Is Nature
your spiritual home?
Do you feel a deep sense of peace and belonging and wonder
in the midst of nature, in a forest, by the ocean, or on a mountain top? Are you
speechless with awe when you look up at the sky on a clear moonless night and see the
Milky Way strewn with stars as thick as sand on a beach?
When you see breakers crashing on a rocky shore, or hear wind
rustling in a poplar's leaves, are you uplifted by the energy and creativity of existence?
Do you find it impossible to believe in supernatural beings, and
difficult to imagine anything more worthy of reverence than the beauty of nature or the
power of the universe?
If you answered yes to these questions, then you will feel
thoroughly at home in World Pantheist Movement. Our reverential, caring and celebratory
approach focuses on nature rather than the supernatural, on what we can see and do and
live out rather than what we can't see.
 I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. So
nature is my god.
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
Being at one with nature.
Mikhail Gorbachev |
Towards a naturalistic spirituality
Terminology is the downfall of religions: the core of
what we stand for is our beliefs (see the belief statement), not our name. For convenience, we use the
name pantheism because it has a long and venerable history. But almost all of what we say
applies to all the spiritual orientations that find shelter in the WPM. They include
scientific pantheism, religious humanism, religious naturalism, religious atheism, deep
ecology, nature-worship, philosophical Taoism, modern Stoicism, Gaian religion, as well as
to those forms of wicca and paganism that see magic and the gods as symbols rather than
realities, also Western forms of Buddhism that celebrate nature and everyday life, and to
those in Unitarian Universalism orpaganism who do not believe in supernatural beings.
In the WPM we take the real universe and nature as our
starting and finishing point, not some preconceived idea of God. We feel a profound
reverence and awe for these, similar to the reverence and awe that believers in more
conventional gods feel towards their deity, but without grovelling worship or belief that
it has a mind or personality that we can influence through prayer or ritual. Our ethics
are humanistic and green, our metaphysics naturalist and scientific, but to these we add
the emotional and aesthetic dimensions which humans need to joyfully embrace their place
in the universe and to motivate their concern for nature and human welfare.
In the WPM we revere and care for nature, we accept this life as
our only life, and this earth as our only paradise, if we look after it. We revel in the
beauty of nature and the night sky, and are full of wonder at their mystery and power.
Our beliefs and values reconcile spirituality and rationality,
emotion and values and environmental concern with science and respect for evidence. If you
want to see why other people have chosen this spiritual approach, then check Members' Voices.
 Larry King:
Do you believe in God?
Stephen Hawking:
Yes, if by God is meant the embodiment of the laws of the universe.
Larry King Live, December 25, 1999 |
Why do we need a spirituality of nature?
Most people have a sense that there is
something greater than the self or than the human race. The WPM's naturalistic reverence
for nature can satisfy this need, without sacrificing logic or respect for evidence and
science. As one member put it, it is spirituality without absurdity.
- It does not require faith in miracles, invisible entities or supernatural
powers.
- It accepts and affirms life joyously. It does not regard this life as a waiting
room or a staging post on the way to a better existence after death.
- It has a healthy and positive attitude to sex and life in the body.
- It teaches reverence and love and active concern for nature. Nature was not
created for us to use or abuse - Nature created us, we are an inseparable part of her, and
we have a duty of care towards her.
- It enthusiastically embraces the picture of a vast, creative and often violent
universe revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. We need a spirituality in keeping with
this new knowledge, not one that seeks to deny parts of it.
- It does not simply co-exist uncomfortably with science: it fully embraces
science as part of the human exploration of the awesome universe. However, this does not
mean we believe that science can answer all questions, nor that we endorse all modern
technologies regardless of their impact on nature.
 A religion old or new, that stressed the
magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth
reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later,
such a religion will emerge.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
|
So why a movement?
Most people also have a deep need to belong to a community - this
is perhaps the main reason why people join or stick with religions they may privately
doubt. The WPM aims to provide a spiritual and social "home base" for people who
love Nature and the Universe but do not believe in any supernatural entities. A home
base that provides the community support of local groups, and facilitators to help
celebrate natural weddings, funerals and other special occasions in the style that people
really want. A base where you can share your beliefs and your enthusiasms without fear of
being ostracized or considered an outsider.
The WPM's basic beliefs are expressed in the WPM Credo.
This is not a requirement of membership but simply a notice on our door, to show what we
are about so people can decide if it suits them or not.
A knowledge of the existence of
something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the
most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the
truly religious attitude;
in this sense, and in this alone,
I am a deeply religious man.
Einstein, The World as I See It
|
Our aims
The major aims of the movement are:
- To promote the values of human rights and environmental concern.
- To make earth-honoring life-affirming naturalistic beliefs widely
available as a spiritual option and a rational alternative to traditional religions.
- To build up membership in localities and promote the formation of local groups.
- To sponsor nature conservation activities and encourage members to conserve
nature
- To encourage the creation of nature reserves that will serve as models of
conservation and wildlife gardening, and if desired also as pantheist meeting places and
educational resources.
- To support moves towards creating a network of facilitators/celebrants for
nature and life-oriented child dedications, weddings, and funerals.
- To promote an expanding presence for these beliefs and values on the Internet
and in other media of all types.
- To assist in the research and publication of books and other media related to
these beliefs and values.
If you join the WPM you will be joining a young and
dynamic group with a growing range of activities. We have several lively mailing lists,
with over 1000 members from over 50 countries in five continents, and 54 US states
or territories. We also have regional and specialized e-mail lists and Web bulletin
boards.
There have been many local meetings of members right across the
USA and in other parts of the world, where people have found a rare level of fellowship
and stimulation. Two of the major benefits, members find, are gaining new like-minded
friends and finding support for your own beliefs and attitudes to life and nature.
Check us out by exploring the links on the left: find
out our beliefs, organization and suggested practices, visit our bulletin board, join the
WPM, discover how you can help out.
We are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime
and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us.
We can never have enough of nature.
Henry David Thoreau |
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