A Pandeism recommended reading list.

Welcome to a miscellaneous node of the Pandeism index!!

Books are treasures of the highest order. And so I am delighted when I am asked, as I occasionally am, what books and other sources ought an interested person read to learn about the ideas and principles undergirding Pandeism? I am asked this often enough, indeed, that it make sense to simply assemble a set of resources in one place, to refer the eager reader. And for this purpose (after pointing to my own collection on Everything2's Pandeism Index), I recommend:

* The God Theory and The Purpose-Driven Universe by Bernard Haisch. Haisch is a NASA PhD Astrophysicist who gives a sound scientific sensibility to the concept of a Creator-become-Universe.

* Leibniz's Best World Claim Restructured by William C. Lane, in the American Philosophical Journal (available to those who sign up here), classing Pandeism as a logical derivation of German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's proposition that ours was the best of all possible worlds.

* Rationalist Spirituality by Bernardo Kastrup, a computer scientist who is as well the author of a brief but entertaining essay on Pandeism and philosophical zombies and such. Kastrup has, in fact, written several fascinating books relevant to the subject, and I personally recommend reading everything he has written.

* The God Franchise by Alan Dawe (a good friend of mine who intently avoids labeling the theory, but offers a nice description of ideas supporting it).

* The Mind of God by Paul Davies.

* A Theorem Concerning God (including The Pandeist Theorem) by Robert G. Brown.

* God's Debris by Scott Adams, available here). Here Adams outlines one very specific form of Pandeism and the logic supporting it.

* Our Goal Is God: A Guide to Spiritual Awakening by H. Thomas Miller.

* Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes by Charles Hartshorne, who is perhaps the preeminent theologian of the 20th century. There are numerous other Hartshorne books worth reading, as well.

* The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley (which is available for free in its entirety, here). Huxley meticulously identifies certain commonalities threaded between many religions going back many thousands of years, universally reaching remarkably common mystical conclusions.

* The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine (available for free in its entirety, here), dealing sincere blows to theistic preconceptions.

* The Whole Shebang by Timothy Ferris gives a scientific overview of our Universe, and ends on a marvelously pandeistic note.

* If you speak German, you might delve into Welt- und Lebenanschauungen hervorgegangen aus Religion, Philosophie und Naturerkenntnis by Max Bernhard Weinstein (available for free in its entirety, here). This hundred-and-change-year-old German tome attempts to encapsulate the history of religious philosophy, and contains the first truly extensive examination of specifically directed towards Pandeism.

* And lastly, the Bhagavad Gita – at the least so as to be able to know you’ve read this fundamental work of Eastern Civilization, and to recognize its ancient pandeistic overtones.

One thing you might observe about these authors is that many of them have Ph.D.'s in physics or astrophysics or other 'hard science' fields. These are not lightweight thinkers, nor are they people easily inclined to accept an explanation on somebody else's sayso. Another, perhaps more obvious point is that almost all of these titles refer to 'God,' a term beset with the baggage of theisms past, unfortunately still often required to telegraph the ultimateness of the concepts to be conveyed. But there are gems of thought within these books which well-inform any seeker after truth!!

Be cautioned, as well, that Pandeism is an esoteric name for a proposition historically held as both obscure and arcane. Many authors speak of purely pandeistic ideas, but do not refer to them by such name. But you will know it when you see it. In addition to the foregoing works, there are some general works on theological topics which are most useful to an understanding of this field.

* A History of God by Karen Armstrong is the finest illustration of the history of thinking about "God" as an entity, and clearly and well documentedly outlines the cyclic pattern by which people change their collective mind about what the concept means, from century to century, but ever leading toward a more pandeistic conclusion beyond the passage of the final page.
* Most anything by Carl Sagan is almost automatically worth reading, with special affection for The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain, and Pale Blue Dot.
* And to the surprise of some, I often recommend reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins -- but reading it with a specific eye towards whether the arguments Dawkins raises directly address a pandeistic model; and as to those which do, whether they are particularly strong arguments as compared to those leveled against theistic models. Indeed, aim this level of thought at any and all of the modern-day atheistic thinkers.

I add as well that I have always benefited from the reading recommendations of others, and welcome any suggestions for additions sensible for such a list as this. Blessings!!

Some additional things to be found floating in the Web:

Institute for Pandeism Studies
The YouTube PanDeism Channel
Pandeism Wiki by Wikia
The Pandeist Theorem by Robert G. Brown (excerpt from A Theorem Concerning God)
Pandeism (the Blog; E2 pandeism materials are often recycled here after a few days or weeks)
Koilas - A Pandeistic Religion
Pandeism with Rusty Nails (old, dormant blog on the theory)
PanDeism: What the Heck is That? (by Dean Snyder, another interesting blog)
PANDEISM -- An exploratory introduction (note by Julian West, March 23, 2010)
What is The Nature of Reality? (by Bill M. Tracer in Philosophy, May 18, 2011, with a good bit on Cosmological Pandeism)
Various Theological positions described and evaluated (from Radical Apathy, another interesting blog)
One Deist’s Concept of God, blog post by Dave Gaddis
Do we need God?, from Pandeism Hellre kontroversiell än snäll (another blog)
RationalWiki's Pandeism Page
Thelemapedia's Pandeism page
Keywen's Pandeism page
Wikipedia's Pandeism page
Wiktionary's Pandeism page
Wikiquote's Pandeism page
The Parallels of Pandeism by Bernardo Kastrup, Ph.D.
Encyclopedia Britannica's page on pandeism
Alex Ashman, BBC News, "Metaphysical Isms"
Useful Notes on Pandeism from TV Tropes
Even more:
Exploring Pandeism from Panendeism.org
Mapping Reality from Unified Deism