Post by lvenegas9 on Oct 18, 2016 6:22:45 GMT
1. Why is Faqir Chand's experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?
Fagir Chand is mindful of the fact that religious visions and miracles are an illusion created by the mind. He began to realize this when he was presented with a vision himself. After following the advice from this spiritual encounter, a possible massacre was averted. Even though he did not consider or even think about the people who would have potentially died, to his surprise, they praised and worshiped him for appearing to them and guiding them in their moment of danger. Fagir was confounded, and he determined “My faith was strengthened and I concluded. Whosoever remembers god in whatever form, in that very form he helped his devotee”. The minds of the people created a spiritual illusion of Fagir in order for them to relate and make sense of what occurred. Fagir went on to conclude that” "All manifestations, visions, and forms that are seen within are mental (illusory) creations."[Faqir Chand, The Secret of Secrets (Hoshiarpur: Faqir Charitable Library Trust, 1975)] This is an important concept because it helps explain how each individual has their own unique spiritual vision created by their own minds, according what that individual mind has encountered.
2. What is meant by the phrase, "philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy."
Philosophy done well is described as the approach to answers in regards to philosophical questions in a physical or materialistic method explained through science, while philosophy done poorly is explained as utilizing supernatural or unearthly explanations first before science is utilized. In the video The Remainder Conjecture, David Lane explains this term as “we exhaust any and all physical explanations first before succumbing to what Paul Kurz called “the transcendental temptation” where we prematurely jump ship and opt for super mundane explanations for erstwhile mundane events”. It is very easy to fall back and accept that some questions remain philosophical and cannot be answered, but if this is done without first utilizing the scientific approach, it is considered poor philosophy. David Lane goes on to state “This, of course doesn’t mean that there cannot be something that transcends our rational understandings, but only that the best way to show evidence for it is to make sure that physics, chemistry, and biology are insufficient to the task”. There are indeed many questions that may be left unanswered and considered to be left as philosophical questions, but only if these questions go through the motions of our widely accepted scientific processes, only then would this be considered as philosophy done well.