{"id":3701,"date":"2008-05-17T16:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-17T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/05\/spirits-in-a-material-world-a-multi-blog-conversation\/"},"modified":"2008-05-17T16:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-17T16:27:00","slug":"spirits-in-a-material-world-a-multi-blog-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/05\/spirits-in-a-material-world-a-multi-blog-conversation.html","title":{"rendered":"Spirits in a Material World: A Multi-Blog Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There is a conversation going on around the blogosphere. It includes Larry Moran\u2019s posts on \u201cSophisticated Religion<\/a>\u201c, \u201cSophisticated Believers<\/a>\u201c, and most recently \u201cClear as Mud\u201d. Drew Tatusko has contributed a post on \u201cGod and Supernaturalism<\/a>\u201cas well as \u201cDear Atheist<\/a>\u201c. My own posts include \u201cDoes Being Exist?<\/a>\u201d and \u201cNot Getting Through<\/a>\u201c. Carlo posted on \u201cHow To Speak To Scientists<\/a>\u201d and Qalmlea posted \u201cDragon Winds Around the Pillar<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

Would if be going too far to say that those who have had mystical experiences are in very much the position of sighted people trying to explain color to the blind, or music lovers trying to explain why a piece moves them so much to someone who is tone deaf? In this conversation, however, it is not clear that the other side of the conversation is \u201cdisabled\u201d. They simply have no interest in understanding the experience or appreciating the music. And there is no way I can introduce someone to the music or why it moves me just by talking in abstract terms about something that is deeply experiential<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, part of the issue is that I have no interest in defending any particular doctrines<\/a> about God, and so my \u201cviews\u201d seem hard to pin down, because I hold them so loosely. I realized long ago that the life-changing experience I had when I cried out to God in surrender and felt a sense of peace wash over me does not prove that a tomb was empty 2,000 or so years ago, or that God is 3-in-one, or any other such claims. What seems to confuse some people is that I still can find Trinitarian language helpful<\/em> and inspiring <\/em>and meaningful<\/em>, not as a statement about what God is \u201creally like\u201d (as though I had a means to study that scientifically or objectively), but as an image of how this God that we speak of only in inadequate symbols and metaphors can be eternal love (since love requires more than one person).<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m something of an unusual case. A born again Christian who is not going to try to claim more than he can demonstrate with evidence about history or doctrine. My experience does not allow me to bypass the scientific method for investigating matters of science, or the need for historical inquiry to settle matters of history. But my life and the universe as I experience it is much more than the language of biology or of history will do justice to.<\/p>\n

I do not particularly mind if you explore spirituality via another path. But reductionism that leaves no room for the spiritual even as an emergent phenomenon of the material world<\/em> simply cannot do justice to the world as I and many others perceive it. And so perhaps it does boil down to \u201cart appreciation\u201d \u2013 some love it, and some \u201cdon\u2019t get\u201d why those others love it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a conversation going on around the blogosphere. It includes Larry Moran\u2019s posts on \u201cSophisticated Religion\u201c, \u201cSophisticated Believers\u201c, and most recently \u201cClear as Mud\u201d. Drew Tatusko has contributed a post on \u201cGod and Supernaturalism\u201cas well as \u201cDear Atheist\u201c. My own posts include \u201cDoes Being Exist?\u201d and \u201cNot Getting Through\u201c. Carlo posted on \u201cHow To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSpirits in a Material World: A Multi-Blog Conversation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is a conversation going on around the blogosphere. 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