Happy Holidays

Last updated on: December 24, 2011 at 7:27 pm by Justin Whitaker

Happy Holidays 2011-12-24T19:27:16-07:00 Justin Whitaker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Just a quick hello to say that I’ll be pretty busy with family and friends for the next couple weeks; you know, real life. So posting will be less frequent. As usual though, I’ve had several topics brewing that I would have liked to write about if time had permitted last week or over the weekend.

But first, a video that reminded me of what it’s all about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc8ZbVcdHpg&sns

I send out my gratitude to all of the hands, seen and unseen, that have been there for me along the way. I find that the further along I get in life, the more I see how much I owe to others.

While I’m “away” – or at least until I can write something more substantial, here are a couple of those topics that have been swirling ’round my head:

Alvin Plantinga, Epistemologist superstar, was featured in the NY Times last week. I happened to study Epistemology with one of Plantinga’s recent graduates in Montana a few years back. He too was a theist, which led to plenty of gritting of teach and scratching of heads during our seminars. It’s true in my experience that philosophy departments are mostly populated by atheists, and those who have faith keep it relatively quiet. Their arguments tend to have some emotional or moral appeal, but rarely much beyond that. What caught my eye most in the Plantinga interview, then, was his own uniquely epistemological spin on theistic faith:

He argues that atheism and even agnosticism themselves are irrational.

“I think there is such a thing as a sensus divinitatis, and in some people it doesn’t work properly,” he said, referring to the innate sense of the divine that Calvin believed all human beings possess. “So if you think of rationality as normal cognitive function, yes, there is something irrational about that kind of stance.”

Of course the emotional appeal for theists might work: “yes, we have fully functioning senses, whereas the world’s atheists don’t. (too bad for them?)” But for atheists it hardly amounts to an ‘argument’. It is strikingly similar to Kant’s sensus communis, generally translated as common sense, which he thinks indicates a common moral sense amongst humanity. Interestingly, Kant’s theory is, to some extent at least, accepted. People without a moral sense as he described it tend to be destructive to both themselves and society. But there the analogy with the sensus divinitatis seems to break down, as so far as I know, there is no evidence that theists are any better, kinder, wiser, etc than atheists or pantheists or whatnot.

Also of interest is that Kant did give his own moral argument for belief in God. It was an admittedly feeble argument, and because it was so thin he was accused of atheism and had his works on theology censored. But for Kant, God was little more than an assurance that those who act morally in this life could reasonably expect just deserts in the next. Of course his moral system is not based on getting rewards, as he felt this would amount to a sort of consequentialist pandering toward one’s own desires. But he did feel that for goodness to make reasonable sense, it must result in greater well-being.

This Kantian, rational sense of the divine, I believe, could also be covered by similar Buddhist discourses on karma. You should act in meritorious ways (as variously discussed in Buddhist traditions – giving freely, maintaining the precepts, and so on), even when there doesn’t seem to be any clear benefit to you. And indeed perhaps there won’t be (in this life). Often enough the good guys suffer and the bad guys appear to live and die quite happily. But both Kant and Buddhism, as I know them, extend the moral realm beyond this life for that very reason.

But, if the Buddhism/Kant analogy is accepted, it can show that morality can be robustly defended by what is widely held to be an atheistic or nontheistic religion (keeping in mind the enormous complexities of the various Buddhisms over time and place). So Plantinga’s argument falls flat – it’s a mere assertion. I could say that there is a sensus karmis that just doesn’t seem to work in Christians and, well, anyone else that doesn’t believe in karma. One could say that there is a sensus spaghetti monstrous which has only just developed in a select group of recent humans, “and in some people it doesn’t work properly.”

And in other highly interesting Buddhisty-theological news, it seems that Buddhist monks around the world might be picking up veganism. Movements for vegetarian and vegan lifestyles are nothing new in Buddhism, like other Indian religions. But this news features a documentary on the dairy industry well worth checking out. It’s unclear where and by whom this new vegan lifestyle might come about, but here is one promising highlight:

After the screening, Monk and teacher Ven. Ajahn Guna, led the audience in chanting, including, “Milk Does a Body Bad”. This was followed by a Q&A with Director Shira Lane. Guna stressed the importance of awareness in connection to the food we consume and its wide-ranging spiritual and physical effects.

‘Got the Facts on Milk?’ is a feature documentary that has attracted considerable underground attention, as it goes behind the scenes of the ‘Got Milk’ campaigns and highlights shocking facts about milk that the dairy industry seems to sweep under the rug.

Currently the film can only be found on the film’s website milkdocumentary.com. Ven. Ajahn Guna, refers to the film as ‘an outstanding contribution to humanity’.

Kant

video

Previous Post

December 14, 2011

Daughters of Dolma, a student documentary

Next Post

December 22, 2011 The Kindest Face I Know

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Activism American Buddhism Art Book review Buddhism Buddhism Today Buddhist Ethics Burma/Myanmar China Christianity Commodification Environment Gender Happiness Health Humor India Interfaith Islam Japanese Buddhism Kant Media / News Meditation mindfulness Photography Poetry Politics quicktakes Running Teaching Technology Thailand Theism/Atheism Theravada Tibet Tibetan Buddhism Travels Uncategorized Unitarian Universalism video Western Philosophy Zen

Select a Month June 2021 January 2021 November 2020 August 2020 July 2020 March 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 November 2004 September 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz