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Panentheist

King Phenomenon

Well-Known Member
So today I found out I was a panentheist. Never heard of it! Haha. I believe in a transcendent God but I also believe that God is part of the the universe. I do believe God influences the universe even though it's not able to be observed scientifically but I do believe it is factual.

 
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Native

Free Natural Philosopher & Comparative Mythologist
So today I found out I was a panentheist. Never heard of it! Haha. I believe in a transcendent God but I also believe that God is part of the the universe. I do believe God influences the universe even though it's not able to be observed scientifically but I do believe it is factual.
"God" is Light - Light is everywhere in the Universe - Light CAN be observed and understood scientifically :)
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Once you know your perspective of the word god, it's easier for you to identify with it. Then experiences confirm it, and wala! You're a god belief. Congrads.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
So today I found out I was a panentheist. Never heard of it! Haha. I believe in a transcendent God but I also believe that God is part of the the universe. I do believe God influences the universe even though it's not able to be observed scientifically but I do believe it is factual.



Finding yourself is a wonderful experience (usually)
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Once you know your perspective of the word god, it's easier for you to identify with it. Then experiences confirm it, and wala! You're a god belief. Congrads.
And how does one establish the existence of this world-God, and what his "perspective" might be?
Show your work...
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
And how does one establish the existence of this world-God, and what his "perspective" might be?
Show your work...

Remember. You can't compare abrahamic god to panthenistic god to Hindu god whatever. They all have different characteristics.

I can't speak for Sunstone himself, but if god is everything in the universe, it may refer to this word/term signifying the universe created all (if the concept of god is a creator); if so, you can see creation and creating all over the place. It could be a mystic experience and being a union with all things and people. Think of your euphoria moments, the times you were close to those who you are close to, say spouse, children, friends, so have you. Whatever that closeness feeling and relationship some people call god whether it be the cause or the relationship itself. The physical universe, with us in it, is energy. So, when you tap into energy-whether from people, living things, and for some people objects etc through meditation, prayer, or so have you, they experience god (the whole of the universe).

I'm not sure what you mean by god since I wasn't raised to understand the concept of the abrahamic god beyond RF. But if god is seen as a creator and spirit, then the universe and living do create and we do have spirit or emotions and mystic experiences that we value so much we can't live without it.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I have great respect for personal experience, but no respect for those who take my word for it without hard, confirmatory evidence.

If I were taken from the cave to experience the world beyond the shadows, then returned to tell the tale to my fellow prisoners, I'd consider anyone who believed me a fool.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
I have great respect for personal experience, but no respect for those who take my word for it without hard, confirmatory evidence.

If I were taken from the cave to experience the world beyond the shadows, then returned to tell the tale to my fellow prisoners, I'd consider anyone who believed me a fool.

What type of evidence are you looking for?
What's the criteria and characteristics that make up this evidence?

How do you describe god to where any evidence you will accept will be answers to your question?
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
So today I found out I was a panentheist. Never heard of it! Haha. I believe in a transcendent God but I also believe that God is part of the the universe. I do believe God influences the universe even though it's not able to be observed scientifically but I do believe it is factual.


Let me muddy the water for you. It is my understanding that what you are citing is 'pantheism' as opposed to 'panentheism'. A panentheist (again to my understanding) believes that God isn't just in everything, but that God IS everything, including this conversation. Fine point, granted, but it changes the whole complexion of the argument. Congrats, btw.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Let me muddy the water for you. It is my understanding that what you are citing is 'pantheism' as opposed to 'panentheism'. A panentheist (again to my understanding) believes that God isn't just in everything, but that God IS everything, including this conversation. Fine point, granted, but it changes the whole complexion of the argument. Congrats, btw.

I think it's the other way around. Pantheism is God is everything. Panenthiesm (new term for me) is God is above all and is all. From what I gather it sounds more Hinduism.

Im more of a pantheist but the term God tends to throw me off.
 
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Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I have great respect for personal experience, but no respect for those who take my word for it without hard, confirmatory evidence.

If I were taken from the cave to experience the world beyond the shadows, then returned to tell the tale to my fellow prisoners, I'd consider anyone who believed me a fool.
That is cynical and unrealistic. If you came back with tales of hope, that inspires hope in others. They experience something that gives them hope, and from there it inspires action. This is the nature of faith.

This whole "evidence" based notion is so very modernistic, and really only applies to science, not human reality. Don't mistake faith with gullibility. Faith is based on something more than just ignorance, and more than just evidence.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Let me muddy the water for you. It is my understanding that what you are citing is 'pantheism' as opposed to 'panentheism'. A panentheist (again to my understanding) believes that God isn't just in everything, but that God IS everything, including this conversation. Fine point, granted, but it changes the whole complexion of the argument. Congrats, btw.
You described what pantheism is. But he said panentheism, and qualified that as saying God is transcendent to everything, and is everything.

Panentheism brings together traditional theism, which states that God is wholly transcendent to creation, with pantheism which says God is wholly immanent within creation. Panentheism is paradoxical, in that it says God is wholly transcendent, and wholly immanent in creation. Both are simultaneously true.

I would identify more as a panentheist myself.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
There are many, many forms theism takes. It's not atypical to be ignorant of many of them when (at least in the United States) education about the subject is poor to non-existent in the public school system. Gods - that which one deems worthy of worship - can be anything. It can be a breath of fresh air to realize there are more options and possibilities than one thought.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
I think it's the other way around. Pantheism is God is everything. Panenthiesm (new term for me) is God is above all and is all. From what I gather it sounds more Hinduism.

Im more of a pantheist but the term God tends to throw me off.


I may have them crossed, more research is due. However, 'God' is simply an arbitrary term. I like to use 'Eternal Center'.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
I think it's the other way around. Pantheism is God is everything. Panenthiesm (new term for me) is God is above all and is all. From what I gather it sounds more Hinduism.

Im more of a pantheist but the term God tends to throw me off.

You described what pantheism is. But he said panentheism, and qualified that as saying God is transcendent to everything, and is everything.

Panentheism brings together traditional theism, which states that God is wholly transcendent to creation, with pantheism which says God is wholly immanent within creation. Panentheism is paradoxical, in that it says God is wholly transcendent, and wholly immanent in creation. Both are simultaneously true.

I would identify more as a panentheist myself.


Okay...okay. Somebody educate me. If I believe that 'God' is everything (including, for instance, this very conversation) as opposed to 'God' is IN everything, am I talking about Pantheism or Panentheism?
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Okay...okay. Somebody educate me. If I believe that 'God' is everything (including, for instance, this very conversation) as opposed to 'God' is IN everything, am I talking about Pantheism or Panentheism?

I'd say panthiest. God is in everything assumes God is seperate (say a spirit) that prevades everything. Like air. God is everything in my opinion is more god is the totality of everything. Cause and effect I guess one can say or an action.

In other words, say you have a ball rolling down hill.

A theist would say someone pushed the ball down the hill.

A pantheist would say the gravity, ball, hill, and inertia are all one thing that Is the action and motion of the ball; they are one.

A panthenist may say there is a cause to the ball rolling but what/whoever pushed the ball is not separate from the ball, hill, etc themselves.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
That is cynical and unrealistic. If you came back with tales of hope, that inspires hope in others. They experience something that gives them hope, and from there it inspires action. This is the nature of faith.
But faith -- belief without evidence -- is a bad thing, is it not?

"Hope" is all well and good. but it -- and faith -- can lead people into catastrophe. If the followers of Jim Jones had used critical analysis and demanded objective evidence, there would never have been a catastrophe in Guyana.
This whole "evidence" based notion is so very modernistic, and really only applies to science, not human reality. Don't mistake faith with gullibility. Faith is based on something more than just ignorance, and more than just evidence.
Yet this evidence based model is responsible for the explosion of progress we've experienced in the past century or two. Had we relied on faith and hope we'd still be riding oxcarts and treating disease with leaches.
 
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