Author: Grula, John W.

Source: Zygon, Volume 43, Number 1, March 2008 , pp. 159-180(22)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

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The Judeo-Christian, Enlightenment, and postmodernist paradigms have become intellectually and ethically exhausted. They are obviously failing to provide a conceptual framework conducive to eliminating some of humanity's worst scourges, including war and environmental destruction. This raises the issue of a successor, which necessitates a reexamination of first principles, starting with our concept of God. Pantheism, which is differentiated from panentheism, denies the existence of a transcendent, supernatural creator and instead asserts that God and the universe are one and the same. Understood via intuition, modern cosmology, and other natural sciences, it offers an alternative worldview that posits the divine and sacred nature of the universe/creation. By asserting the fallacy of the creator/creation dichotomy and any attempts to anthropomorphize or personalize God, pantheism precludes hubris stemming from erroneous notions of divine favoritism. The links between Judeo-Christianity and the Enlightenment are traced and a case made that the latter has resulted in the equally erroneous and hubristic notion of human ascendancy to a Godlike status, with the concept of progress providing a secular version of the Christian belief in salvation. By reestablishing the natural sciences'metanarrative, even as it asserts the divinity of the material universe, pantheism simultaneously demotes postmodernism and reconciles science with religion. Pantheism provides a theological foundation for deep ecology and also stakes out a viable third position in relation to the ongoing dispute between advocates of intelligent design and the scientific establishment.

Keywords: Anthropic Principle; anthropomorphism; constants of nature; cosmic evolution; cosmology; creator/creation dichotomy; deep ecology; Enlightenment; environmental crisis; God; hubris; infinite monkey theorem; intelligent design; Judeo-Christianity; multiverse; panentheism; pantheism; postmodernism; progress; science and religion; science and theology; string theory; technology; universe; war and peace; worldviews

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2008.00904.x

Affiliations: 1: Astronomy Librarian at The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena, CA 91101;, Email: jgrula@ociw.edu.

Publication date: 2008-03-01

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