Religious and Irreligious dual compatibility with RC Mike : "It would end up looking much like....deism" Only if you wanted some sort of common denominator. Otherwise the objective can be very different, namely -- Finding ways to allow everyone to express their spiritual views but showing respect for the views of others. The subtext would be willingness to learn from others even as you maintain your own religious identity and commitments. The extent of this would vary from person to person, in cases not all that much, in other cases a good deal of "absorption." Why absorb if others are not doing much absorbing ? My gain, their loss. Learning all kinds of good or useful new ideas. If others are more interested in maintaining something like doctrinal purity, OK, not the least problem for me. But my approach is a "treasure chest outlook," if there are worthwhile ideas to learn from other faith traditions and other people aren't interested, I am ahead of the game whatever else may be true. Which, of course, anyone who so desires can also do. This is not only the case with respect to philosophical or theological positions. Or with respect to religions per se. Can also be true with respect to scholarship of different kinds, historical, scientific, psychological, etc. The idea is "be genuine" whatever your faith. And be as open-minded as it is right for you to be, but no further. Each of us has a conscience. Don't compromise with that. My feeling, though, is that, over the course of time, people can develop a philosophy that is open in this way while at the same time protecting their personal interests and not forgetting what is most important to them. For this to work, some things are out of bounds, like proselytization that goes too far. Some is OK, even welcome, but don't push it. Also, this can't be "anything goes." Some views are seriously incompatible with others. This can't work if, for example, someone is promoting Satanism or "X is the total truth and anyone who doesn't go along with the program is evil and must be opposed," a view that is found among groups in many religions. Probably exotic cults would be another no go. I can't imagine this if Raelians were involved, or Scientologists. And we need some semblance of common morality even if it isn't item-by-item identical. So, some lines must be drawn. But this leaves a great deal of latitude. It welcomes, by far, most Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus ( obviously not extremists ), and so forth, including Agnostics, and also philosophical Humanists. Zealous anti-religion Atheists however, would not find this for them. There would be serious conflict. Most of the time the focus is politics. needless to say, but whenever the subject includes culture then you will find religion in some form. So, better, to be clear about this rather than ignore it as if it didn't exist. Actually it matters a great deal. My view, anyway. Billy ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/5/2012 12:39:03 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Going to wade into religion, which is rare for me, but : I always visualized the integration of religiosity into Radical Centrism to be more an example of compatibility rather than anything absolutely necessary to the ideology. An example that I had in mind was George Berkeley making God eminently compatible with empiricism. Another empiricist could ignore Berkeley, yet both the Berkeley empiricist and the traditional empiricist would be able to work in a compatible manner, as there is nothing about Berkeley's doctrine of "God seeing" that is crucial to the philosophical school that can't be filled with some other posited thought. It's like finding out that you have two jigsaw pieces, one irreligious piece, one religious piece, that both seem to fit in the same spot of the puzzle. It would end up looking much like the deism that is often mentioned here, with an impersonal mover and creator. Whether one decides to call that force God or simply calls it the unknown, there would be a level of mutual respect both ways, as there would be nothing more than a nominal difference on the same thing. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
