Are Transcendentalists considered Atheists?

Question

Not trying to stir up any controversy...just trying to learn more about this movement.

Answer 1

No, just a bunch of nuts.

Answer 2

It was a way of thinking about life. You can regard it as religious or as philosophical according to your own predispositions, but surely all the participants would have regarded the distinction as irrelevant.

In point of historical fact, transcendentalism came out of two lines of influence more than others: Unitarianism as a reform movement within Protestant Christianity; and the arrival of post-Kantian German philosophical ideas in the US. They made for a heady brew.

The T-s came to believe that God is nature, the universe is a spiritual being, and if an individual can ignore the artificial institutions around him and listen to his heart, intuitions, what-have-you, that individual will be at one with God.

If you have quite different views of God then I suppose you can call this atheist. Atheism is a denial, and its significance always depends on answering the question, "a denial of what"?

Answer 3

I'm not fully versed in the concept of transcendentalism. To me, it has a personal meaning that may or may not be shared by "transcendentalists"-- that is, the attempt to transcend or go beyond Self. From infancy to adulthood, many of us unconsciously or consciously believe that the world revolves around us. We experience life through the lens of our ego, the "I, me, my." Yet, when we become aware of ourselves not as the center but as the peripheral, we draw nearer to transcendence, to the realization that we are a lesser participant of the greater macrocosm. With respect to religion, some transcendentalists may be atheists and some may not be. Some may believe in a higher, infinitely perfect existence that is not necessarily a divine being, but is Nature itself. Here the definitions between God and the infinity become intertwined and are therefore  complex to distinguish, if indeed there are distinctions to be made. The philosopher Spinoza argued for the existence of God, whose substance is existence and whose attribues are infinity and perfection. To Spinoza, God is Nature, and all things are modifications emanating from God. This is a case of being transcendental and non-atheist.

The transcendental attitude is that one is insignificant, not in the sense that one is worthless, but that one is a part of, connected to the whole. The laws of man pale in comparison--indeed, defer--to the laws of nature. The less we resist, the less we focus on ourselves, our impulses and self-centered beliefs and instead pursue internal and external harmony, then perhaps that is transcendence.

P.S. I think transcendentalism is a philosophy, not a religion, because it's an outlook; there are no standard prescripts for thinking or behavior; instead, it's self-evaluated and self-governed.

Answer 4

i think you're all missing the point of transcendentalism.  transcendentalism pursues truths that transcend time and space, it is the search for truths that are always true, like mathematics.

suggesting that transcendentalists deny the existence of a higher entity (notice, not the existence of "god" per se, but denying the existence of the idea of "god") is not accurate.

i think your best place to look for information on transcendentalism is kant.  i realize that's a broad place to look, but i can't remember the best source for information.  if i had to start somewhere, it would be in the critique of pure reason.

where the idea of transcendentalists being atheists originated is beyond me; i would assume that it was simply a person or group of persons trying to descredit the transcendentalist movement.

now, referring to transcendentalism in the past tense... no, it's alive and well.  it is often considered the same as pragmatism, but that's another discussion.

Answer 5

I myself am an atheist and although I have heard of transcendentalism, I don't know what it entails. (I will have to go and read about it now.) If as you say it is the belief that god exists in nature, then I would have to say that no, atheists are not transcendentalists. Atheists do not believe any kind of god exists. Transcendentalism sounds more in line with pantheism than with atheism.

Edit~

tran·scen·den·tal·ism  (trnsn-dntl-zm)

n.

1. A literary and philosophical movement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the empirical and scientific and is knowable through intuition.

2. The quality or state of being transcendental.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Transce...

Main Entry:

    tran·scen·den·tal·ism Listen to the pronunciation of transcendentalism

Pronunciation:

    \-tə-ˌli-zəm\

Function:

    noun

Date:

    1803

1: a philosophy that emphasizes the a priori conditions of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality  2: a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material and empirical3: the quality or state of being transcendental; especially : visionary idealism

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar...

After reading these definitions, I would have to say I definitely don't agree with transcendentalism. Empirical and scientific reality has much more value to me than does an ideal spiritual reality. I stand by my original answer that transcendentalism matches pantheism more than it does atheism.

Answer 6

The soul in man is not a faculty, but a light...From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon all things and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.     Emerson

Emerson found inspiration from all religions and teachers from the West such as Swedenborg. From this quote you can make parallels with the Bible. God said let there be light. We are that light, that is the Christ and we are His son (Sun). Not the light of the physical world but the light that creates it. God is not of the form, the physical world, but thought.  Buddha said, Form follows thought.

We are not of form either, we are not our bodies.Hence, we are made in his image.