I'm not a philosopher, academically speaking, and I have also never been a particularly religious person either. I believe that some things may simply be unknowable and I've never felt that it was a very good solution to create explanations just for the purpose of salving some innate need to have an explanation of some sort. Then there's the epistemological problems to deal with...
[Maybe I should also add that Alan Watts is my favorite philosopher and Gary Snyder my favorite poet... although I don't read either much anymore. Maybe that explains "me" a little better.]
To me, this is particularly important when discussing religion because of the harm that self-righteousness often causes. However, this type of philosophical discussion is more like a mental workout and seemingly benign. If we didn't dream or didn't seek answers to life's questions, we certainly would not have gotten to where we are today... and we would have missed out on a lot of great discussions!
Anyway, THANKS for bumping "we, the miraculous" off the top spot!
|