Editing Process philosophy (section)

=== On God ===
Whitehead's philosophy is complex and nuanced regarding the concept of "God". In ''Process and Reality: Corrected Edition'' (1978),<ref name="PRCE"/> the editors elaborate upon Whitehead's view of the concept:

:He is the unconditioned actuality of conceptual feeling at the base of things; so that by reason of this primordial actuality, there is an order in the relevance of eternal objects to the process of creation.<ref name="PRCE"/>{{rp|344}} [...] The ''particularities'' of the actual world presuppose ''it''; while ''it'' merely presupposes the ''general'' metaphysical character of creative advance, of which it is the primordial exemplification.<ref name="PRCE"/>{{rp|344}}

Process philosophy might be considered, according to some theistic forms of religion, to give [[Conceptions of God#Process philosophy and open theism|God]] a special place in the universe of occasions of experience. Regarding Whitehead's use of the term "occasions" in reference to "God", ''Process and Reality: Corrected Edition'' explains:

:'Actual entities' – also termed 'actual occasions' – are the final real things of which the world is made up. There is no going behind actual entities to find anything more real. They differ among themselves: God is an actual entity, and so is the most trivial puff of existence in far-off empty space. But, though there are gradations of importance, and diversities of function, yet in the principles which actuality exemplifies all are on the same level. The final facts are, all alike, actual entities; and these actual entities are drops of experience, complex and interdependent.<ref name="PRCE"/>{{rp|18}}

It also can be assumed, within some forms of theology, that a God encompasses all the other occasions of experience, yet also transcends them; it might, therefore, be argued that Whitehead endorses some form of [[panentheism]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cooper|first1=John W.|title=Panentheism--The Other God of the Philosophers: From Plato to the Present|date=2006|publisher=Baker Academic|location=Grand Rapids MI|isbn=978-0801049316|page=176|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aokfbkOdjuEC&q=Whitehead++panentheism&pg=PA176}}</ref> Since (as it is argued in many theologies) "free will" is inherent to the nature of the universe, Whitehead's God is not omnipotent in Whitehead's metaphysics.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dombrowski|first1=Daniel A.|title=Whitehead's Religious Thought: From Mechanism to Organism, From Force to Persuasion|date=2017|publisher=State Univ of New York Pr|location=Albany|isbn=978-1438464299|pages=33–35|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACKRDQAAQBAJ&q=Whitehead%27s+God+is+not+omnipotent}}</ref> God's role is to offer enhanced occasions of experience. God participates in the evolution of the universe by offering possibilities, which may be accepted or rejected. Whitehead's thinking here has given rise to [[process theology]], whose prominent advocates include [[Charles Hartshorne]], [[John B. Cobb, Jr.]], and [[Hans Jonas]] (with the latter being influenced by the—non-theological—philosopher [[Martin Heidegger]] as well). However, other process philosophers have questioned Whitehead's theology, seeing it as a regressive Platonism.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hustwit|first1=J. R.|title=Process Philosophy|url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/processp/|website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP)|access-date=15 June 2017}}</ref>

Whitehead enumerated three essential ''natures of God''. First, the ''primordial'' nature of God consists of all potentialities of existence for actual occasions, which Whitehead dubbed ''eternal objects;'' God can offer possibilities by ordering the relevance of eternal objects. Second, the ''consequent'' nature of God prehends everything that happens in reality; as such, God experiences all of reality in a sentient manner. Third and last, the ''superjective'' nature is the way in which God's synthesis becomes a sense-datum for other actual entities; in some sense, God is prehended by existing actual entities.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Viney|first1=Donald|title=Process Theism|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/process-theism/|website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosoph|publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University|access-date=15 June 2017}}</ref>