animism

noun

Etymology: From anima + -ism, from Latin anima (“life", "breath", "soul”). Dated sense from German Animismus, coined c. 1720 by physicist/chemist Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734) See anima mundi.

1. A belief that spirits inhabit some or all classes of natural objects or phenomena.

   “"I'm not entirely comfortable with the level of animism you and Hanners display towards that thing."”

2. A belief that an immaterial force animates the universe.
3. A doctrine that animal life is produced by an immaterial spirit.