From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Nov 03 2004 - 14:37:41 GMT
Hi Steve,
S:
> Do you think that any of these sorts of experiences can be politically
> relevant? Like John Kerry saying that his opposition to abortion is based
> on his religious faith. Such statements to me seem to be backed by
> authority of the Church and belief in the Bible rather than meditation,
> divine revelation, prayer, etc.
>
> I guess I would say that ascribing to the belief statement "life is
> sacred" (since it could be part of a direct experience of union with
> Spirit) is a matter of faith, while "abortion should be made illegal" is
> not.
>
> I suggest that when people support political views as a matter of faith
> that they are talking about beliefs that are supported by faith as
> religious experience.
I agree. I'm suspicious of politicians, including Bush, who invoke
religious faith into the public dialogue. I do believe, however, that the
founding fathers were sincere believers and that they relied on their
religious faith to sustain them through the trials of the American
revolution that codified the intellectual values of freedom of religion,
free speech, etc. So religious faith in politics can have beneficial
effects. But, one must be wary.
P:
> > To clarify our use of the term perhaps we should use "religious faith"
> > when we're talking about its spiritual connotations and "intellectual
> > faith" (as Pirsig does in the passage above) when referring to unprovable
> > intellectual premises, such as the postmodern faith that truth doesn't
> > exist.
S:
> Sound good to me.
I'll try to keep that in mind in future posts.
Best,
Platt
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