On Religious Epistemology
I must say that I like my ideas in this essay, but it is choppy and not very well written. Read the examples, and I really do hope to edit this.
A prominent issue in the philosophy of religion is the notion of religions epistemology. Is this term oxymoronic? Do religious truths exist? If they do exist, can they be known by humans?
To begin, the terms must be defined. Religious epistemology is the knowing beyond all doubt a truth about religion. In this definition, truth and religion must also be defined. Truth is a notion that is devoid of all falsity, has complete verity in all parts of the universe, and if something is deemed true, a contradictory notion must be false. This definition is far from succinct, and it is more of a description of a criterion that must be adhered to absolutely. The definition is not perfect, and any help I can get on defining truth is appreciated. Religion is anything dealing with the divine and supernatural, and is taken on faith. This is an even weaker definition, but a definition of truth and religion deserves its own post. I have listened to lectures over half an hour long on just what is religion and what is truth.
So a religious truth is a transcendent fact about a transcendent being, to put it succinctly. I am aware this is flawed, but I assume that most people have an idea about what religion is and what truth is, but that is not definite and it is neither a bad or a good thing if one does or not.
Can a claim to a religious truth be known? This is the central issue. It is best to begin with a religious truth. Let’s start slow, and go with God exists. Can this be known? It is clearly a religious claim, so can it be verifiable? Can I know that God exists? Well how would I know that God exists? (It is best to ignore radical skepticism for this entire experiment, because that is a dead end in this context.) What would be a sign that I could use to verify that God exists? Note that this does not have to be rational, for many things that have been accepted as fact, or almost fact, such as Relativity, seem illogical but in truth are true. So is there any sort of factual evidence I could gather from the world that would tell me that God exists? I say nay.
What would constitute some proof for the existence of the supernatural is if there was an item that could violate the laws of physics or nature. However, this has never been documented before. But what if this is to miss the point? What about religious experiences? What if there are divine encounters only on a God to a single man relationship, or on somewhat of an ‘I and Thou’ basis. What if God only communicates with certain individuals? There are those who seem convinced that they had a religious experience, and a direct encounter with God, but only he was a witness? This would make any sort of scientific proof, or a proof that more than one person could partake in witnessing, but the existence of God is still true.
Having a conversation with God would constitute as a religious experience, and the fact that God communicates with man would suffice as a religious truth. But can they be known? This is the questions. There have been claims that God exists and interacts with man, and in the twentieth century there have been countless instances where people had visions of the Virgin Mary and all sorts of things that appear to defy logic, reason, physics, nature and common sense.
Another supposed religious truth is that bad people go to hell. If this were true, it would be a fact. However, can it be verified by humans living on earth right now? It is an entity that is either true or it is false, but can it be verified as true or false? The answer is we cannot. There have been people who have been pronounced dead, and physically died and claimed to have religious experiences. They usually consist of a white light, and a whole lot of other fanfare, and then they wake up. Some psychologists claim that it is the person remembering their birth, and that is the rational explanation, but that is not even a theory, it is a proposition; not even a conjecture or a hypothesis.
The point is that there are religious truth claims, but they cannot be verified under the current standard for of proof that is required of most conjectures. So, religious epistemology is a fallacious entity. No religious truth claim can be known. This can be proved in the definition of religion, but it was good exercise to examine examples. There is nothing about the divine that can be known by humans under the current standard of truth, and since we are not even sure if God exists it could stop right there.
A prominent issue in the philosophy of religion is the notion of religions epistemology. Is this term oxymoronic? Do religious truths exist? If they do exist, can they be known by humans?
To begin, the terms must be defined. Religious epistemology is the knowing beyond all doubt a truth about religion. In this definition, truth and religion must also be defined. Truth is a notion that is devoid of all falsity, has complete verity in all parts of the universe, and if something is deemed true, a contradictory notion must be false. This definition is far from succinct, and it is more of a description of a criterion that must be adhered to absolutely. The definition is not perfect, and any help I can get on defining truth is appreciated. Religion is anything dealing with the divine and supernatural, and is taken on faith. This is an even weaker definition, but a definition of truth and religion deserves its own post. I have listened to lectures over half an hour long on just what is religion and what is truth.
So a religious truth is a transcendent fact about a transcendent being, to put it succinctly. I am aware this is flawed, but I assume that most people have an idea about what religion is and what truth is, but that is not definite and it is neither a bad or a good thing if one does or not.
Can a claim to a religious truth be known? This is the central issue. It is best to begin with a religious truth. Let’s start slow, and go with God exists. Can this be known? It is clearly a religious claim, so can it be verifiable? Can I know that God exists? Well how would I know that God exists? (It is best to ignore radical skepticism for this entire experiment, because that is a dead end in this context.) What would be a sign that I could use to verify that God exists? Note that this does not have to be rational, for many things that have been accepted as fact, or almost fact, such as Relativity, seem illogical but in truth are true. So is there any sort of factual evidence I could gather from the world that would tell me that God exists? I say nay.
What would constitute some proof for the existence of the supernatural is if there was an item that could violate the laws of physics or nature. However, this has never been documented before. But what if this is to miss the point? What about religious experiences? What if there are divine encounters only on a God to a single man relationship, or on somewhat of an ‘I and Thou’ basis. What if God only communicates with certain individuals? There are those who seem convinced that they had a religious experience, and a direct encounter with God, but only he was a witness? This would make any sort of scientific proof, or a proof that more than one person could partake in witnessing, but the existence of God is still true.
Having a conversation with God would constitute as a religious experience, and the fact that God communicates with man would suffice as a religious truth. But can they be known? This is the questions. There have been claims that God exists and interacts with man, and in the twentieth century there have been countless instances where people had visions of the Virgin Mary and all sorts of things that appear to defy logic, reason, physics, nature and common sense.
Another supposed religious truth is that bad people go to hell. If this were true, it would be a fact. However, can it be verified by humans living on earth right now? It is an entity that is either true or it is false, but can it be verified as true or false? The answer is we cannot. There have been people who have been pronounced dead, and physically died and claimed to have religious experiences. They usually consist of a white light, and a whole lot of other fanfare, and then they wake up. Some psychologists claim that it is the person remembering their birth, and that is the rational explanation, but that is not even a theory, it is a proposition; not even a conjecture or a hypothesis.
The point is that there are religious truth claims, but they cannot be verified under the current standard for of proof that is required of most conjectures. So, religious epistemology is a fallacious entity. No religious truth claim can be known. This can be proved in the definition of religion, but it was good exercise to examine examples. There is nothing about the divine that can be known by humans under the current standard of truth, and since we are not even sure if God exists it could stop right there.
posted by Brian Hillman at 5:25 PM
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