Pantheism

Pantheism (Greek: pan = all and Theos = God) literally means "God is All" and "All is God". It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that natural law, existence and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is was and shall be) is represented or personified in the theological principle of 'God'.

Related concepts

Panentheism

Pantheism has features in common with panentheism, such as the idea that the universe is part of God. Technically, the two are separate, inasmuch as pantheism finds God synonymous with nature, and panentheism finds God to be greater than nature alone. Some find this distinction unhelpful, while others see it as a significant point of division. Many of the major faiths described as pantheistic could also be described as panentheistic, whereas naturalistic pantheism cannot (not seeing God as more than nature alone). For example, elements of both panentheism and pantheism are found in Hinduism. Certain interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita and Shri Rudram support this view.

Related Topics:
Panentheism - Bhagavad Gita - Shri Rudram

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Cosmotheism

While the term is rarely used, and is most often simply a synonym for Pantheism, two unusual philosophies have emerged using the term to mean something rather different. In both of these cases, the feeling was that God was something created by man, perhaps even an end state of human evolution.

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In modern Israel, Cosmotheism was described by Mordekhay Nesiyahu, one of the foremost ideologists of the Israeli Labor Movement and a lecturer in its college Beit Berl. He felt that God was something which did not exist before man, and was a secular entity which the rebuilding Jewish Temple in Jerusalem has an instrumental role in "invent" God.

Related Topics:
Israel - Mordekhay Nesiyahu - Israeli Labor Movement - Beit Berl - Jewish Temple in Jerusalem

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In the 20th century United States, William Luther Pierce, a white nationalist associated with the American Nazi Party and founder of the National Alliance also utilised the term "Cosmotheism". In his eyes God is the end result of eugenics and racial hygiene.

Related Topics:
20th century - United States - William Luther Pierce - White nationalist - American Nazi Party - National Alliance - Eugenics - Racial hygiene

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