Religion: Animism

Had a very brief conversation with someone the other day who claimed to believe in animism.

I said, I'm not sure what that is. I think it is some kind of nature worship?

He didn't confirm nor deny my proposed definition. He went on to say, all cultures have some animistic beliefs and they are very ancient beliefs. All the other organized religions came later and are expletive deleted.

I asked, perhaps you could fill me in on what you believe animism to be.

He opted not to and that was the end of the conversation.

I decided to look it up. M-w.com offers this definition:
1 : a doctrine that the vital principle of organic development is immaterial spirit
2 : attribution of conscious life to objects in and phenomena of nature or to inanimate objects
3 : belief in the existence of spirits separable from bodies
As a Christian, how do I react to these three definitions of animism?

(1) Christians accept to some extent definition one. Humans are material (body) and immaterial (soul + spirit). And we believe that God is a spirit. There is a world view called naturalism that holds that the material world is all there is. By definition, a person holding to naturalism will also be an atheist. An animist I suppose could be pantheist (god in everything) or polytheist (multiple gods)
(2) I suppose the key is what the definition of "conscious life" is? If one means divinity in all nature and all inanimate objects then that would be getting toward the pantheist realm. It could mean that some things contain this divinity while some things do not which I guess seems like a form of polytheism.
(3) The third M-W.com definition seems similar to number one.

I think the questions I would ask an animist are the following:
(1) Is there a creator of nature and the universe around us?
(2) If yes, what do you believe about this creator?
(3) If no, then what is the immaterial spirit that inhabits all (some) of nature and all (some) objects?
(4) In your world view, what is the origin of morality?

In response to the four questions, Christians might say something like this:
(1) God is the creator.
(2) The Creator desires to have a relationship with us.
(3) God is separate from the creation. God made the stuff of the universe that is in a rock but God is not a rock and a rock is not God.
(4) God is good and the source and standard of morality. Humans have fallen short of this standard of good and that is why God sent Jesus to restore us to himself by transferring our sins onto Jesus at the Cross and transferring Jesus' righteousness to us.

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