So my question is, what kind of valid “wisdom” can produce BOTH of those results? Is it just a type of wisdom that transforms the meaning each of these people assigns to the word God?
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “transforms the meaning”; but I agree with at least one version of that.
The way I’d elaborate on it is that “God exists” is more like an internal label for internal experience instead of a shared label for shared experience. Two people talking about ‘the sun’ can be pretty sure they’re talking about the same thing in the outside world; not so for two people talking about God.
And so in a transformative experience, someone might shift their anchor beliefs, and they might not have better labels for those beliefs than “God exists” or “God doesn’t exist”, while those point to different things in more complicated language. (For example, one idea that I might compress into “God exists” is “it is better to face life in an open-hearted and loving way”, and another idea that I might compress down to “God doesn’t exist” is “wishful thinking doesn’t accomplish anything, planning does”. Both of those more complicated beliefs can be simultaneously true!)
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “transforms the meaning”; but I agree with at least one version of that.
The way I’d elaborate on it is that “God exists” is more like an internal label for internal experience instead of a shared label for shared experience. Two people talking about ‘the sun’ can be pretty sure they’re talking about the same thing in the outside world; not so for two people talking about God.
And so in a transformative experience, someone might shift their anchor beliefs, and they might not have better labels for those beliefs than “God exists” or “God doesn’t exist”, while those point to different things in more complicated language. (For example, one idea that I might compress into “God exists” is “it is better to face life in an open-hearted and loving way”, and another idea that I might compress down to “God doesn’t exist” is “wishful thinking doesn’t accomplish anything, planning does”. Both of those more complicated beliefs can be simultaneously true!)
love this response. thanks