In a rare moment of clarity, Immanuel Kant penned these unforgettable words:
Time was, when she (Metaphysics) was the queen of all the sciences; and, if we take the will for the deed, she certainly deserves, so far as regards the high importance of her object-matter, this title of honor. Now, it is the fashion of [...]
Tags:agenda·empiricism·evolution of religion·Hume·Jack Templeton·John Templeton·John Templeton Foundation·Kant·metaphysics·research funding·research grants·Sunny Bains·Templeton Foundation
In 1902, Rudyard Kipling published his wonderfully imaginative Just So Stories. What child does not thrill to learn “How the Camel Got His Hump” or “How the Leopard Got His Spots“? When I was six years old, my grandmother read “How the Whale Got His Throat” to me and I swallowed it hook, line, and [...]
Tags:adaptationist·desire·empiricism·epigenetic·evolutionary psychology·imagination·Jaak Panksepp·Jonah·Jules Panksepp·Just So Stories·modules·myth·neuroscience·Panglossian·Rudyard Kipling·science·seven deadly sins·Seven Sins·spandrels·speculation·storytelling·tales·whale·wish fulfillment
In a recent post on Supernaturalism and the Paranormal, I hypothesized a connection between supernatural-religious beliefs on the one hand and paranormal beliefs on the other. My thinking was that if someone is inclined to believe in anything that is non-measurable, non-empirical, and non-material (i.e., “supernatural”), then s/he may be more inclined to be religious [...]
Tags:Craig Martin·Diverse Supernatural Portfolios·ecumenical·empiricism·ESP·exclusivism·ghosts·Joseph Baker·Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion·materialism·paranormal·psi·religiosity·Scott Draper·supernaturalism·telekinesis·tolerance
This is the question asked by Philip Goldberg in a recent article in which he boldly answers yes: “Religious faith in the case of the Hindus has never been allowed to run counter to scientific laws. The same can be said for Buddhism, which derives from the same Vedic roots.”
Setting aside for a [...]
Tags:ahistorical·Buddhism·C.W. Huntington·critique·eastern religions·elites·empiricism·enlightenment·essentializing·Gregory Schopen·Hinduism·intellectuals·Jonathan Z. Smith·Philip Goldberg·reconstructed Buddhism·Religion and Other Products of Empire·Richard Horsley·Robert Sharf·science·social construction·The Zen of Japanese Nationalism·Vedic·Western consumption·Zen Buddhism
