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of Macomb, Michigan posted an update in the Schools of Pantheism group
Scientific Pantheism February 6, 2018 @ 8:33 am I made this video to raise the question of how we approach the idea of divinity. Alan Watts makes an interesting statement on “god.” As Scientific Pantheists, we tend to approach this idea metaphorically. What is your approach to “everything is divine?”
Great video Connie. I like to avoid calling it literal or metaphorical, because I think when we’re talking about transcendental ideas we’re being as literal as we can be with the limits of immanent language. For instance, when we say something like “red is hot” and “blue is cool”, we’re not literally saying color feels a certain temperature, but we’re not quite being metaphorical either—there’s no better way for language to describe color.
In this instance, I think Watts is telling us that Jesus knew he, at the depths of his being, is the whole Universe. All of us are, but in Western culture we talk as if our skin is a barrier between us and our environment. In Hinduism, they have the same parallel between Atman and Brahman that we have between Jesus and God—Atman (Jesus) represents the self, and Brahman (Yahwey/God) represents the all, and the great spiritual awakening is to realize that the self and the All are ultimately one in the same. 🙂