When we hear of "pantheism" it commonly brings thoughts of either the false religions of the Far East such as Hinduism; or else we think of the false gods that the ancient Romans worshipped in the Pantheon. At first glance such things seem far removed from our own lives. We tend not to feel concerned about such things, perhaps thinking to ourselves, that we will wait to be concerned when we see a strange idol, a yin-yang or hear talk of reincarnation and cosmic consciousness. But we know as Catholics, that things which are less obvious and more subtle are often more dangerous because they influence us more as we are less on our guard. St. Paul has warned us of false apostles and deceitful workmen, comparing them to the Devil who "transformeth himself into an angel of light." (2 Cor. 11:14)
Today we see the influence of the basic principles of pantheism in the "New Age" movement. This is nothing but the old pagan occultism, and Satanism, with their fantasies and superstitions given a new face....giving a false appearance of the spiritual and religious. This is a growing movement, and quite a dangerous one, which is contributing to the rise of a mentality that attempts to give respectability to false gods and false religions apart from Catholicism. We all know, of course, from the example of Our Lord when he was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, that anything which claims to be a "religion" apart from the true religion must be considered to be an affront to God as not serving or even really knowing the true God. Recall here that before the Redemption the true religion on earth was preserved among the Jews before it blossomed into Catholicism. The Samaritans were the wayward descendants of a group of Isrealites who intermarried with the pagan Assyrians hundreds of years previously and built a rival temple. When Our Lord spoke with the Samaritan woman and revealed to her that he was the Messias, He spoke plainly to her:

"You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth." (John 4:22,23)

Some of the pantheistic errors mentioned above are today causing havoc to the Faith within the Catholic Church. Those who are most influenced are likely those who have forgotten some of our most important scriptural basics given to protect us from error, such as when St. Paul entreated us after speaking of the deception of Antichrist:

"Brethren, stand fast; hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle." (2 Thess. 2:14)

And in the beginning of his letter to the Christians of Galatia, because they were being perverted by new teachers, St. Paul says:

"But though we, or an angel of heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema." (Gal. 1:8)

Some general dangers have thus far been mentioned, along with a most solid way to help preserve our Faith. It would be appropriate now to focus our attention on a very subtle error that pertains to pantheism in particular. You will be able to see how a subtle and blasphemous principle of pantheism has been taught to almost every student among the last several generations. You will be able to realize how easily we can be fooled by a theory even when it can quickly and easily be demonstrated to be utterly false in reality....by anyone who cares to lift a finger and try it!

First, the word "pantheism" is of Greek origin:
PAN=all and THEOS=god

A secular dictionary defines pantheism as - "1) The doctrine identifying the Deity with the various forces and workings of nature. 2) Belief in and worship of all gods."

A Catholic Dictionary defines it as:
"A false philosophy which consists in confounding God with the world. According to some the world is absorbed by God; others teach that God is absorbed in the world of which he is the force and the life....others confound finite with infinite.... But all seek to establish an identity of substance between God and the world."
Only God is "infinite". All creatures (created things) are not - they are finite. The term "infinite" is a particular attribute of God. Our Creator always existed and will always exist forever; He is of infinite perfection and goodness. That which God created is imperfect, limited and finite. Out of all material creation and all living things (beside the angels), only man has the ability to understand the concept of "infinite". On earth, it is man alone who can comprehend, and is conscious of, time: before and after, this morning and tonight, yesterday and tomorrow, forever in the past and forever in the future. Other living things on earth are capable of living only in the present moment and knowing nothing further. Man has this ability because the world was created for man, and man was created with a spiritual soul that not only allows him to reason, but allows him to exist forever in the future (in heaven or hell). This essence of man allows him to conceive of the term "infinite" [in some respects] because it stems from our spiritual nature.

We see from the definition that pantheism can "confound finite with infinite" or "seek to establish an identity of substance between God and the world." According to the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, such a thing is basically a blasphemy, and is against both the virtue of Religion and of Faith. In his Summa Theologica (Part 2-2, Q.13, art.1) he says:

"Whatever is proper to God is God Himself: and to ascribe to a creature what is proper to God, is to assert that God is the same as a creature."

On the one hand, because of our spiritual natures, it is very easy and natural for man to theoretically conceive of the concepts of "infinite" in both distance and time. Unfortunately, it must remain theoretical because the "infinite" cannot be demonstrated in reality simply because.....we live in a finite, created world.

One may imagine what can happen what when man with his facility to comprehend theoretical infinity (that cannot be demonstrated) works with the science of mathematics and geometry which essentially takes theoretical concepts and applies them in a practical manner to help us deal with reality. He is certainly susceptible to attributing the infinite to created reality.

Note well that when a student of Mathematics is taught his fractions he may be presented with a measuring stick or ruler and told that the inch can be divided in half infinitely because the inch is comprised of an infinite amount of fractions. That is, when the 1-inch is divided in half we move our finger to 1/2 inch. When we divide the remainder in half we move our finger to 1/4 inch. When we divide that in half again we move our finger to 1/8 inch. As we continue to divide and move our finger we go to 1/16....1/32....1/64....1/128....as we move our finger closer to zero at the end of the ruler we will "theoretically" always come closer BUT NEVER REACH IT because "theoretically" we can always make a smaller fraction before reaching 0 (zero)!

Let us put the theory of infinitely divisible distance into practice. Stand 10 feet from a wall. Before you can walk and reach the wall your body must go to 5 feet. From there you must past 2.5 feet. According to theory you will never reach the wall because the remaining distance can be divided further. The absurdity of the theory comes to light when one realizes that before one reaches the 5-foot mark in the first place they must first pass through the 7.5-foot mark. And, before they reach the 7.5-foot mark they must move an inch...and before the inch they must move 1/10th of an inch....and before they move even 1/10th they must move 1/100th of an inch....and so on. According to the theory of Infinitely Divisible Space there would be no movement.

To become painfully aware that there is no such thing as infinitely divisible space one only has to reach for the nearest hardcover book, hold it above their foot, and let it go! Space is indeed a creation of God and is, indeed, finite also. What they teach in mathematics is false. They must teach what is demonstrably true in reality - that space is finite, and there certainly exists a unit of distance that is the smallest possible indivisible space. This is analogous to the smallest indivisible units of space called light "pixels" that a computer monitor screen is comprised of. It allowed objects to move in all directions with an apparent smooth motion.

This error of attributing infinity to created things can likewise be seen in the study of Geometry: one of the first things taught is the definition of a "point" and a "line segment". A student is told that a point has no size (zero size), and that a line segment is two points on a plane connected by an infinite number of points side-by-side....as though zero + zero + zero +.... could ever add up to ANYTHING else but zero! Enough said.

It cannot be said for sure, but it seems likely that many scientists and mathematicians have seen this error but have managed to keep the truth out of our text books: maybe for fear that anyone could see a proof for the existence of our spiritual, immortal souls. Maybe for fear that anyone could see tangible and demonstrable proof that God's creation of space is finite and stops as quickly as we close our thumb and forefinger together.
The wonders of nature certainly are mysterious, but to suggest that there is an infinite world at our fingertips is to turn the simply "mysterious" into something MYSTICAL. This in turn can give science the false feel of a "religion" with an infinite amount of things, forces and powers to be found at our fingertips. From there all sorts of errors can develop: Evolution for one gives nature itself a sort of omnipotent intelligence capable of developing life and species apart from a God, even though this too is demonstrably false. For one thing, since humans are the highest form of life, evolutionists cannot explain why nature has not figured out how to make humans give birth without pain even though the lower life forms do not have it! We all know from revelation, however, that a painful childbirth is the result of original sin.
This error of attributing the infinite to finite creation can also make it very conducive for people to fall into the error of believing that nature holds many hidden powers that can be unleashed through mind and material. Such people do not realize that the powers they are tapping are not the hidden mystical powers of nature but the powers of darkness from hell, such as through a ouija board.
It cannot be determined with statistics how much this error has helped to erode peoples' faith, but we do know that error begets error, one error leading to another. It makes people that much more susceptible to the errors that are presently infesting the Church, We know that all untruth, especially attributing a divine attribute to created things, is an objective affront to Almighty God.