Pantheism...or Deism?

[Guest guest]

Mikeji wrote:

Namaste

 

As a student and follower of Neoplatonism

I believe that there is only one transcendent

and impersonal, absolute or ultimate reality which we in Neoplatonism

call 'The One'.

 

The problem is that this is often

erroneously taken for Pantheism. However

if one denies the reality of the physical

universe of space and time, one denies

the immanent God of the Pantheist.

 

Consequently I see my Monism

as being more akin to Deism

(the belief in a transcendent God)

than to Pantheism.

 

Do many here have a similar view?

 

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Namaste Mikeji,

The idea that the world is identified

with God or pantheism is rejected by Plotinus in the

Sixth Ennead IX.2:

"In sum: The Unity cannot be the total of beings,

for so its oneness is annulled; it cannot be the

Intellectual Principle, for so it would be that total

which the Intellectual-Principle is; nor is it Being,

for Being is the manifold of things."

 

I wonder though if you can be a Deist and a

Monist at the same time or even on alternate

days in that the God of Deism is a remote

figure other than the world which he has set

in motion like the winding of a clock. His energy

is the energy of the world but apart from that

one doesn't sense the immediate intimate

connection that Monism suggests.

 

It is interesting though to reflect that

Deism began as an attempt to establish

a natural religion, or religion by the principles

of reason alone. In the 1620's Herbert of

Cherbury offered this formulation of Deism.

By reason he held that you could establish

(a)That there is one Supreme God

(b)which ought to be worshipped

©chielfly by virtue and piety

(d)wrongdoing should be repented

(e)There are rewards and punishments in

this life and the next.

 

John Tolland (1670 -1722) wrote a book

with the wonderfully long title: Christianity

not mysterious: or a treatise showing that

there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to

reason, nor above it; and that no Christian

Doctrine can be properly called a mystery.

 

That is an ambitious programme unless

of course you can stipulate that faith is

the same as reason or call it by a special

name e.g. Deism. Famous Deists: Rousseau,

Daniel O'Connell.

 

Best Wishes,

Michael.