I think it’s a very interesting and even useful question to raise. Like some have pointed out I suspect that the issues are not just limited to religion so any models could be applied much more broadly and should be.
I don’t know if I would suggest either of the two thoughts I’ll offer below should be considered major elements of some model here but I think they probably fit in to such a model. Easy one first.
Discussions about religion have a tendency to run similar line as those of politics. Politics is another subject area that the culture here stays away from (discourages even).
I’ll steal from JSW here: ‘The core question to ask is basically-never “is this religious claim true?”, but rather “what does it tell us about the world, that this religion promotes this claim?”.’ But I think the rub here is that “the world” is actually defined differently in religious inquire than is true in the physical sciences, or even the softer sciences. I suspect there is some colorblindness/blind spot problems here that then start producing the problems 1 above seeks to avoid having aired out in the discussions here.
I think it’s a very interesting and even useful question to raise. Like some have pointed out I suspect that the issues are not just limited to religion so any models could be applied much more broadly and should be.
I don’t know if I would suggest either of the two thoughts I’ll offer below should be considered major elements of some model here but I think they probably fit in to such a model. Easy one first.
Discussions about religion have a tendency to run similar line as those of politics. Politics is another subject area that the culture here stays away from (discourages even).
I’ll steal from JSW here: ‘The core question to ask is basically-never “is this religious claim true?”, but rather “what does it tell us about the world, that this religion promotes this claim?”.’ But I think the rub here is that “the world” is actually defined differently in religious inquire than is true in the physical sciences, or even the softer sciences. I suspect there is some colorblindness/blind spot problems here that then start producing the problems 1 above seeks to avoid having aired out in the discussions here.