This is a pantheist photoblog. What does that mean? Well, it's a place where I post photos, mostly of nature but also other things I find beautiful like architechture, as well as reflections and reactions to religious news items, etc. Pantheism more than any other religion lends itself to photography, especially nature photography, because that's what pantheism is all about: the inherent divinity of the universe.

The title is a reference to Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" from Leaves of Grass. Section 31 begins:

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

My religious background:

I was raised Quaker (the unprogrammed, liberal, FGC variety), and I'm still officially a member. I do still go to meeting occasionally (like once a year). I never really believed in hell or salvation, but I did used to believe in God and heaven (for everyone, not just the righteous). That was pretty much what my parents taught me to believe--though they themselves are really atheists.

When I was 13 I decided I was an atheist. And I haven't really faltered in that belief since then; I'm way beyond the possibility of believing in God again--at least in the traditional sense.

When I was 16 I started reading about Wicca and practicing a little, but I quickly discovered that it didn't really fit. There's too much emphasis on the God/Goddess duality (presumed to be conscious beings at least on some level), and on reincarnation, which is just silly. I also didn't like the elitism and proprietory attitude towards the word "witch" and the pentagram symbol--Wicca is not directly descended from the old paganism, and it really doesn't have any more right to that word than any other group.

Not long after that I read Daniel Quinn's The Story of B, which is includes a lot on animism--the belief that everything has a spirit/soul/whatever, the religion shared (in various forms) by "primitive" cultures all over the world. Animism fit my beliefs much better than Wicca. It's not so much a belief system as an opinion. I feel that the universe is sacred. No squabbling over conflicting dogma, no unchanging texts. Animists have many different religions, but share the common feeling that the universe is divine.

Doing more research on related religious beliefs, I started reading about pantheism, and I find that's it's very similar (or really identical) to animism. Pantheism is also the belief (opinion) that the universe is sacred. Now, some pantheists believe in a more supernatural element to it, that the universe is somehow conscious or collectively aware. I don't see it that way; consciousness is a quality found in some species on Earth because it's extremely useful to us for our particular approach to survival, but there's no reason the universe as a whole needs to be conscious. It can do everything it does just fine without that. So my specific type of pantheism is what's called "scientific pantheism" or "natural pantheism". It's basically atheism (no transcendent, personal, anthropomorphic god) but with reverence for the universe--reverence in a manner which can be called religious.

I think religion has a purpose for humans--there's a reason that it exists in every human society throughout history. We need ritual and we need reverence. It also serves more social functions--dictating laws and practices that people should follow. If you look the animistic religions of "primitive" cultures, you'll see that the rules, taboos, and practices of those religions have important ecological results. I think that's how we're going to have to avert the environmental crisis. Respect for nature is seriously lacking in our culture, and in our culture's religions (for the most part). I don't think that's the reason for the crisis--the reason is that destroying the environment is helpful in the short term; it's allowed us to outcompete non-destructive cultures. But I think it might be a solution. And I think that without reverence for the world around us, we're just going to keep on doing what we're doing.

moonwatcher at nyctophilia dot net