God without Religion
In Process and Reality, Whitehead speaks of the importance of secularizing the concept of God—uncoupling it from its traditional attachment to religious feelings. This speaks to me. I believe in God without being religious. For me, God isn’t about mystery or devotion; the concept of God is about how the world works. Without it, I can’t account for why entities occupy particular standpoints in space-time, or why the universe generates novelty instead of repeating itself endlessly. And as for truth—truth must have a home, even when no one sees it, even when it’s denied. With Whitehead, I think God is the truth of the universe—or, as he speaks of it, the consequent nature of God.
— Dr. Elena Moreau, fictional Theoretical Physicist
— Dr. Elena Moreau, fictional Theoretical Physicist
The Need to Secularize
the Concept of God
Alfred North Whitehead
The secularization of the concept of God's functions in the world is at least as urgent a requisite of thought as is the secularization of other elements in experience. The concept of God is certainly one essential element in religious feeling. But the converse is not true; the concept of religious feeling is not an essential element in the concept of God's function in the universe. In this respect religious literature has been sadly misleading to philosophic theory, partly by attraction and partly by repulsion.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (pp. 207-208). Free Press. Kindle Edition.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (pp. 207-208). Free Press. Kindle Edition.
Passages from Process and Reality
The Standpoint of an Actual Occasion in the Space-Time Continuum
as Derived from the Primordial Nature of God, an Organ of Novelty
Actual entities atomize the extensive continuum. This continuum is in itself merely the potentiality for division; an actual entity effects this division. The objectification of the contemporary world measurability; these are additional determinations of real potentiality arising from our cosmic epoch. This extensive continuum is ‘real,’ because it expresses a fact derived from the actual world and concerning the contemporary actual world. All actual entities are related according to the determinations of this continuum; and all possible actual entities in the future must exemplify these determinations in their relations with the already actual world. The reality of the future is bound up with the reality of this continuum. It is the reality of what is potential, in its character of a real component of what is actual. Such a real component must be interpreted in terms of the relatedness of prehensions.
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In the mere extensive continuum there is no principle to determine what regional quanta shall be atomized, so as to form the real perspective standpoint for the primary data constituting the basic phase in the concrescence of an actual entity. The factors in the actual world whereby this determination is effected will be discussed at a later stage of this investigation. They constitute the initial phase of the ‘subjective aim.’ This initial phase is a direct derivate from God's primordial nature. In this function, as in every other, God is the organ of novelty, aiming at intensification.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (p. 67). Free Press. Kindle Edition.
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In the mere extensive continuum there is no principle to determine what regional quanta shall be atomized, so as to form the real perspective standpoint for the primary data constituting the basic phase in the concrescence of an actual entity. The factors in the actual world whereby this determination is effected will be discussed at a later stage of this investigation. They constitute the initial phase of the ‘subjective aim.’ This initial phase is a direct derivate from God's primordial nature. In this function, as in every other, God is the organ of novelty, aiming at intensification.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (p. 67). Free Press. Kindle Edition.
The truth of the world is how the composite natures of organic actualities
obtain adequate representation in the consequent nature of God
The truth itself is nothing else than how the composite natures of the organic actualities of the world obtain adequate representation in the divine nature. Such representations compose the ‘consequent nature’ of God, which evolves in its relationship to the evolving world without derogation to the eternal completion of its primordial conceptual nature. In this way the ‘Ontological principle’ is maintained—since there can be no determinate truth, correlating impartially the partial experiences of many actual entities, apart from one actual entity to which it can be referred.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (pp. 12-13). Free Press. Kindle Edition.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (pp. 12-13). Free Press. Kindle Edition.