RE: Angry Atheists and Anti-Theists
December 17, 2018 at 1:40 am
(This post was last modified: December 17, 2018 at 1:43 am by vulcanlogician.)
(December 16, 2018 at 9:47 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: Hicks was more of a theist who was a philosopher than a theistic philosopher, wasn't he? I don't think that anyone with concrete god beliefs, who isn't willing to describe those beliefs as mythical..will find anything comforting there.
Very true. Hick is about as far from fundamentalism as you can get and still be a theist. He doesn't literally believe in the resurrection of Christ... but then again... to him, the myth-value of the resurrection story is real: spiritually real.
He's also argued that theistic belief is rational by taking a real world skeptics angle on the whole thing. He argues that mystical experiences are just as "real" as sensory experiences when you really get down to the brass tax. In this way, a connection to God via mystical experience might be considered a "real" experience of God. Keep in mind, this is not a proof of God's existence. Hick is merely arguing that (in this way) theistic belief can have a rational basis. So (while his god beliefs are not "concrete") he nonetheless does have god beliefs.
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Traditional theists will certainly find this guy dissatisfying. I like his theory that reincarnation is real, but you still only live one life (doh!). You are "reincarnated" through what you create and pass on during your one single personal manifestation as a living being:
