Philosophy Now Forum

I agree with Mike.

In all this discussion i neglected to mention one important thing that ties all of this together: Balu's theory of religion. This is one of (if not) the most important themes in the book. If you understand his theory of religion, you will be able to understand the dynamic of religion i have discusse...

all good points, thedoc. especially your last post. thanks for joining the discussion

So to answer your objections in a simpler way :) 1) Augustine was able to absorb/transform/assimilate (distort?) pre-existing Greek ideas within a Christian framework. 2) the enlightenment thinkers thought they could shrug off Christianity but in fact couldn't. I justify these claims on the grounds ...

Hi Nikolai, Let me try to address your objections. There are a number of issues with the way you approach this. Firstly, trying to understand secularization from the standpoint of individual psychology (why did Augustine do this, whereas Voltaire did that) is futile. Because I am talking about secul...

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ya sorry

Huh?

Secularization refers to a very specific phenomenon. It is when the logical form of religion is able to spread itself by disposing of its semantic content. Let me give you an example: Original argument All humans are mortal. Socrates is human. Therefore, Socrates is mortal. Argument Form All H are M...

. This is not a conscious process. This occurs without them even realizing that they are 'secularizing' theological ideas. This brings me to the second point. you say "You imagine that they were able to commandeer secular Greek ideas for their own purpose but then deny that that the secularist...

"So in the first instance we have Christians distorting the secular ideas of Greek philosophy - in other words the Christians tried to pass off secular ideas as theological. But then in the enlightenment you claim that the secular thinkers of the time were not really secular but using Christian...

hi thedoc, thanks for joining this discussion. to answer your question: no. Secularization merely refers to theological concepts spreading in society in a 'neutral' form (by detaching itself from the explicit religious beliefs/doctrines). In terms of Christianity, it means Christianity also spreads ...

The same story applies with respect to what is enshrined in the UN charter. The doctrine of Human Rights (as we know them today) arose in the Middle Ages, when the Franciscans and the Dominicans fought each other. (Both are religious orders within the Catholic Church.) All theories of human rights w...

The book (Heathen in his blindness) claims that Christianity expands in two ways. (This is not just typical of Christianity but of Islam and Judaism as well. I will talk only of Christianity because I want to talk about the western culture.) Both of these have been present ever since the inception o...

Ok, I am ready to respond to your post. First of all, I disagree about characterizing cultures in terms of either embracing or going beyond dualism. There are several reasons:(a) it is too simplistic; (b) what constitutes `dualism' depends on the level of abstraction one pitches one's description at...