Rashid's Blog: An Educational Portal

Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are one and the same. There is no dividing line between the two. Pantheism is a type of religious belief rather than a specific religion, similar to terms like monotheism (belief in a single God) and polytheism .

Pantheists view God as immanent and impersonal. The belief system grew out of the Scientific Revolution, and pantheists generally are strong supporters of scientific inquiry, as well as religious toleration.

An Immanent God

In being immanent, God is present in all things. God didn’t make the earth or define gravity, but, rather, God is the earth and gravity and everything else in the universe.Because God is uncreated and infinite, the universe is likewise uncreated and infinite. God did not choose one day to make the universe. Rather, it exists precisely because God exists, since the two are the same thing.

Value of Science

This does not need to contradict scientific theories .The changing of the universe is all part of the nature of God as well. It simply states there was something before the Big Bang, God was always there.

Pantheists are generally strong supporters of scientific inquiry. Since God and the universe are one, understanding the universe is how one comes to better understand God.

Unity of Being

Because all things are God, all things are connected and ultimately are of one substance. While various facets of God have defining characteristics (everything from different species to individual people), they are part of a greater whole.

Religious Tolerance

Because all things are ultimately God, all approaches to God can conceivably lead to an understanding of God. Each person should be allowed to pursue such knowledge as they wish. This does not mean, however, that pantheists believe every approach is correct. They generally do not believe in an afterlife, for example, nor do they find merit in strict dogma and ritual.

What Pantheism Is Not

Pantheism should not be confused with panentheism. Panentheism views God as both immanent and transcendent. This means that while the entire universe is a part of God, God also exists beyond the universe. As such, this God can be a personal God, a conscious being that manifested the universe with whom one can have a personal relationship.

Pantheism is also not deism. Deist beliefs are sometimes described as not having a personal God, but in that case, it is not meant to say the God has no consciousness. The deist God actively created the universe. God is impersonal in the sense that God retreated from the universe after its creation, uninterested in listening to or interacting with believers.

Pantheism is not animism. Animism is the belief that animals, trees, rivers, mountains—all things—have a spirit. However, these spirits are unique rather than being part of a greater spiritual whole. These spirits are frequently approached with reverence and offerings to ensure continued goodwill between humanity and the spirits.

Famous Pantheists

Baruch Spinoza introduced pantheistic beliefs to a wide audience in the 17th century. However, other, less known thinkers had already expressed pantheistic views such as Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake in 1600 for his highly unorthodox beliefs.

Albert Einstein stated,

“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”

He also stated that “science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind,” underscoring that pantheism is neither anti-religious nor atheistic.

Source(s):

Learn Religions

An ideal method of the delimitation of R-U fringe actually depends upon intensive fieldwork from village-to-village around a limit of nearly 10 to 15 kms from the central city limits. But the scholars have not yet been able to delimit the fringe of a city based on actual studies from village-to-village, especially in India. Whatever work is being done in this respect it is based either on a sample survey of the villages or it is wholly based on the secondary data of the censuses. 

Some of the metropolitan cities have been studied and none of these studies in India is based on actual field survey for delimitation of the R-U fringe. Delhi, Bangalore, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Kolkata are notable studies but these suffer from an inadequate and ambiguous conceptual framework for the delimitation of the fringe zone, being overwhelmingly based on the census of India. 

Practically, the delimitation of the R-U fringe is a matter of thorough understanding about its structural composition. It is composed of several attributes like city municipal limits, contiguous small urbanised towns, urbanised villages around the city, and also villages associated with the city by virtue of their other functions. Figure 17.3 reveals the structure of the R-U fringe by pathetically in its spatial perspective. 

On the above basis as indicated in the figure the fringe area of a city may fall into the following three main categories:

(i) Generally around the central-city limits for about two kilometers, an innermost ring of the fringe may develop. It contains small towns and urbanized villages. In case of metropolitan area, for example, the Greater Mumbai, the fringe may begin within the city limits. 

(ii) The next level of the fringe area extends further for a distance of five kilometers or more around the previous one. It forms the middle zone of the fringe and includes non-municipal towns and urbanized villages. 

(iii) The third category forming the outer zone includes the villages having little or no urban land uses. Nonetheless, they are linked with the city by their allied functions. 

The above categories are imperceptibly merged into each other and cannot be easily identified without closely examining their land uses in the concerned area. It is once again reiterated that for a proper demarcation of the inner and outer boundaries of the R-U fringe, a field survey of all the villages is a necessity. 

:

The Delhi and Bangalore studies in the R-U fringe used the following variables to determine the outer boundary: 

(a) Density of population – 400 km² or more, 

(b) Population growth in the preceding decade – 40 per cent or more, 

(c) Females per thousand males – 800 or less, 

(d) Proportion of workers to non-agricultural activities – 50 per cent or more, and 

(e) The out limit of city bus services or local train services. 

The inner zone of R-U fringe is in the advanced stage of transition from rural to urban uses. The outer zone shows that gradual change is in the process and city influences have begun to appear. Beyond the outer zone is a diffused area where dispersal of some non-farm residences appears. 

At the city margins everywhere, the fringes contain a wide mix of land uses ranging from a variety of commercial develop­ments to the city services and industries. Some of the cities of the Western world have their fringes turned into ‘unpleasant environment’ by noxious industrial units, junkyards, wholesale oil storage, sewage plants, and even cemeteries. Out-of-town shopping centres also form a part of the western cities’ fringes. 

In India, urban fringe has become almost jumbled by coalescing of settlements inheriting all the evils of conurbations such as slums full of ‘jhuggi-jhonparis’, drainageless unpaved narrow lanes and traffic congestion not far off the city centre. 

Fringes have usurped the land which was formerly under the agricultural production – ‘baris’ and orchards. In brief, R-U fringe areas in India offer the greatest challenges to the urban planner.

Source(s):

YourArticleLibrary

The Beaufort Sea, the Arctic Ocean’s largest freshwater reservoir, has increased its freshwater content by 40 percent over the last two decades, putting global climate patterns at risk. A rapid release of this freshwater into the Atlantic Ocean could wreak havoc on the delicate climate balance that dictates global climate.

Freshwater outflow from Beaufort Sea could alter global climate patterns — Watts Up With That?

This unprecedented event of a flash flood in a calm, winter river on a bright sunny day is a strong warning from nature to make appropriate amends. It is common knowledge that winter is the time for glaciers to compact themselves and increase their girth rather than breaching or breaking and becoming the cause of deluge and disaster. If we continue the persistent interference in the sensitive Himalayan terrain for fulfilling a short-sighted concept of development, then we may have nothing left of the great Ganga basin to pass on to the next generation.

An immediate regulation of all activities is urgently needed. A green cover in the adjacent valleys of the glaciers is essential, which will work as a buffer and minimise the impact of climate change…..

read it here