Philosophy Now Forum

Are you going to point out Watts' mistakes?

Words are often more confusing than edifying in such matters. "I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me" may not be an exact quote, but it and other similar statements have led to a great deal of confusion. An analogy I like to use is to say God is the light on the other side of the cosmi...

Hot exists without cold, and cold exists without hot. You miss the point when you change the subject to "who/what experiences it." The point is that self-awareness can exist independently of other-awareness, and I assume vice-versa (simple animals, and plants). Who/what is the very heart ...

Back the the topic.

In your mind, where should philosophy of religion begin? What are the basic premises? I begin with the reality of self-consciousness. The excerpt is what logically follows.

I'm not sure I understand the distinction you're making. Mysticism is closer to philosophy than science. Just because mysticism studies the subjective side of experience does not mean it cannot be "scientific." And like any other science, its findings are open to interpretation. Exactly: ...

It's been a long time since I've read William James, but he was one of the main authorities. If I remember correctly, my dictionary says something like, "direct interaction with the divine," but that isn't very helpful. Remember that passage in the Bible that says, "participation in ...

Not the one I'm reading. What does your source say? Mysticism is like science. Mysticism is essentially a way to know the existence, your own nature, and the relationship between what you call “myself” and what you call the cosmos. Mysticism is a way to know and realize that “There is no such thing...

Jaded Sage wrote:Neither of those is correct, according to universities.

I have done it.

That's cool. They were taken directly from a dictionary. I'll drop the publisher a note to say they were wrong.

You may think you have, but I doubt it: it's a contradiction, like an "up" without a "down."

To my knowledge that is occultism, not mysticism. "Mysticism" is religion having an import that is not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence and beyond ordinary understanding; occultism is the study of the supernatural or a belief in supernatural powers and the possibilit...

I've heard of Evelyn, but I haven't read her. So would we have to study man in order to study God? Is knowing thyself a prerequisite for knowing God? There's an adage mystics oft repeat : "As above, so below; as below, so above." In our considerations there are two things to remember: Sel...

... A book review: The one theology book all atheists really should read ... Why would philosophical atheists need to read this book when we already have Spinoza? Spinoza's pantheism leaves too many unanswered questions; i.e., the plurality of consciousness and the appearance of free will (Spinoza ...

I'm certainly open to the notion that concepts can obscure reality. In fact, in that Katz book, he argues that the expectations of mystics can influence the type of mystical experience they have. So in any case, concepts might influence, if not obscure. But Watts, while a fantastic performer, secon...

You're right...it's shameful and more than a little dangerous...really, these shallow, non-believing brutes running around with all their shallow, non-believing brutishness...something should, must , be done about them! A nice 'preserve', yeah, that's the ticket! A place where they can shallowly, b...

:::sigh:::

I knew atheists here didn't have tha intellectual depth to grasp something as elementary as Watts' statement.

A nail hit squarely on the head. The "domesticated" god is the only one atheists address. Things like "Is it moral for God to punish us?" get more attention by far than questions and comments that pertain to the more traditional (but currently less popular) God whose immanence i...