Recently I had a conversation about metaphysics with a pagan co-worker. Yes, I know it’s dangerous to speak of such things at work, but after I heard him mention that his mother-in-law had told him he was going to hell, I just had to know more.

We had quite the conversation. First off I was interested in seeing if he was a polytheist (many gods), pantheist (god is the totality of the universe), or panentheist (god is the totality of the universe and then some). He fit closest with pantheist. He views everything as divine, not that everything contains the divine, or that there is a divine essence in it, but that it is divine. He sees the majesty of nature, the beauty of a sunset, the wonder of evolution, and the magnitude of the cosmos as all being divine.

In the end, we agreed that only substantive difference in our world views is the language used to describe the cosmos, he calls it divine while I call it natural. If you told me a few years ago that I would have more in common with pagans than Christians I wouldn’t have believed you.