility as rulers over the environment. We are to guard that cycle, because we, like it or not, are the only creatures that can truly handle that responsibility. Although recently our civilizations have become so narcissistic that they have forgotten this purpose.

So God, whether you can call the subconscious spirit of nature God or not, links us to everything, and each other. I think that if people realized that, we'd live much more peacefully with one another.

2 comments:

A said...

Wouldn't you say, though, that just the opposite is also true of humans? Yes, human beings are more empathetic to other species than anything else on the planet...but they are also more indifferent, and often more malicious. Animals kill each other, but usually in the course of competition for space, food, or mates, or to protect their own. Human beings have been known to kill each other--and animals--just for fun. If our capacity for empathy is evidence of our connectedness to plants and animals through God, what is our capacity for cruelty evidence of?

Richter, Alexandra said...

If pantheism is not a Biblical belief, why would you use Biblical references such as Adam and Eve to support it?.. It really does not help your case. Especially when in another post a ways up, you use the story to say that God doesn't love us and Satan does. We're all God right? If so, Adam and Eve didn't love themselves and chose to create a state of mind called Satan to make them feel loved.

Adam and Eve can apparently be applied to any aspect of life. That's how much nonsense I got out of those two posts. Just sayin.