Naturalistic pantheism

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Naturalistic pantheism, also known as scientific pantheism, is a form of pantheism. It has been used in various ways such as to relate God or divinity with concrete things,<ref>Ethical and Religious Thought in Analytic Philosophy of Language by Quentin Smith, 1998, Yale University Press, p. 226</ref> determinism,<ref name="Tillich">Paul Tillich: Theologian of the Boundaries by Paul Tillich, Mark K. Taylor, Mark Lewis Taylor, Collins, 1987, p. 165</ref> or the substance of the universe.<ref name="Panentheism">Panentheism--The Other God of the Philosophers, John W. Cooper, Baker Academic, 2006, p. 39</ref> From these perspectives, God is seen as the aggregate of all unified natural phenomena.<ref>Lectures on Divine Humanity by Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov, Lindisfarne Press, 1995, p. 79</ref> The phrase has often been associated with the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza,<ref name=Marvin>The History of European Philosophy: An Introductory Book by Walter Taylor Marvin, Macmillan Company, 1917, p. 325: "Naturalistic pantheism had already made its appearance in the sixteenth century and most notably in the writings of Giordano Bruno; but its most famous teacher was the seventeenth century philosopher Benedict Spinoza."</ref> although academics differ on how it is used. Natural pantheists believe that God is the entirety of the universe and that God speaks through the scientific process.

Component definitions

The term "pantheism" is derived from the Greek words pan (Greek: πᾶν), meaning "all," and theos (Greek: θεός), meaning God. It was coined by Joseph Raphson in his work De spatio reali, published in 1697.<ref>Ann Thomson; Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, 2008, page 54.</ref> The term was introduced to English by Irish writer John Toland in his 1705 work Socinianism Truly Stated, By A Pantheist, which described pantheism as the "opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe".<ref name=Toland>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The term "naturalistic" derives from the word "naturalism", which has several meanings in philosophy and aesthetics.<ref name="Dictionary">A Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. T. Mautner, Blackwell, 1996</ref> In philosophy, the term frequently denotes the view that everything belongs to the world of nature and can be studied with the methods appropriate for studying that world, i.e., the sciences.<ref>Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Ted Honderich, Oxford University Press, 1995</ref> It generally implies an absence of belief in supernatural beings.<ref name="Dictionary" />

Early conceptions

Joseph Needham, a modern British scholar of Chinese philosophy and science, identified Taoism and the technology of the Wuxing as "a naturalistic pantheism which emphasizes the unity and spontaneity of the operations of Nature".<ref>Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 2, Joseph Needham, Cambridge University Press, 1956, p. 38</ref> This philosophy can be dated to the late 4th century BCE.<ref>Kirkland, Russell. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. (London and New York: Routledge, 2004). p. 61. Template:ISBN</ref> The Hellenistic Greek philosophical school of Stoicism (which started in the early 3rd century BCE)<ref name="Stoicism">Stoicism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.</ref> rejected the dualist idea of the separate ideal/conscious and material realms, and identified the substance of God with the entire cosmos and heaven.<ref name="Panentheism" /> However, not all philosophers who did so can be classified as naturalistic pantheists.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Modern conceptions

Naturalistic pantheism was expressed by various thinkers,<ref name=Marvin /> including Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for his views.<ref>Turner, William (prof. of philosophy at the Catholic University), "History of Philosophy", 1903, p. 429</ref> The 17th-century Jewish Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza became particularly known for it, receiving a herem for his work.<ref name=Marvin /> In 1705, the Irish writer John Toland endorsed a form of pantheism in which the "God-soul" is identical with the material universe.<ref name="Toland" /><ref>"Materialism in Eighteenth-Century European Thought" in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 2005, ed. Peter Machamer and Francesca di Poppa</ref><ref>The Middle Works of John Dewey, Volume 2, SIU Press, 1976, p. 184</ref> German naturalist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919)<ref>"Ernst Haeckel – Britannica Concise" (biography), Encyclopædia Britannica Concise, 2006, Concise. Britannica.com webpage: CBritannica-Haeckel Template:Webarchive.</ref> proposed a monistic pantheism in which the idea of God is identical with that of nature or substance.<ref>The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Volume 7, Anson D.F. Randolph, 1896, p217</ref> The World Pantheist Movement, started in 1999, describes naturalistic pantheism as including reverence for the universe, realism, strong naturalism, and respect for reason and the scientific method as methods of understanding the world.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Paul Harrison considers its position the closest modern equivalent to Toland's.<ref name="Toland" />