Philosophy

In the Foreword of his book Jesus Rediscovered , Malcolm Muggeridge , referred to the French philosopher Simone Weil (1909– 1943) as "the most luminous intelligence of our time". Despite her brief life, much constrained by ill-health, she made important contributions to the field of philosophy and philosophical theology. One key concept of Weil's philosophy of God was "Absence". I quote from Wikipedia: Absence is the key image for her metaphysics , cosmology, cosmogeny, and theodicy . She believed that God created by an act of self-delimitation—in other words, because God is conceived as a kind of utter fullness, a perfect being, no creature could exist except where God was not. Thus creation occurred only when God withdrew in part. This is, for Weil, an original kenosis preceding the corrective kenosis of Christ's incarnation (cf. Athanasius). We are thus born in a sort of damned position not owing to original sin as such, but because to be created at ...

© Domenic Marbaniang, Explorations of Faith (2009 ), Chapter 1. Hebrews 11:1 - "Faith is...the evidence of things not seen." ------------------------------ The second part of this statement is parallel to the first. It modifies the first clause. Thus “substance” is “evidence” in the same manner that “things hoped for” are “unseen”. A significant truth of revelation here is that faith doesn’t need further evidence for its existence than its presence itself. Since it is the final ground of the things hoped for, it is also the evidence of the things hoped for. It is not based on anything else. It is the basis for everything that we know and experience. Attempts to base faith on rational or empirical proofs, i.e. on logic or experience, adds nothing to it. These may help to justify beliefs but cannot be the source of faith. One must not search for evidence for faith. Faith itself must be seen as the evidence for everything else. In fact, it is through the eyes of faith that meani...

© Domenic Marbaniang, December 19, 2007. “All men by nature desire to know,” said Aristotle in his Metaphysics . Curiosity is instinctive to man. Anxiety, boredom, frustration, and bewilderment often accompany one’s failure to know what one wants to know. If there are shocks that upset the mind, then there are also shocks that excite the mind. Unexpected pleasures are as shocking as unexpected pains, though with opposite results. Therefore, when the intuition senses flashes of insight amidst the confusion and obstruction of the mind, the pleasure is sublime. That is why religion is so personal to believers while absurdity and vexation torture the skeptics. But belief cannot be recklessly entertained, for beliefs match their consequences; and if beliefs are false, the consequences can be disastrous. However, one can’t avoid belief, since it is the ground of all knowledge . For instance, in order to reason logically one needs to first believe in reason and logic ; similarly, in order...

© Domenic Marbaniang, December 19, 2007. ‘The sense of the world must lie outside the world,’ said Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). [1] The human problem is seeking sense of the world within the world or within one’s own self. But can man go beyond himself by himself? Can someone lift himself up by pulling up his bootstraps? The epistemic predicament of man has been just that in several cases: when he started from himself or nature he returned to himself or nature, to the extent that ‘man is the measure of all things’ was reflected in all his cogitations on man, God , and the world. A glance at monism, polytheism, materialism, and pantheism [2] will demonstrate all that man can do to limit ultimate meaning to this-worldly-reality. This has also been true of Christian theology several times. The rational entanglements of scholastic theology in attempts to rationalize revelation, and the empirical obsessions of liberal, process, existential, and charismatic theologies reflect the s...

From Epistemics of Divine Reality , pp. 244-246 An understanding of the three-fold criterion with reference to rational fideism may also prove helpful in the epistemics of divine reality. The three-fold criterion is the condition of extra-empiricality (alaukika), the condition of non-conflict (abadhita), and the condition of antecedent probability (sambhava).[1] The Condition of Extra-Empiricality (Alaukika). According to this condition, the revealed truth should be such that it is unattained or unattainable from experience. In other words, the knowledge gained, thereby, is not purely empirical. This doesn’t mean that such knowledge has nothing to do with experience; for in that case revelation having no relation with the human experience would fail to communicate in understandable terms. Rather by the condition of extra-empiricality is meant that the revelatory content must be transcendental or esoteric, something which is beyond the reach of human experience. Similarly, in rational f...

Paul the Octopus has recently become very famous after his predictions for Germany and Spain during the World Cup 2010 came right. The 100% accuracy tag distinguishes him from any other diviner who had attempted a prediction during the World Cup. There were responses and reactions from various people including sportsmen, statesmen, and mathematicians. Whatever, the use of Paul has demonstrated once again that mankind's search for an extra-temporal, psychic foresight has not quelled through the historical calendar returning a decade over this millennium. The question before us is can such predictions as those of Paul be counted on as reliable (in other words, can they be seriously taken as true)? The mathematicians have plumped for chance. It's all a matter of probability, they say ( BBC News ). However, the argument of chance in itself is weak. The mathematics of chance will calculate that the probability of Paul being right seven times out of seven is 1/128. But, the conclusi...

In an age when "belief" is looked skeptically down, one wonders why people still continue to believe in God. At the same time, there are those who wonder why people aren't able to believe in God. Following may be some reasons why people believe in God: 1. Simplicity.  There is a law in both philosophy and science called Occam's Razor that says that the simplest explanation must be preferred to a more complicated one. Belief in God is simple, therefore, people believe in God. 2. Rationality.  Belief in God answers several questions that may not be, otherwise, answerable. It solves the question of creation and destiny of the universe, the question of justice, morality, and truth, the problem of evil, the question of life after death, and the problem of man's purpose in life. 3. Practicability . Belief in God is practical and useful. It helps one to face life in a positive manner. At the same time, the believer's experience of God's answer to his prayers, of ...