Why not Pantheism rather than Atheism?

Spontaneous Optimism is Faith. Compelled Faith is degrading to humans and blasphemous to God.

No Optimist can supply sufficient evidence to support his position that, on the whole, future of Mankind is bright. (Counter-evidence is more conspicuous.) But all meaningful endeavors are meaningful under this presupposition. Statement of optimism could be, total Existence (matter-energy, consciousnesses, imaginations, contemplations are all included in ‘Existence’.) has an inherent net propensity of perpetually (may be with a few setbacks) moving towards the ‘Better’. (Does this lead to Ultimate perfection or the process would continue asymptotically? My position is in favor of asymptote.)  

Obviously, the ideas of ‘Good’ are certainly not concurrent. But I think they are somewhat convergent. As if it were, vector of the direction of Good for each of us will have some deviation from each other but not more than 90⁰ and certainly not diametrically opposite. (This may also be a part of my optimism.) Peace, Harmony, Justice, Health, Authentic Communication, Joy of Art, Complementarity with non-human Nature are a few items which will occur in almost everyone’s list. May be more convergence with richer lists will also be one implication of the propensity.

No doubt some individuals can sustain their optimism without involving the notion of God. Atheism is a valid philosophical choice. However Atheism is not the only valid choice. You don’t have to prove ‘objective existence’ of your dialogue-partner who enriches your mental and overall life. Ardent Atheists are completely missing the point when they make issue of God into a problem in validity of knowledge. 

God is not a proposed fact at all. He is the complementary pole of a particular set of attitudes towards life. Of course there are multiple notions of God and multiple attitudes invoked by them. Some of such attitudes are deplorable but some are commendable too. Critique of attitudes lies in the value-realm and has nothing to do with objectively provable existence of any entity. As Gabriel Marcel has suggested it is sufficient for God to exist only in ‘second person’ in inner dialogue. Atheists are sealing the dialogue with all Theists indiscriminately and unnecessarily confining themselves in ideological isolation which is detrimental to the laudable causes which some Atheists are pursuing.

Let us focus upon what makes Theism problematic, especially so for liberal perspective. We must identify those features of Theism which ought to be negated for Human Good. Amongst the Vices associated with Theism Divisiveness, Antagonism and Authoritarianism are strong ones and inaction, fatalism and escapism are the softer ones. It must be made clear as to which components in the notion of God are responsible for generating these vices. Before directly expounding Pan-Theism let us focus on the roots of vices associated with Non-Pan-Theisms. Let us call Non-Pan-Theisms as ‘Divisive-Theisms’ for reasons we will see immediately.

Divisive-Theisms divide Existence into Theos and Non-Theos, Divine and Mundane, Sacred and Profane, Chosen ones and Non-Chosen ones and of course, the Fidel and the Infidel. God has to be one! But his messengers are many. Each messenger’s version of God, God’s commands, as well as Name of God varies. There are significant mismatches between these. But one thing is common in Divisive-Theisms is that they demand unconditional allegiance by the followers. Still worse, the message also contains Laws for running society/ Government in ‘this world.’ In case of almost all Divisive-Theisms the commands of God also contain sanctions of Rewards and Punishments, in this world/this birth as well as threats and allurements about other worlds and/Or other births. God in Divisive-Theisms no more remains innocent dialogue partner of Gabriel Marcel but becomes sovereign dictator. Humans are basically sinners deserving to be tamed by God and his representatives. What comes to human lot are fear and guilt, to be ‘overcome’ by wars and tortures/ordeals! No wonder why many a Humanists become Atheists.

But still, the larger optimism which I mentioned earlier is captured by Divisive-Theisms because the God is unconditionally beneficent at least in the long run. God has rule-making power and also he can break his rules if he wishes to bestow his Grace upon the worshiper he finds more lovable. He has an unlimited forgiving nature and can respond to Prayers favorably unless it is the case of infidelity.

The Divisive-Theisms suffer from many logical flaws but a few of them are really devastating to their arguments. Omnipotence is a self-contradiction. Whatever you may be in a position to do you can not do otherwise simultaneously. God will need infinite number of universes to actualize his omnipotence! But ‘we’ are trapped in only one of them which need not be the best of them. Then comes the ultimate dilemma that how Omni-beneficence, Omnipotence and actual Suffering of creatures can all go together?

 Whether I believe in his existence or not, I would give up claim of omnipotence rather than the claim of beneficence. If God is good but not omnipotent he still remains worship-worthy. But if he is omnipotent and still makes his subjects suffer then he doesn’t remain worship-worthy. For me, His worship-worthiness is more important than his less than ‘Omni’-potence or non existence altogether. This is because 95% of my co-travelers on planet earth are dependant on his beneficence and not omnipotence. For worshipers it is the beneficence that keeps their optimism alive. The agents of God emphasize Omnipotence so that they can keep worshipers on ‘the right path.’

By mentioning 95%, I do not at all want to indicate that what majority thinks is right. Question is not right or wrong but the overwhelming fact that many of them are trapped in some or the other Divisive-Theism and you can not merely declare the trap as imagined, and then intellectually prove it and they will be liberated. Due to Atheists’ adherence to making the issue an issue of fact (true or false) is counter-productive. Theists’ emotional reaction to this is evasive or invasive but not communicative. An insurmountable schism has been built. This schism has insulated the dialogue between theists and atheists. The insulation ought to be removed in theological idiom as it is stuck on that side. Scientific idiom goes skew. The dialogue neither brings about convergence nor cordiality. Skew debates are repetitive as they do not find a common plane to cut each other.

Turning back to the ultimate dilemma that how Omni-beneficence, Omnipotence and actual Suffering of creatures can all go together? I repeat that forgoing worship-worthiness is out of question. Even the Divisive-Theisms covertly give up Omnipotence. The very fact that we can sin against his will is sufficient to prove that He is not omnipotent. Whether our sins are limited to those committed in ‘this’ life or accumulated through many earlier birth-lives is a secondary matter. Even if his subjects have earned their suffering, how could he let them do so?

Furthermore omnipotence is cascaded with Perfection which is more of a contradiction. Most of the Theisms also believe that God is an already perfect entity and hence they allow no room for him to become more and more near-perfect. Finally they have to answer that his functioning is beyond our cognitive ability or the evil and suffering that appears to us is a complete illusion, going to the extent that world is a hallucination suffered by God! In such case where is the basis for the optimism with which we started the discussion? Optimism about improvement of this world is replaced by optimism to permanently escape from this world and permanently joining the blissful abode.  

Now let us see how Pantheism is different and more amenable to reason and more accommodative than Divisive-Theisms. According to Pantheism there is nothing outside God. God doesn’t have an ‘outside’. As substance of all substances, he is pervading everything and as an emergent property of all emergent properties (divinity), He is encompassing everything. All dimensions like space time, substance, attribute, composite/component, concept and items subsumed under etc. are inside God. Of course the empirical events occurring in the dimensions are included as well.

Nothing is profane. Sacredness may not be equally distributed. There can be higher and lower degrees of sacredness but no room for the profane inside God. In Atheism the very category sacred/profane is discarded so nothing is sacred. But note that ‘everything is sacred’ is a positive note which is needed by worshipers. The main difference is that in pantheism there is unconditional inclusion of everybody inside God, irrespective of what he/she believes in or does not believe in. Nobody is worth eliminating on theological grounds. There is no devil and none is his agent. A pantheist crusade is inconceivable.

How evil does get accommodated in the Pantheist version of God? God has not achieved perfection. He has to evolve along with evolving matter-energy into life, pre-programmed creatures to self-programmable creatures, savage human to civilized human, unjust civilization to just civilization and so on. All his modicums (we are the most crucial of them at least for his project-Earth) are always at different stages of his evolution. By same token, all humans have not yet sufficiently learnt the art of doing thing in a good way and hence they have to do it in evil way. As long as evil has a function in life and it is not successfully replaced by good, evil will exist. 

But evil has no positive self-existence. It is a lack of good rather than something opposite of it. If and as we learn how to solve our problems without resorting to evil, God’s self perfection process is manifested through us. It is us, who can add into the Glory of God and Grace of God. Glory to the extent we materially progress and Grace to the extent we morally and spiritually upgrade ourselves. God is neither going to punish nor going to reward for simple reason that he does not want to fool himself. Keeping people manageable by threats and allurements is our society’s way of dealing. He can not be satisfied with inauthentic allegiance. He will deem his project successful only, if and when, it really is. Not a false show of it. His dream is that humans become good out of their own intrinsic value-judgment. Managers of societies can cheat worshipers in the name of God but nobody can cheat God. He is witnessing everything that goes on in our minds. We can trick ourselves but not Him. 

 He is undergoing our sufferings and enjoying our happiness as he is our Soul. But he inspires and suggests too. Whenever we find that we excel unbelievably, face agony courageously, help others without any consideration of return, we can be sure that it is manifestation of his Becoming.  In Pantheist version God ceases to be a goal to be achieved, Master to be pleased, Immortal Joy to get merged into. Pursuit is not for Advaita (Non-Dichotomy) for it is already there. It is upliftment that is to be achieved. If we do our part God will respond by unfolding new wonders. Saying by a human that I want to reach to God, it is as stupid as a cell in our body wanting to reach a body. It is already well-placed in it. isn’t it?  

Atheism does not divide people as Divisive-Theisms do. But Atheism lacks any transcendent appeal for uniting. Pantheism unites all of us to help each other in learning, pertaining to the stage one has reached. Earth may not be his only project. As he became matter-energy to be other than consciousness, he is evolving the other way round. He has got infinite patience. What he certainly does not want to do is imposition. We are free to contribute in his project but he will not reject us if we don’t. He is an appeal. He is the Hope. In our moments of intrinsic joy it is he who smiles. In our honest and sincere endeavor, it is Him who buttresses. Each one of us is His unique modicum of His universal essence. His essence is not full and final. It is Becoming.

The main point is that Pantheists can communicate with Divisive-Theists in theological idiom and bring about a change of heart. Atheists have made themselves irrelevant by taking the issue into an Epistemological diversion where the issue does not belong to.

Who are the main thinkers of Pantheism? On which points, do they converge and diverge? What are the technical terms? How the Issue of fortuity is handled? What in us continues after death and why? Are a few of many questions that need to be answered but this was an attempt to show that there can be a third way.