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Is there a monist theism? Could there be? What are the implications of a monist theism?
I've read that there are two major positions on the brain and the mind (or soul): Dualism and Monism. Dualists believe that the mind and brain are separate; Monists believe that the brain and mind are one. Most religions are dualist. Christianity, as most other religions, dictates that when we die, our soul goes somewhere else totally independent of our body and brain, hence Christians are dualists. I'm a monist because a relationship between brain activity and 'mental activity' has been demonstrated with MRIs and other experiments and I believe these demonstrations are evidence enough that thought processes (the mind) can't exist without the brain.
April 14, 2010 at 1:21 pm (This post was last modified: April 14, 2010 at 1:23 pm by Paul the Human.)
"ExperienceFestival.com Wrote:Monistic theism simultaneously accepts that God has a personal form, that He creates, pervades and is all that exists - and that He ultimately transcends all existence and that the soul is, in essence, one with God. Advaita Siddhanta (monistic Saiva Siddhanta, or Advaita Ishvaravada Saiva Siddhanta) is a specific (Hindu) form of monistic theism.
(April 14, 2010 at 12:51 pm)The_Flying_Skeptic Wrote: Is there a monist theism? Could there be? What are the implications of a monist theism?
I've read that there are two major positions on the brain and the mind (or soul): Dualism and Monism. Dualists believe that the mind and brain are separate; Monists believe that the brain and mind are one. Most religions are dualist. Christianity, as most other religions, dictates that when we die, our soul goes somewhere else totally independent of our body and brain, hence Christians are dualists. I'm a monist because a relationship between brain activity and 'mental activity' has been demonstrated with MRIs and other experiments and I believe these demonstrations are evidence enough that thought processes (the mind) can't exist without the brain.
There is more than one form of dualism... the dualism I assumed you meant was that there are separate 'physical' and 'spiritual' realms/planes/substances. Of which there are many dualistic religions.
There may also be monistic ones, however... and they would believe that everything exists as one type of thing (natural or spiritual or whatever, the term applied would describe naturalism (but from a theist's perspective)). So 'is there one?', I do not know. Could there be one? Yes. What are the implications of one? It would be impossible to argue against it with common arguments such as "how can the physical and the spiritual react?". Instead, it would appear to be naturalism, and thus we really couldn't argue against it except by supposing a dualism of a kind.
So far as mind/brain goes... a monistic theism might contend that they are one and the same.
Quote: From Wikipedia- Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry, where this is not to be expected. Thus, some philosophers may hold that the universe is really just one thing, despite its many appearances and diversities; or theology may support the view that there is one God, with many manifestations in different religions
Monism, pantheism, and panentheism
Following a long and still current tradition H.P. Owen (1971: 65) claimed that
"Pantheists are ‘monists’...they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it."
Although almost all pantheists are monists, some pantheists may also be not-monists, but undeniably monists were the most famous pantheisms as that of Stoics, Plotinus and Spinoza. Exclusive Monists believe that the universe, the "God" of naturalistic pantheism, simply does not exist. In addition, monists can be Deists, Pandeists, Theists or Panentheists; believing in a monotheistic God that is omnipotent and all-pervading, and both transcendent and immanent. There are monist pantheists and panentheists in Hinduism (particularly in Advaita and Vishistadvaita respectively), Judaism (monistic panentheism is especially found in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy), in Christianity (especially among Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans) and in Islam (among the Sufis, especially the Bektashi).
While pantheism means all things are identical to God, panentheism means God is in all things, neither identical to, nor totally separate from all things. Such a concept, some may argue, is more compatible with God as personal while not barring a bridge between God and creation. Historical figures such as Paul Tillich have argued for such a concept within Christian theology, as well as contemporary biblical scholar Marcus Borg.
I disagree that the mind can't exist without the brain... i mean, just look at some of the heavily religious. Complete absence of a brain demonstrated by some of them.
A finite number of monkeys with a finite number of typewriters and a finite amount of time could eventually reproduce 4chan.
(April 15, 2010 at 4:53 am)Loki_999 Wrote: I disagree that the mind can't exist without the brain... i mean, just look at some of the heavily religious. Complete absence of a brain demonstrated by some of them.
Autonomic functions still work so maybe it is the mind part they are missing because they gave it to god?
The short answer to the question 'Is there Monist Theism?' is 'yes'. But thats not very useful, so here's the long answer.
The term 'Monism' refers to the position that there is only one sort of 'stuff' in the Universe. The vast majority of Monists (including myself) are materialist Monists. Materialist Monism is sometimes called 'Physicalism'. We physicalists hold that at a fundamental level the Universe is composed exclusively of material/ physical phenomena. All non-physical phenomena (such as mental states, social institutions and works of literature) ultimately reduce to physical 'stuff'. Materialist Monism is obviously not compatible with Theism.
A second type of Monism is Idealism. This is the view that the physical Universe that we experience is in fact created by Mind, and that bedrock reality is not physical at all. Idealist Monism pretty much requires Theism, since the alternative to saying that the Universe is created by/ exists in the Mind of God is to say that our minds create their own realities- a sort of extreme relativism that collapses rather quickly into solipsism.
Dualism, of course, is the view that there are 2 fundamental sorts of 'stuff' in the Universe- physical stuff and mental stuff. Either Atheism or Theism are possible with Dualism, although I suspect that most Dualists are also Theists.
Note that these are positions within Metaphysics, and are therefore concerned with the fundamental nature of reality rather than anything practical. So when I say that mind and social institutions ultimately reduce to physical phenomena, that doesn't mean that I think that some sort of physical description of mind or society is actually a practical possibility (IMO, it isn't).
