Devadatta
Well-Known Member
This is dedicated to Bandit & InLove:
I, Devadatta, Sower of Confusion, have said a lot against the doctrine of a personal God in certain discussions on these forums. Here I would like to try, uncharacteristically, to sow non-confusion.
Call this a correction notice.
It’s easy to fall into the experience/doctrine trap. My evidence against the idea of a personal God was against doctrine, and especially dogmatic expressions of doctrine, and not against the experience the doctrine points to. Unfortunately, this distinction easily gets lost in discussions, and I think I’ve been guilty more than once of perhaps leaving the wrong impression.
Doctrine is built up in support of particular forms of experience & belief. It only has to be consistent within its system, and doesn’t have to answer to external criteria. The problem comes with attempts to generalize that doctrine beyond its own system, for example, by claiming its logic is universal. That’s one definition of dogmatism in its pejorative sense.
So for me the idea of a personal God as a logical, universal concept is imaginary. But the idea of a personal God as experience is not imaginary. It’s very real.
The gut feelings of belief in God are equally real and not imaginary. The connotations of the word, especially in the sense of Mother/Father, are real reflections of the concrete reality of our utter dependence on this interdependent web of being. God is a perennial concept in human culture because it makes intuitive sense.
As a non-theist I would not claim to have a conceptual framework superior to the theistic framework. I would only claim that there are other conceptual frameworks possible, and which evoke our reality equally well.
I think what’s most valuable all around is imagination – especially the ability to imagine other ways of thinking, feeling & being.
So again this is my way of apologizing if I’ve given anyone the impression that I’m denigrating his or her authentic experience, or that I’m in any way suggesting that it’s not equal or greater than my own.
All the best.
I, Devadatta, Sower of Confusion, have said a lot against the doctrine of a personal God in certain discussions on these forums. Here I would like to try, uncharacteristically, to sow non-confusion.
Call this a correction notice.
It’s easy to fall into the experience/doctrine trap. My evidence against the idea of a personal God was against doctrine, and especially dogmatic expressions of doctrine, and not against the experience the doctrine points to. Unfortunately, this distinction easily gets lost in discussions, and I think I’ve been guilty more than once of perhaps leaving the wrong impression.
Doctrine is built up in support of particular forms of experience & belief. It only has to be consistent within its system, and doesn’t have to answer to external criteria. The problem comes with attempts to generalize that doctrine beyond its own system, for example, by claiming its logic is universal. That’s one definition of dogmatism in its pejorative sense.
So for me the idea of a personal God as a logical, universal concept is imaginary. But the idea of a personal God as experience is not imaginary. It’s very real.
The gut feelings of belief in God are equally real and not imaginary. The connotations of the word, especially in the sense of Mother/Father, are real reflections of the concrete reality of our utter dependence on this interdependent web of being. God is a perennial concept in human culture because it makes intuitive sense.
As a non-theist I would not claim to have a conceptual framework superior to the theistic framework. I would only claim that there are other conceptual frameworks possible, and which evoke our reality equally well.
I think what’s most valuable all around is imagination – especially the ability to imagine other ways of thinking, feeling & being.
So again this is my way of apologizing if I’ve given anyone the impression that I’m denigrating his or her authentic experience, or that I’m in any way suggesting that it’s not equal or greater than my own.
All the best.
