Is Ultimate Reality an impersonal Life Force or a personal Creator?
PantheismMany Far Eastern religions embrace some kind of pantheistic worldview: the belief that creation is an emanation of God. Pantheism identifies the Creator with the creation: all substances, forces and laws in this universe are essentially God in manifestation. “God is All and All is God.” Ultimate Reality is an impersonal Presence permeating all thingsfrom the smallest atom to the largest, swirling galaxy. This is not a personal Creator who delights to interact with his creation, but a mere cosmic energy expressing Itself as minerals, plants, animals and human beings. In Absolute Pantheism, God does not exist apart from these things. Modified Pantheism, also called Panentheism, declares God to be the principle behind nature, the essence of life within all of creation. “God is in All and All is in God.” He is both immanent and transcendent; he is in the world, yet beyond it. Causal PrincipleSome religions and teachers reduce the Source of all things to nothing more than an underl
