Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 23:42:18 +1000
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: BHA: Bhaskar and God


At 10:20  18/09/00 -0400, Tobin wrote:
>Hi Gary--
>
>Certainly -- I for one don't think religious experiences can be explained
>away in such a manner.  Of course what "counts" as a religious experience is
>probably subject to argument.  In any case dopamine flows surely don't all
>get translated into religious experiences: a lot of social, cultural,
>psychological and other factors come into play.  Some people might treat
>them secularly, as simply a "natural high."  And my own reading is that many
>religious experiences don't involve anything like a dopamine flow, but can
>be meditative, reflective, perceptive, even jocular.  What I *don't* accept
>is that religious experiences are themselves clear proof of God's existence.
>This is one area where FEW really astounds me: RB takes a wholly naive and
>uncritical approach to experience as evidence.  How can this be?
>
>Best, T.
Well Tobin could one not say as well that he has trusted his 
experience?  If we don't trust it then where are we?  Of course one could 
question the basis of the novella.  The detail he got seemingly from Mike 
Robinson.

However we need to acknowledge that this is a novella - a fictional form. 
That perhaps would in itself suggest to me a slight distancing from total 
naive belief in what he has been told.

warm regards

Gary


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