Is your spiritual home
here on Earth?
Are you searching for a path which focuses on Earth in the Cosmos, rather
than some imaginary beyond? Are you more concerned with saving the planet
than saving your eternal soul? With making the best of your one life here,
rather than longing for life in an imaginary paradise?
Do you find
it impossible to believe in supernatural gods, and difficult to conceive of
anything more worthy of the deepest respect than the beauty of Nature
or the power and mystery of the Universe?
Do you feel a deep sense of
peace and belonging and wonder in the midst of Nature?
Are you looking for a form of spirituality that respects individual choice
and human and animal rights, rather than pushing prejudice and senseless
exploitation of Nature? One that values reason and science over adherence to
ancient scriptures?
If you answered yes to these questions, then you will
feel at home in the World Pantheist community.
Can a spirituality be based in Nature??
In the World Pantheist Movement we revere and care for Nature, we accept
this life as our only life, and this earth as our only paradise, if we
look after it. We revel in the beauty of Nature and the night sky, and are
full of wonder at their mystery and power.
By spirituality and spiritual we don't mean any kind of supernatural or
non-physical activity. We mean our deeper emotions and aesthetic responses
towards Nature and the wider Universe - our sense of our place in these, and
the ethics and values that these feelings imply.
We take the real Universe and Nature as our starting and finishing point,
not some preconceived idea of God. We feel a profound wonder and awe for
these, in some ways similar to the reverence that believers in more
conventional gods feel towards their deity, but without anthropomorphic
worship or belief that Nature has a mind or personality that we can
influence through prayer or ritual.
Our ethics are humanistic and green, our metaphysics naturalist and
scientific. To these we add the emotional and aesthetic dimensions which
humans need to cope with life's challenges and to embrace life's joys, and
to motivate their concern for Nature and human welfare. Our beliefs
Our beliefs and values reconcile spirituality and rationality, emotion and
values and environmental concern with science and respect for evidence. They
are summarized in our
Statement of Principles, which
embodies the following basic principles:
Reverence, awe, wonder and a
feeling of belonging to Nature and the wider Universe .
Respect and active care for the
rights of all humans and other living beings.
Celebration or our lives in our
bodies on this beautiful earth as a joy and a privilege.
Strong naturalism - without
belief in supernatural realms, afterlives, beings or forces.
Respect for reason, evidence and
the scientific method as our best ways of understanding nature and the
Cosmos.
Promotion of religious tolerance,
freedom of religion and complete separation of state and religion.
If you want to see why other people
have chosen this spiritual approach, then check
Members' Voices. The benefits
Most
people have a sense that there is something greater than the self or than
the human race. And indeed there is. It's the planet, and at a broader level
the entire Universe .
The WPM's naturalistic reverence for
Nature can satisfy the need for a feeling of belonging to a greater whole,
without sacrificing logic or respect for evidence and science. As one member
put it, it is spirituality without absurdity.
It does not require faith in
miracles, invisible entities or supernatural powers.
It accepts and affirms life
joyously. It does not regard this life as a waiting room or a staging
post on the way to a better existence after death.
It has a healthy and positive
attitude to sex and life in the body.
It teaches reverence and love and
active concern for Nature. Nature was not created for us to use or abuse
- Nature created us, we are an inseparable part of her, and we have a
duty of care towards her.
It enthusiastically embraces the
picture of a vast, creative and often violent Universe revealed by
the Hubble Space Telescope. We need a spirituality in keeping with this
new knowledge, not one that seeks to deny or explain away parts of it.
It does not simply co-exist
uncomfortably with science: it fully embraces science as part of the
human exploration of the awesome Cosmos. However, this does not mean we
believe that science can answer all questions, nor that we endorse all
modern technologies regardless of their impact on Nature.
So why an
organization?
Most people also have a deep need to belong to a community -
this is perhaps the main reason why people join or stick with religions they
may privately doubt. The WPM aims to provide a spiritual and social "home
base" for people who love Nature and the Universe but do not
believe in supernatural entities. A home base that provides the community
support of local groups, and facilitators to help celebrate natural
weddings, funerals and other special occasions in the style that people
really want. A base where you can share your beliefs and your enthusiasms
without fear of being ostracized or considered an outsider.
The
WPM Statement
of Principles is not a requirement of membership but simply a notice
on our door, to show what we are about so people can decide if it suits them
or not.
The major aims of the
movement are:
To promote the values of
environmental concern
and human rights.
To sponsor Nature conservation
activities and help members to conserve Nature
To make earth-honoring
life-affirming naturalistic beliefs widely available as a
spiritual option and a rational alternative to traditional religions.
To build up membership in
localities and promote the formation of local groups.
To create a network of celebrants
for Nature and life-oriented child dedications, weddings, and funerals.
To promote an expanding presence
for these beliefs and values on the Internet and in other media of all
types.
To assist in the production and
publication of media promoting these beliefs and values.
If
you join the WPM you will be joining a young, rapidly growing and dynamic
group with an expanding range of activities. We have lively forums. OurFacebook Fan Page has
over 10,000 members from all continents. Our richly
featured online community at Ning has many discussions, local groups,
and groups for practical pantheist living.
There
have been many local meetings of members right across the USA and in other
parts of the world, where people have found a rare level of fellowship and
stimulation. Two of the major benefits, members find, are gaining new
like-minded friends and finding support for your own beliefs and attitudes
to life and Nature. How we relate to closely
allied beliefs
The core of what we stand for is our beliefs (see the Statement of Principles.
We use the name pantheism because it has a long and venerable history. Our
beliefs are entirely naturalistic, and compatible with atheism, humanism and
naturalism. Also with those forms of paganism that see magic and the gods as
symbols rather than realities.
We offer a home to all forms of naturalistic spirituality, whatever you
choose to call it - scientific pantheism, religious humanism,
religious naturalism, positive atheism, deep ecology, philosophical Taoism,
modern Stoicism, Gaia religion, also Western forms of Buddhism that
celebrate Nature and everyday life without supernatural beliefs, and to
those in Unitarian Universalism who do not believe in supernatural beings.
You are completely free to adopt the terms and practices you prefer and draw
on other traditions for inspiration. Most of us avoid "god-language" and the
sizeable minority who use it do so metaphorically. Some of us call this a
religion (though it has none of the bad features of religions), others call
it a philosophy, a way of life, or a form of spirituality.
Please explore our pages.
Check out the highlights on the left pane, and browse the drop-down menu top
left. If you have a question, email us at
.
Rachel Carson
Those who dwell...among the beauties and mysteries of the
earth are never alone or weary of life. The more clearly we can
focus our attention on
the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction.
Carl Sagan A religion old
or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed
by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence
and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.
Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge. Pale Blue Dot
Albert Einstein A
knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the
manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty
- it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly
religious attitude; in this sense, and this alone, I am a
deeply religious man.
The World as I See It
Margaret Atwood
god is not the voice in the whirlwind
god is the whirlwind
Mikhail
Gorbachev
I believe in the cosmos.
All of us are linked to the cosmos. So nature is my god. To
me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are
my cathedrals.
Sitting Bull
Every seed is awakened and
so is all animal life.
It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being
and we therefore yield to our animal neighbours the same right as
ourselves, to inhabit this land.
Stephen Hawking Larry King: Do you believe in God?
Stephen Hawking:
Yes, if by God is meant the embodiment of the law of the universe.
Larry King Live, December 25, 1999
Henry David
Thoreau
We are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by
the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds
us. We can never have enough of nature.
