I don’t like this NYT columnist by any means, but how often does Pantheism get into mainstream news, save for the Harper’s blogger, who is always posting the Youtube symphonies paired with Romantic art? Ross Douthat in his “Heaven and Nature” barely touches on an excellent point, that pantheism is the preferred doctrine for artists and intellectuals since the classical era, think Lucretius.
…Instead, “Avatar” is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world…
At the same time, pantheism opens a path to numinous experience for people uncomfortable with the literal-mindedness of the monotheistic religions — with their miracle-working deities and holy books, their virgin births and resurrected bodies. As the Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski noted, attributing divinity to the natural world helps “bring God closer to human experience,” while “depriving him of recognizable personal traits.” For anyone who pines for transcendence but recoils at the idea of a demanding Almighty who interferes in human affairs, this is an ideal combination.
Rashaan Alexis Meneses 