Re: MD Philosophy and Theology

From: Elizaphanian (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Tue Apr 22 2003 - 10:39:19 BST

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    Hi Wim, DMB,

    Wim to DMB:
    > I agree if I may ad at the end of the first sentence: 'and its
    > practical/moral consequences'. Mystical experience that doesn't change how
    > people behave or act is not credible to me.

    I agree with this wholeheartedly. I would say this means that mystical
    experience has to be evaluated, and that evaluation is done by a (religious)
    tradition, ie a pattern of SQ that has proved its worth (including a
    potential to remain open to DQ insights). Practial/moral consequences are
    those things which a particular community has held to be valuable
    previously, and those are the things which allow the community to determine
    whether a particular person's experiences count as religious or as
    delusional. That doesn't mean that the community is immune to making
    mistakes (especially if there are questions of social authority involved)
    but I don't think that you can have DQ without SQ; it's a dialectic. This is
    why I think you cannot get away from a religious tradition; it's the only
    thing that prevents the mystical quest becoming a voyage up our own
    fundaments.

    Sam

    "When we speak of God we do not know what we are talking about. We are
    simply using language from the familiar context in which we understand it
    and using it to point, beyond what we understand, into the mystery that
    surrounds and sustains the world we do partially understand" (Herbert
    McCabe)

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