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Simply stated, Pantheism is the view that everything is God, and has an all encompassing interpretation of God. "God is All" is one way to state this. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that natural law, existence and/or the universe (the sum total of all that is was and shall be) is personified in the 'theological principle' of 'God'.
One way to describe certain interpretations of pantheism is to say "you are to God, as an individual blood cell in a your vein is to you. While a cell may be aware of its own environs, and even has some choices (freewill) between right and wrong (killing a bacteria, becoming cancerous, or perhaps, just doing nothing, among countless others) it has little conception of the greater being of which it is a part. This conception of God can be seen as included within Brahman Hinduism. It is important to note, however, that not all modern interpretations of pantheism would find this analogy meaningful, and for that matter, not even all pantheists believe in free will. This is indicative of a wide diversity of pantheist belief which will be explored throughout this article.
Pantheism is often attacked as tautology to atheists, since it appears to many of them to do little more than redefine the word 'God' to mean 'world' or 'universe'. It should be noted, however, that there is no significant agreement that making God synonymous with universe must necessarily make either term less meaningful. Pantheists maintain that such an arrangement serves to create a new and potentially more insightful conception of both terms.Perhaps the most significant debate within the pantheistic community is as to the nature of God. Some (classical pantheism) Believe in a personal, conscious, omniscient deity, and see this deity as uniting all true religions. Others (Naturalistic Pantheism) Believe in a unconscious, non-sentient universe, which while holy and beautiful, and is only seen as a God in an extremely non-traditional sense. Finally, some fringe groups in the united states (see Cosmotheism) have brought in the idea of a hierarchical religious community, as well as the controversial opinions of Dr. William Pierce. Of course the views encompassed within the overall pantheistic community are necessarily diverse, but the central ideas of all encompassing unity, a common purpose, and the sanctity of nature and natural laws are found throughout.
See also: Hinduism, kabbalah, panentheism, universism Cosmotheism, Cosmology