SPECIAL TOPICS FROM JOURNEY IN BEING - 2004
WORDS FOR WHICH TO SEARCH WHEN IMPORTING MATERIAL ON FAITH FROM JOURNEY IN BEING - 2004
absolute, abuse, action, all being, annihilation, article of faith, attributes, awe, beauty, belief, body, charisma, common faith, creator, death, dharma, ethics, evil, faith, fate, fundamental-ism, god, good, heaven, hell, hold, identity, karma, law, life, logos, luminous, magic, meaning, mind, miracle, moral, myth, ontological psychology, power, psychology, reason, recurrence, religion, reveal, revelation, science, scripture, shaman, soul, span, substance, truth, ultimate, universal, wonder
TOPICS FROM JOURNEY IN BEING - 2005
Common faith
Science and faith
Faith and action
Faith is not logically absurd
Faith and need
Further reasons to have faith
Criticisms of faith
Counter-criticism
Psychology of faith
Justification of Faith; Faith and Action (again)
Faith and reason
States of Faith
Systematic truth of a scripture
Given faith’s hold, bridging the gaps between the faiths and between faith and secular truth may have value
A purpose of the discussion has been to introduce doubt regarding common attitudes to faith
A generalized doubt. Is it the function of the instruments of knowledge to produce knowledge?
An approach to doubt
Bridging the ‘gaps’ between faiths and between faith and secular truth
Cosmology, faith and religion
Faith and religion; common and esoteric faith; articles of faith
Some conceptions of religion
Cognition and feeling (emotion) in religion
Function. Essential message(s)
Designated vs. Actual Function
Comment on definition; on naming
What is religion?
What is religion; inner and outer truth (= non-literal and literal meanings)
Inner truth does not justify outer truth
But without outer truth there can be no inner significance; conflict between faith and reason
If the scientific picture is experienced as alienating, the alienation is not from science but the emotional response of the individual
The scientific picture is not inherently alienating
There are alienating ways of practicing and teaching science
Although science is not intrinsically limiting the picture from science at any one time may be so
Significance of the Theory of Being
The Infinities ‘revealed’ by the Theory of Being
The Theory of Being is Not Essential to this revelation
These conclusions from the Theory of Being provide no absolute comfort; Suffering and Evil are Essential Parts of the Universe
If Good and Evil and Pleasure and Pain are Necessary, is there any real meaning to ‘Good,’ ‘Evil’ ‘Pleasure,’ and ‘Pain?’
Abuses in the name of Religion
Additional Criticisms of Religions (but not of religion itself)
Articles of faith
Fundamentalist attitudes