Around when I first started this blog I wrote an article called Pantheism and Anti-Mysticism. I proposed the idea of pantheism being an effective term because atheism in its self is not anti-mystical but simply a lack of belief in god. I would like to fallow up on that blog and and maybe clear up some of my ideas.
To make things clear, I am in fact an atheist, but it is quite well accepted that atheism in it's self doesn't offer much. It is simply a lack of belief. For this reason many people call themselves "humanists". I don't find that term fitting for myself so in the past and I have tried to come up with terms that might better describe my beliefs when it comes to the issue of god, and other mystical forces.
In a pervious blog (which I provided a link to above) I talked about the terms "pantheism" and "anti-mysticism". I have decided that the word "materialism" might be what I was really looking for as opposed to "anti-mysticism". And as for pantheism, it seemed to cause more confusion then effective communication of my beliefs. However I still believe that it is a useful perspective.
Essentially pantheism and materialism are the same thing (at least as I define them). It is the acceptance of the material world as all that exists and matters. However the term pantheism embraces the material world. Perhaps the two terms can be compared to nihilism and existentialism. The nihilists claimed "life is meaningless" the existentialists claimed "life is meaningless and beautiful".
So many of us materialists take the reality of nothing but matter as a cold hard fact, but I believe that we should embrace the material world and reject mystical assertions, not sorrowfully but proudly.
Perhaps what the pantheist perspective offers more then anything is the fact that reality is a wonderful thing that we should come to terms with and observe with a sense of wonder and respect. It brings out the fact that life is godless and beautiful.
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1 comments:
Yeah, agreed. Carl Sagan liked to talk about the "numinous" nature of the universe, which I think is a good term to use when describing awe and mystery. Now, Rand DID use the terms "mysticism" and "mystical" in a very inncorrect way, but since her use of those words has caught on so much in the Neo-Objectivist movement, I won't bother fighting it. I've been studying religious naturalism lately and I find that mysticism is not at all incompaitble with physicalism/materialism. It is simply the name for a type of profound or sacred experience (mentally). But, oh well. I wouldn't say that materialism and pantheism are synonyms, however. Materialism is simply the acknowledgement of only a physical/scientific reality. But pantheism means having a subjective response to this reality. I like to say that pantheism is my subjective response to my experience and knowledge of the universe. Many Neo-Obejctivists however don't express these sentiments (I believe because there are many facts of reality that they are overlooking). So I wouldn't equate the terms... come to think of it, you can be a humanist materialist.
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