GOD as football Pantheism, namely the belief^1 that every single thing, hence ALL, is GOD,^2 is easy to understand^3 but difficult to accept.^4 Let’s take (the world of) football^5 as an analogy^6 for GOD.^7 (The world of) Football consists of a set of rules, hence as an order.^8 The rules/order of football can be activated^9 anywhere and anytime and by anyone in countless ways as actual games.^10 Each actual game^11 emerges as the rules/order locally applied. The rules/order set, i.e. GOD that originates identifiable realities doesn’t change. Each game (hence God as rules/order application) emerges as different application of one and the same basic rules/order.^12 The pantheist understands the basic set of rules/order as GOD. And he/she understands that each and every application^13 thereof happens as GOD locally applied, therefore as God.^14 Home © 2019 by Victor Langheld

1. Belief derives from an inference or from acceptance of an archaic narrative about creation and best survival practice. 2. That is to say, each single thing (as reified ordering process) emerges/originates as a GOD variation. 3. i.e. for mature adults capable of discrete observation. 4. i.e. for immature infants and children whose observation is yet indiscrete. 5. i.e. ‘football’ as one of n identifiable realities. Formerly some schoolteachers realised and now most adult adults understand that football (or any game, indeed any activity) as particular order (and thus as controlled violent momentum/energy) emerges as response to disorder (and thus to uncontrolled violent momentum/energy). The ALL-as-GOD, i.e. all actual worlds, likewise emerges as response to random momenta and the violence of their interaction. That GOD/ORDER emerges as response to the interaction of random momenta is unthinkable for the infantile henotheist, like the Christian or Vaishnavite dependent on pro-active guidance/ordering. 6. For analogy read: a (local = conditional) variation, hence an alternative. 7. GOD is a synonym (or metaphor) for Order, indeed ordering. (An (any)) Order originates, emerges from discrete ordering,, that is to say, via sequential contact, thus constraint. Hence GOD/ORDER, and therefore any order variation, happens as discrete process driven by momentum = energy. 8. Spinoza conceived of GOD as an undefined material substance. Some ancient Indians believed the substance of GOD/Brahman to be unlimited-realness-consciousness. The pantheist conceives the substance of GOD as non-material rules/constraints sequence, hence as order (or ordering) and therefore all order variations as fundamentally identical. 9. i.e. by turbulence = random momentum such as is produced by the Big or any other Bang. Some ancient Indians, to wit, the Vedantins, called the non-active (i.e. @rest, unmoved) GOD = Order nirguna Brahman because it did not produce attributes (or qualities), i.e. an actual cognisable game. 10. The Vedantins called activated order the saguna Brahman because when active, i.e. in motion, it emerged attributes. The purpose of Yoga (and deep sleep) was to reduce activity/turbulence to zero (Patanjali Yoga Sutra No. 2) and thereby recover (initial state) nirguna Brahman status. 11. i.e. as real identifiable world. 12. Each game emerges as variation (or alternative) of the basic rules/order set. Therefore each game is GOD locally, i.e. conditionally applied (i.e. as the Buddha claimed). Hence the Chinese Chan Buddhist sage: ‘Sees one, all are seen!’ 13. Application of the rules (i.e. of GOD) is violent since the rules function as (limiting) constraints. 14. The henotheist, i.e. the believer in ‘my one God’) believes that the basic rules/order, i.e. GOD is fundamentally different (hence apart) from those shaping the emerged world. The pantheist believes in only one set of rules/order and an unlimited number of variations thereof.