Post by alangarcia on Feb 13, 2015 22:35:59 GMT
1. Why is Faquir Chand's experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?
Faquir Chand’s experiences are important to understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles because of his expertise with the “ancient meditation technique of surat shabd yoga” (Lane 1). In addition, Faquir Chand’s experiences provide a humble insight into the nature of religious visions and miracles. For instance, Chand himself admits that “nature is unfathomable. No one has known it” and then goes on to compare humans to a “small germ in a vast creation” (Lane 45). This is key and logical because when we really stop and think about how little our brain capacities are he is right. We do not, in fact, see everything as it is and are often tricked by religious visions and miracles. This point is later made clear when he explains that in understanding Nam, “the true knowledge of the feelings, visions, and images that are seen within . . . [and] are samskaras (impressions which are in truth unreal)” (Lane 53). Altogether, it is the clarity and honesty of Chand’s experiences that are key to comprehending the nature of religious visions and miracles. To understand them people have to think critically and not restrict themselves to prejudice views and beliefs.
2. What is meant by the phrase, "philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy?
The idea/ability of philosophy is to from clear explanations and ideas about how our world works. When philosophy is done correctly it creates scientifically cogent explanations for specific concepts in our lives and universe. However, when philosophy fails to clearly explain something it remains just that: philosophy. More specifically, it is the idea that to better understand the mysteries of life we must rely on science first before we explain specific phenomena religiously. As it was stated in one of the previous videos “Eliminative Materialsm”, “we should first try to explain things with physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and sociology”. Moreover, in the case they cannot explain our phenomena then we can go on to say that “god did it”. Therefore, philosophy is considered a science when philosophy is able to use any of the major sciences to explain something. However, when philosophy fails or adds more questions concepts remain just that: philosophical ideas that do not clearly explain anything.