Revised CA 1 - Deism, Theism, Pantheism PDF

CA 1 – DEISM, THEISM, PANTHEISM Relationship of God with the World Deism→ transcendent: above the world Pantheism→ immanence: in the world Theism→ reconciles the two views Introduction The concept of God as Absolute is the most important, most universal and central concep...

CA 1 – DEISM, THEISM, PANTHEISM Relationship of God with the World Deism→ transcendent: above the world Pantheism→ immanence: in the world Theism→ reconciles the two views Introduction The concept of God as Absolute is the most important, most universal and central concept of religion. It is therefore necessary to define more fully the relation of God to the cosmos by examining certain concepts of God which stand out in the historical development of religious consciousness. Granted that God created the world, there are two views about it: 1) Transcendental – The view that God is transcendental implies that God created the world and exists beyond it. 2) Immanence – The view that God is immanent implies that God created the world and is very much in the world. There are three important views about God and the world with regard to transcendental and immanence. 1) Deism 2) Pantheism 3) Theism 1] Deism: God as transcendent The deistic conception of God has been formed under the influence of the human analogy. As man is contrasted with his work so is Deity here set over against his world. God is not immanent in mundane things nor does he continuously sustain them. He rather exists outside or alongside them. This apartness of God from his world is characteristic of the Deistic conception. He is indeed supposed to create the world but does not stand to nature and man in any intimate and living relation. This theory states that God exists apart from the world, he is completely external or transcendent of the world. Deism believes that God is "causa sui", the first cause of the universe, who created the world out of nothing but his will at a particular time. After creation, the world runs independent of him, with the secondary causes; namely Will, Force and Energy. Deism comes from the word 'Deus' (Latin) which means Gods. God also performs the function of a protector or caretaker of the world. This way of thinking was also acknowledged by Aristotle in his well-known theory of Deity in his book of metaphysics. God is Pure form. He moves the world but is the unmoved mover. In modern times, the deistic writers of the 17th and 18th country with their idea of natural religion, which was the embodiment of the natural human reason, gave currency to what is commonly called Deism. Deism put forth the following ideas: 1) There is God 2) God ought to be worshipped. Deism believes that God is omnipotent and omniscient and hence needs to be worshipped 3) Worship is through the practice of virtue and not merely rituals 4) Repentance from sins is a duty 5) Reward and Punishment will be automatically meted out Deism did not believe in institutionalized religion. This led to a disbelief in revealed knowledge, miracles and mystical experience. It was also against idol worship and the concept of a personal God (it only respected God's will to create the world and as the world was created by God, man had to be virtuous). Deism has a major advantage of symbolism, God as creator of the world who does not involve nor interfere in the matters of the created world. The deistic God is more a creator and a king. Philosophical Impact of Deism Deism stood for a rationalizing rather than a spiritual impulse and its adherence were concerned to set forth an idol of God which would commend itself to the abstract understanding, not to interpret loyally the inner needs and practical desires of the religious soul. Hence this movement had never stood in any close relation to spiritual life. However, Deism claimed to be a living force before the close of the 18th century. Despite its shortcomings, Deism at all events made the word God stand for something definite, not a vague "stream of tendency" nor an elusive, impersonal reason. Deism, maintaining that God is transcendent and therefore not to be confused with things or human spirits, was setting for a sound religious principle which has often been obscene. Evaluation/ Appraisal 1. Deism insists on the apartness of God so as to isolate him from the world and invest the world with the kind of false independence i.e., it ignores the continuous and intimate dependence of the world on God and its activity within it (which is implied in the notion of divine immanence). 2. In a similar way, it fails to recognize the interrelationship of human spirits to the divine spirits which is involved in the nature and working of religion, i.e., the Deist is content to believe that once furnished with the light of reason, man makes his own way in the world. 3. Hence, Deism provides no sufficient explanation of the facts of the religious communication and of the revelation of God to the human soul. 4. Its tendency was for purely rational interpretation of religion, and this is psychological false and spiritually inadequate. Thus, Deism is an attempt to rationalize religion rather than a genuine utterance of the religious spirit. It is to say, a critical rather than a spiritual movement - as religion is based on faith more than reason. 2] Pantheism: God as immanent Pantheism comes from the Greek word 'Pan' which means all and 'Theo' means God. So literally its meaning is that "All is God" i.e., the world is God and God is the world/nature (this theory is opposed to Deism and is a reaction against it). Pantheism conceives God as absolutely immanent in the world. Pantheism is a historically significant phase. It has impressed the intellect of man and has provided a kind of satisfaction to the human heart. Pantheism appeals to the real instincts of religious consciousness. It satisfies the mystical nature of man as it talks of the total absorption and expression of the divine in the created world. It also satisfies the scientific spirit of man that looks for unity in a world full of diversity. Different Interpretation Pantheism itself had been interpreted differently by different thinkers. God as self-different: Pantheism itself had been interpreted differently by different thinkers. Some hold the view that God is self-conscious while others hold the view that God is unconscious. Some pantheists believe that God's immanence makes the world real. While others believe that the world is an illusion with God alone as real. Spinoza was a Pantheist and he identified substance (matter) with Absolute (God). Spinoza was called the God-intoxicated man. Pantheism regards God and the world as necessarily coexisting and immanently present in all that makes up the world. God without world being Substance without quality, and world without God being absolute null, means that not only God is present in all existence but he is the sole/only reality. If God is the only one and the only reality and there is nothing other than God, the whole multiplicity is reduced to an unreal appearance. According to Spinoza, God is Substance and Substance is God. This substance is the One idealism, and is pantheistic in character. Hegel considers reality as the Absolute mind or Will. Nothing falls outside the Absolute and everything within the Absolute. As far as Spinoza is concerned the defects of this theory are transparent. It absorbs all finite things and persons in the gulf of substance without explaining how the difference of the experiential world could have been issued from that abstract and colourless identity. A conception of God, it was felt, that would bear philosophical criticism and successfully replace the limited Deity of deism, must not obtain a sure identification of God with the spatial universe, nor on the other hand deny that the world possessed a degree of reality. God must not be thought to be present with the same fullness in a stone as in a human soul, and the multiplicity of finite things should then have due place and function in the world. Evaluation/Appraisal: Negative Aspects: The pantheistic idea is vaguely grand and impressive. It will always possess an attraction for certain orders of mind and it is the logical issue of certain trends of thought. Yet, the facts of experience do not cohere well with the idea that God is All, and those who think so must be content to ignore or to forget too much. First of all, it baffles us entirely to think how the finite mind at one and the same time, be the individual mind and also a part of the divine mind. It is the essence of the conscious spirit to be for the self, to refer to itself and to distinguish itself from all other things. Finite minds, however much they depend on one another for their self-development, yet as consciousness they do not inter-penetrate on merge into one another. Those who affirm the self- consciousness of God and of man, and also affirm the inclusion of man in God are really saddled with the hopeless problem. They have to explain how this limited, imperfect and incomplete experience which I call my own is really owned by God and forms part of his perfect and complete experience. The consciousness of freedom and personal autonomy which goes with the exercise of the Personal will cannot be justified if one’s will is really the expression of the Divine will. The facts of moral and spiritual exposition are really non-intelligible on the Pantheist theory - that there is only one will in the universe of which all things, material and human, are the utterance. While religion teaches true living in conformity to the will of God, it always pre-supposes in individuals the freedom to obey or to fail to obey. Pantheism on the contrary, if it is consistent, must be fatalistic and can admit neither contingency nor human initiative within the rigid order of the universe. Positive Aspects: But the vogue of Pantheism in the history of religion and philosophy would be inexplicable if it were merely a collection of effects. It appears in some ways to respond to human needs. It seems to meet man's desire for unity and completeness in his conception of the world. In emphasizing the immanence of God, pantheism fulfills a want of the religious spirit which claims that the deity is present everywhere (omnipresent) in the world and that no religion of experience lies outside the divine care and keeping. Spiritual religion carefully affirms that all things are in God, in the sense that He comprehends, sustains, and works through all. Pantheism, however, converts this into an error by equating the activity of God in the world and the human soul with an identity of nature and substance. 3] Theism: Deism and pantheism contain elements of truth, though the truth is mingled with errors. Theism rightly asserts transcendence and immanence, thus seeking to unite what is true deism and pantheism. The theistic conception is the outcome of a more purely religious motive and is shaped out of the needs and desires of the religious spirit. It accordingly stands to a close relation to the actual working of religious consciousness. This intimate relation of Theism to the living interest of religion is apparent in its attitude to the immanence and transcendence of God. It maintains both the conceptions led close, not by stress of logic, but by the claims of spiritual value. The spiritual worshipper requires a God not far off but very near. A God whose spirit bears witness with the spirits of those who reverently seek him. Plus, feelings find God within the region of human activity. Yet along with this demand for the presence of God in the world, the religious spirit calls for a God who is exalted above the world and man, the mystery of whose being cannot be fully penetrated by reason. If it were not stimulated by this element of transcendence in God, the flame of spiritual reverence would sink low. Religious faith will not be satisfied with a purely mundane duty. Faith demands that its object be lifted high above the sin and discord of the world, ruling the world and working in it for good without being submerged by it. The consciousness of human weakness and the emotions of awe and reverence, which are active in worship are bound by man's faith in the transcendent characters of the being before whom he bows. The Theistic God is considered to have the following attributes: 1. Eternal: He is above space and time and unaffected by anything related to them, as is the case with the contingent world 2. Infinite: God has no beginning and hence logically no end. Also, everything evolved from him and dissolves into him 3. Omnipotent: He is considered all-powerful, hence the devotees look up to him for all solutions 4. Omnipresent: He is present everywhere as he has to be around for the devotees every time as he is immanent 5. Omniscient: He is all-knowing as he is above all imperfections and finitudes of the common man. He has created the world out of himself and hence he knows everything about it 6. Personal: The Theistic God can be reached by man through prayers, rituals and worship Types of Theism: Theism is of various types: 1. Polytheism 2. Monotheism 3. Henotheism 1. Polytheism: This the most ancient form of theism. It meant worship of many gods. “Poly” means many. The idea of many (in the aspects of nature) forms of the Gods come due to worship of nature. In the earlier days, man found certain inexplicable events. He started looking at elements of nature as supernatural, started defying them and worshipping them. When nature blessed them with abundance of resources, he worshipped them out of reverence and when nature destroyed, he bowed down with fear. Man looked at nature more as spirits - he gave forms, sizes and shapes to the elements of nature and thus arose polytheism. 2 Monotheism: Monotheism is a belief in one God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Monotheism has arisen as a belief as it affirms that all spirituality has only one form. This Theistic God has all the attributes and powers of the various Gods of the polytheistic views. The Theistic God in the form creates, sustains and destroys all by himself. Monotheistic faith is a more simplistic view as it involves fewer rituals and festivals. Customary morality under this view is easier as it leads to no confusion or conflict between various Gods and beliefs. 3. Henotheism: Henotheism is a more contemporary view. It is an extension of polytheism, with a shifting order of Gods according to occasions, situations, and festivals. Gods shifted in the order of preference in accordance with the needs and desires of people. Also, polytheism was practised or followed more in Asian and oriental religions. Monotheism is seen more in religions like Christianity, Islam, etc. Henotheism is seen predominantly in religions like Hinduism where belief in polytheism had a new dimension e.g.: during Ganesha chaturthi, Ganpati is involved etc. Theism is considered to be the most popular out of the 3 views. Theism has essentially modified the principles of both Deism and Pantheism. Views according to a Theist While admitting with a deist that God is not identical with the world, the theist denies that the world is independent of God. He discerns the presence of divine activity behind the phenomena of nature and life and mountains that there is a continuous revelation of god and in the spirits of man. Theism connects the statement of pantheism and presents it in a form which is consistent with the integrity of spiritual values. The Pantheistic assertion "All is one", the theist transforms into a very different proposition “All depends on one” i.e., theism declares that all elements in the cosmos are related to a single experiment subject and are sustained by a single will. Again, when a pantheist speaks of the identity of the self with God in the religious consciousness, the theist speaks of communion and co-operation with God in religious worship and religious life. Thus, a pure identification which is rightly understood as non- religious, is transformed into spiritual and ethical fellowship. Summarization: Thus, theism as a genuine interpretation of the higher religious experience does justice to the essentials of the religious experience and religious relationship in a way that neither deism nor pantheism can pretend to do. Descartes, Berkeley, Locke are advocates of theism. Evaluation 1. The problem of evil presents the greatest problem for the theist. “Evil is the rock against which the ship of theism breaks.” The ethical attribute of God raises the problem that love and benevolence do not seem consistent with the existence of evil in the world. 2. According to logical positivists especially, theism is not only inconsistent but nonsensical. The statements make no sense if tested with the verification principle. 3. The theist is criticized for being anthropomorphic when speaking of God as a personal being, referring to him as “Him” rather than in an absolute sense. In doing so, Theism is actually limiting God. But Theism justifies its stand and reflects all criticism against it with one sweeping statement: according to them, all such inconsistencies and incoherence are limitations in human thought and expression. Human thoughts fail to group the essence of Theism and human language falls short in its description. According to them the ultimate ground of things is a single Supreme reality who is the source of everything and is an object of unqualified adoration and worship.