Is some form of Animism or Panpsychism fully compatible with Atheism in your own opinion?
Animism is not traditionally accepted as a form of theism and is often regarded as the precursor to theism.
Alrighty, then! Let's ask a question about animism and then everyone weigh in on what animists believe, and whether or not it's compatible with some other belief (or nonbelief, if you prefer), without having any input from anyone who actually
is an animist....
Really, if I hadn't been traveling and incommunicado, I would have jumped right in from the get-go. But, I'm here now, so...
Can't speak to Panpsychism. As to animism: despite Tylor's definition back in the 1800s and the fact that many people have bought his overly-simple description and it shows up in dictionaries and the like, very few animist belief systems actually posit anything like animals, rocks, etc., being or having souls. More recent investigations (see for example Graham Harvey) often focuses on the idea that indigenous peoples treat at least some (very rarely ALL) entities in their environment as persons, who deserve respect and a proper social relationship from humans. Sometimes this includes some entities that we westerners would classify as plants and animals, and others whom we would classify as rocks, water, storms and other inanimate phenomena and objects. Sometimes this includes entities that are not tied to material forms, but by no means is this true in all cultures. Usually, these other "persons" are seen as sharing some inherent quality like that of humans, something that westerners usually term soul, spirit, or anima, but those terms carry western meanings that indigenous peoples many not share. these other persons are considered "natural," not supernatural the way we westerners view them.
While many animist cultures include belief in something that might meet the western classification of "gods," and some even acknowledge a creator being or "all-father" type of deity, this is not known in all such cultures. There are some that appear to not have any "gods" at all.
However, one of the overriding features of animism, according to the literature of the field since the early 1990s, is that animism in indigenous cultures is not much about belief, but it is about practicing the correct rituals and other respectful behaviors in the individual's interactions with the non-human persons, so that they will continue to respect the agreements that allow us to kill and eat them (if they are alive) or otherwise make use of them (if inanimate). In return, humans do things to increase their numbers and the quality of their lives, etc. The reciprocal part of the relationship, as it were.
Now then, as an animist who knows something about the beliefs of some other animists, and one who practices animism himself, I would suggest that most animists are non-theists because, frankly, theism is concerned with "God" or gods--which is something that doesn't really compute in most animist systems because those are western concepts. Stretching theism to include non-human persons seems a bit much, from my perspective.:yes:
