The Message - I believe there is a growing and urgent need for a revolution in religious thinking that allows mankind to take its next evolutionary step. We must move ahead to our next development or rot in stagnation. This means forsaking the many failed beliefs and dangerous behaviors of our primitive childhood. Sentimental fairy tales and mindless games are fine for children but not for maturing adults that think rationally.
"If we are to follow the religion of our fathers and mothers, our fathers and mothers should have followed the religion of theirs. Had this been done, there could have been no improvement in the world of thought. The first religion would have been the last, and the child would have died as ignorant as the mother. Progress would have been impossible, and on the graves of ancestors would have been sacrificed the intelligence of mankind." - Robert Ingersoll
The vastness of our knowledge of the universe has increased exponentially over the last 150 years. The potential for emptiness in man's mind has grown accordingly. The supernatural offerings from 2000 years ago will not fill that void now. Who can objectively think that they can?
"Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines." - Bertrand Russell
Modern science is now showing us daily what would have once been declared miracles. We merely touch a button to see visions. There is actually a choice of several hundred channels each and every night. We now fly high and swim deep. Our footprints are on the Moon, our tire tracks on Mars and we landed a probe on Titan recently. Researchers tickle the atoms and genes that the writers of the Bible, Tao Te Ching and Koran knew nothing about.
Psychologists now know that healthy living requires more than 10 commandments. In fact, some of them are saying the Golden Rule may even cause real emotional problems.
Paleontologists are continuing to dig up proofs of evolution. Our mental efforts are now stored on tiny chips. We easily command electrons to speak for us to the other side of the planet. Electrons also cook our dinners, run our cars and rush through our computers. Moses couldn't command electrons to do anything at all.
It is not my intent to start an argument with religious zealots. Life has taught me such efforts are foolish. Conducting a logical debate with a single track, convinced, emotional believer does not work well. After such encounters, I have found myself feeling as foolish as they appeared. Only a fool climbs a mountain cliff with another fool.
As J. Lec Stanislaw said "The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all, is the person who argues with him". Never-the-less, I am going to challenge the religious fundamentalists with neo-Pantheism and the possibilities it offers for the 21st century.
Why some philosophers have spent so much time debating what is non-existent or false, baffles me. Especially when they seem to have pretty well proven their case. I guess they must like replaying the winning game over and over again. Unfortunately, philosophers are like most scientists, they spend most of their time looking at where they have been and too little time looking at where they should be. We will spend the rest of our lives in the future. Our religious philosophy should be compatible with the realities of that time.
Mankind must now formulate and adopt a paradigm for life that is approachable by most of the citizens of the world. It should be a paradigm for living - not for dying. It must be a rational paradigm. It needs to be a balanced omnibelief.
The major world religions evolved prior to the emergence of scientific understanding. Mankind is just now beginning to unravel the 'mysteries' of the cosmos, biosphere and human physiology and psychology. Any viable modern paradigm must incorporate this new wisdom. It should integrate all the fields of our knowledge into one coherent package of awareness and understanding.
We need to fuse together physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, morality and philosophy. Rational thinking must guide the formulation. Evolutionary psychology may be an especially useful discipline. Responsible thinking can be the tool to stir this amalgamation. It needs to be an intelligent, comprehensive consilience of all our knowledge.
In many ways, neo-Pantheism is anti-theistic and humanistic. In many ways that many people can grow to appreciate. It is real, truthful, courageous, inclusive, happiness loving, peaceful and modern. It is more complete, virtuous and understandable. It stresses the dignity, worth and capacity for self realization of the individual. It worships no deity. On the other hand I say it is a non-theistic monotheism - a rather interesting concept.
Neo-Pantheism is anti-atheistic in a nice way. Atheism has no heart or spirituality to it whereas neo-Pantheism does. A rational spirituality is part of the neo-Pantheism paradigm. This spirituality is not supernatural in any way nor is the Cosmos and Nature considered divine or sacred as most Pantheists believe.
One leader of modern Pantheism likens atheism to dry bread while Pantheism is warm toasted bread with buttered on it. My neo-Pantheism is far more complex and tasty than atheism or the Pantheism of others. It is the grains in the flour (substance and structure), the yeast (catalyst), salt (flavor), sugar (gas producer and sweetness), shortening (lubricant) the bread is the synergy of the components acting together to produce a useful and valuable item. And they give it its taste. You can for variety, complexity and enhancements add many other different ingredients. Rye flour, garlic and wheat gluten to name a few. I toast my belief with truth, butter it with reason and eat it for warm nourishment. I also like blackberry jam on mine my bread, so spread on some sweet happiness. And I bake it in a modern electric bread machine.
See Internet Link - neo-Pantheism.info - for more details on this new paradigm.
" Nothing else in the world... not all the armies... is so powerful as an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo
