Does pantheism believe that humans are one with nature and the cosmos?
Yes, there is a fundamental underlying unity. Humans are made of the same substance as the rest of the universe. We don’t have any magic spiritual ingredient just for ourselves. We developed as part of nature, and remain part of local and global ecosystems. However, humans do have consciousness, and that can be a blessing or a curse. The conscious mind evolved to help survival, and it can help us to relate to nature and the universe through love, appreciation, study and action. But consciousness also means awareness of one’s own individuality, so it can also give us a misleading sense of separation from and radical difference from the world. Our ideas can also develop out of tune with reality and with nature. So it is important not just to state that there is a unity, but to learn to perceive that unity, to understand it, and to act upon it.
