Dear Gary, list:
Alternatively, I would recommend examining what Peirce thought of Spinoza
before we go down the road you suggest:
Spinoza’s chief work, the “Ethics”, is an exposition of the idea of the
absolute, with a monistic theory of the correspondence between mind and
matter, and applications to the philosophy of living. It is an *excessively
abstruse doctrine, much misunderstood*, and too complicated for brief
exposition…
Spinoza is described as a pantheist; he identifies God and Nature, but does
not mean by Nature what is ordinarily meant. Some sayings of Spinoza are
frequently quoted in literature. One of these is *omnis determinatio est
negation*, “all specification involves exclusion”; another is that matters
must be considered *sub specie aeternitatis*, “under their essential
aspects.”
Hth,
Jerry Rhee
On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 10:55 PM, Gary Richmond <gary.richm...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Jon, Edwina, List,
>
> I think that there are in fact several, perhaps many ways of being
> Christian, from more exoteric, traditional positions (doctrinaire,
> dogmatic, Bible centered, etc.) to those considerably less so, that is,
> more esoteric positions (mystical in, for example, the tradition of
> Eckhard, such as the Cosmic Christ idea as Matthew Fox has elucidated it)
>
> Be that as it may, if we are to have a list discussion on this religious
> topic I would hope that it would center on (1) whether or not Peirce was in
> fact a Christian (my own view is that he was) and, if so, (2) what sort of
> a Christian he was (as I've already commented in another thread, I think
> that he was a non-traditional Christian--he once referred to his views as
> buddheo-Christian, but that, I believe, should be taken in context).
>
> I should add that I do not necessarily think that it would be productive
> to begin such a discussion until at least after we've more or less
> completed the discussion of Peirce's cosmological ideas, which, as Jon
> suggested correctly, I believe, ought precede the discussion of (his)
> religious views. But, in any event, it seems to me important that we more
> or less restrict such a discussion to* Peirce's religious views,* and
> that it would definitely be advantageous to change the Subject line if and
> when we begin such a discussion.
>
> Best,
>
> Gary R
>
> [image: Gary Richmond]
>
> *Gary Richmond*
> *Philosophy and Critical Thinking*
> *Communication Studies*
> *LaGuardia College of the City University of New York*
> *C 745*
> *718 482-5690 <718%20482-5690>*
>
> On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 8:04 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt <
> jonalanschm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Edwina, List:
>>
>> If we presuppose that all religions are purely human constructs, then
>> your approach makes perfect sense. On the other hand, if we take seriously
>> the hypothesis that Jesus is God Himself in human flesh--not a mere "mortal
>> born of gods"--then we will obviously proceed very differently. My point
>> was that one deductive consequence of that premiss is that Jesus, after
>> predicting that he would rise from the dead, would in fact do so. If that
>> is what actually happened, then the hypothesis is strongly corroborated; if
>> not, then the hypothesis is definitively falsified.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
>> Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman
>> www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 6:16 PM, Edwina Taborsky <tabor...@primus.ca>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Jon, list:
>>>
>>> Jon wrote: "With that in mind, a unique aspect of Christianity is its
>>> startling affirmation that God Himself entered into Actuality--"
>>>
>>> I don't think that the concept of 'god entering into actuality' is
>>> unique to Christianity. It's basic to many ancient beliefs [loosely term as
>>> 'pagan'] about the gods. Zeus, for instance, had quite a few mortal
>>> children. Mortals born of gods [and that includes virgin births] are found
>>> in these Greek-Roman tales and other religions {Hinduism, Buddhism]
>>>
>>> I'd therefore suggest that this shows the influence of the Greek and
>>> Roman religions on Christianity - whereas, to my knowledge, one doesn't
>>> find such influence in Judaism. And, in my view, Islam is a 7th
>>> century economic reaction to the settling of pastoral nomadic grazing lands
>>> by the Roman-Byzantine empire...but that's another story.
>>>
>>> I think that the transition from animism, polytheism etc to monotheism
>>> is something worthy of study - and of course - there is a lot of work in
>>> this area.
>>>
>>> Edwina
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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