I like this. Chimes with what I'm reading in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind at the moment about nirvana not existing anywhere else - it's just a different, more empowered way of engaging with all the samsara within you and without you.
Agree that Godshine needs both sunshine and moonshine in it - order and chaos, fact and mystery, left and right brain. That's why attempts to "translate" religious language into secular language a la Habermas, while interesting, are never going to fully "explain away" all those ancient metaphors. The ambiguity is the entire point with religious language - the only way you can attempt to express truths that can't be expressed in words is to combine your words in novel, confusing, paradoxical ways.
That's not to say that updating belief with a little Bayes or cognitive science is a waste of time, but push the project too far and you're just dissecting butterflies. The point of faith isn't to know but to practise.
I like this. Chimes with what I'm reading in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind at the moment about nirvana not existing anywhere else - it's just a different, more empowered way of engaging with all the samsara within you and without you.
Agree that Godshine needs both sunshine and moonshine in it - order and chaos, fact and mystery, left and right brain. That's why attempts to "translate" religious language into secular language a la Habermas, while interesting, are never going to fully "explain away" all those ancient metaphors. The ambiguity is the entire point with religious language - the only way you can attempt to express truths that can't be expressed in words is to combine your words in novel, confusing, paradoxical ways.
That's not to say that updating belief with a little Bayes or cognitive science is a waste of time, but push the project too far and you're just dissecting butterflies. The point of faith isn't to know but to practise.