Why the stigma with Pantheism?

[Anomalocaris]

The problem lies with the word "so". A star died because it died. Not so that you can live. You live because condition existed for you to live. Not because a star sacrificed itself to make the condition exist.

Since you insist on making literalist arguments. I'm going to have to make metaphoric arguments.
We exist, so a calculator can live. We really don't give a shit about the calculator. But I'm sure it means everything to the calculator.

Don't get carried away with your metaphor and begin to think a metaphor reflects some truth denied a rigorous interpretation of reality. That is called woo, and to those willing to be charitable to religions, this is the innocent beginnings of religion.

Nothing means anything, or could mean anything to the calculator, except as programmed in its algorithm for the purposes of processing its keyboard inputs.

Even if a calculator had a volition and an independent ability to assess and assign value to its environment and circumstances, it is presumptuous to think it will therefore think as you imagine how would might think under a similar circumstance, and assign any meaning, let along everything, to its creator.

[stonedape]

Don't get carried away with your metaphor and begin to think a metaphor reflects some truth denied a rigorous interpretation of reality. That is called woo, and to those willing to be charitable to religions, this is the innocent beginnings of religion.

Maybe I am a woo, if I think literalism is an obstruction to seeing the forest through the trees. Embracing metaphors as metaphors, rather than prohibiting them is how you separate fantasy from reality. Is that fantasy valuable? Ask 80% of the public that has failed to separate that fantasy from reality.

I'll just paste my previous statement on the value of metaphors, so I don't have to repeat myself. You decide whether the metaphor is "woo" or not.

To me the g-word is a metaphor for the consciousness of the big picture. It's important to be conscious of the big picture. It's a valuable point of reference. I recognize mass psychology as the behavior of one character. The big picture also reveals that we are intuitively turning the planet into a cyborg at a rapid pace. And the galaxy is next. The only question is sustainability. That's where morality comes in.