RE: Why science and religious fatih need not be in conflict: It's as easy as 1-2-3!
May 1, 2017 at 9:55 pm
(This post was last modified: May 2, 2017 at 8:41 am by Whateverist.)
(May 1, 2017 at 7:55 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(May 1, 2017 at 3:57 pm)Whateverist Wrote: ...you're hung up on step 1. You willfully choose to assume that the mystery you call God reached out in the past through scribes and miracles to make a one-time statement regarding His nature and intentions. You therefore do not concern yourself with the messiness of the mystery directly and go directly into scholarly lawyer mode, keen to make your case based on the historical record. If the mystery had anything to say to you, you'd never notice since you've decided what it is and what it means.
Oh. I see you are using the word 'mystery' the way I use the 'divine'. Am I willfully choosing to make certain assumptions? Perhaps. But I tend to think of my experience as being more similar to how I cannot help but hear my own name even if spoken in the din of a crowd. When people recall their past, are they willfully choosing to remember? Faith is like that..the Holy Spirit reveals itself in an unmediated veridical way.
Earlier you made a point about the supernatural. Since the line between natural and supernatural seems fuzzy depending on where one is at in time, I prefer to talk about the uncanny. Uncanny experiences are ubiquitous. Every family has a story to tell. Now clearly parting seas and walking on water take the uncanny to a whole 'nother level, but I would not say that spiritual experiences are in any way one-time events.
In any case if you want to describe me as 'stuck' on some lower level of consciousness, I suppose I could reply with something about those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness or some such thing, but i doubt that would get very far nor do I think it would be very sporting.
Nah, I don't think that (my bold) fits you at all and 'levels of consciousness' isn't something I think about in general. But I do think that the need for certainty warps perception, and it always is there to tempt us. I think your certainty regarding the nature of divinity closes a door for you, perhaps one you're happy to close. I prefer "mystery" to "divinity" because the latter already assumes more than I want to grant going in.