Post by Maurice Yu on Jul 29, 2016 6:45:20 GMT
Week 6 questions:
Why is Faqir Chand’s experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?
Faqir Chand’s experiences are important to the understanding of religious visions and miracles because of the way it is able to explain how the human mind works and the kinds of phenomenas it creates when it truly believes in something. In “Is The Universe An App” Faqir Chand speaks of a story in which he was the hero of the Satsangis in Baghdad. it states that, “Faqir Chand came to realize that his numinous experiences were not indications of a transcendent state of consciousness but was rather projections of his own mind”(Lane 48). This statement truly speaks for itself in what it is trying to relate because Faqir realizes that the human mind works in ways that are incomprehensible to men. He realizes that when a person believes in something and has absolutely no doubt, the mind creates “visions" of what they seem to believe. This same story also appears in “The Unknowing Sage”. This aligns with many psychological problems and is studied much more in the 20th century. The brain is a powerful tool, and the mentality and strength of the brain ultimately project what it deems as real. With psychological problems, the brain projects an image of what may seem real to the patient but because nobody else around them believes it, they simply seem crazy.
What is meant by the phrase, “philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy.”
This phrase means that when philosophy is done well, it is able to explain through observation and experimentation, the ideas that it is trying to perceive. It is able to clearly state how it came to the conclusion and the reason behind the idea. If philosophy is done poorly, all it is, is speculation. If you are just thinking of what may or could be without having the knowledge as why you feel that way, the speculation is merely that. It’s useless information because it has no background and it has no explanation of how the idea came to be. Philosophy is very similar to science in the way that you start of with an observation and then you speculate on that observation; you then try to find ways to support your idea which is usually with research and evidence. If you do not do any of these things, speculation is merely just someone spewing words for no reason. Anybody can speculate on anything, but in order for your idea to have legitimate grounds and for others to understand why you think this or that way, you need to articulate the information that led you to the speculation.
Why is Faqir Chand’s experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?
Faqir Chand’s experiences are important to the understanding of religious visions and miracles because of the way it is able to explain how the human mind works and the kinds of phenomenas it creates when it truly believes in something. In “Is The Universe An App” Faqir Chand speaks of a story in which he was the hero of the Satsangis in Baghdad. it states that, “Faqir Chand came to realize that his numinous experiences were not indications of a transcendent state of consciousness but was rather projections of his own mind”(Lane 48). This statement truly speaks for itself in what it is trying to relate because Faqir realizes that the human mind works in ways that are incomprehensible to men. He realizes that when a person believes in something and has absolutely no doubt, the mind creates “visions" of what they seem to believe. This same story also appears in “The Unknowing Sage”. This aligns with many psychological problems and is studied much more in the 20th century. The brain is a powerful tool, and the mentality and strength of the brain ultimately project what it deems as real. With psychological problems, the brain projects an image of what may seem real to the patient but because nobody else around them believes it, they simply seem crazy.
What is meant by the phrase, “philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy.”
This phrase means that when philosophy is done well, it is able to explain through observation and experimentation, the ideas that it is trying to perceive. It is able to clearly state how it came to the conclusion and the reason behind the idea. If philosophy is done poorly, all it is, is speculation. If you are just thinking of what may or could be without having the knowledge as why you feel that way, the speculation is merely that. It’s useless information because it has no background and it has no explanation of how the idea came to be. Philosophy is very similar to science in the way that you start of with an observation and then you speculate on that observation; you then try to find ways to support your idea which is usually with research and evidence. If you do not do any of these things, speculation is merely just someone spewing words for no reason. Anybody can speculate on anything, but in order for your idea to have legitimate grounds and for others to understand why you think this or that way, you need to articulate the information that led you to the speculation.