Traditional Religion, Science, and the Search for Meaning
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy, science
It seems that humans are hardwired to make some sense of life or to have some meaning. Science and religion both agree on this goal, which is to come up with meaningful models to understand everything. These two spheres of human exploration fulfill our deepest longing to make sense of the world. The only difference [...]
Tags: empiricism, knowledge, religion, science, spirituality
M. Scott Peck’s Four Stages of Spiritual Development
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy
I just came to read about M. Scott Peck when I was reading articles about demonic possessions and exorcisms. He is an American psychiatrist and best-selling author who wrote about his insights into various subjects including characterization and diagnosis of evil, nature of love, existence of Satan, and about spiritual development. Many of his ideas [...]
Tags: mysticism, religion, spirituality
Reflections on truth, knowledge, the philosophy of science, God and religion
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy
A few days ago, a close friend asked me several very abstract questions. I thought of this myself even before that very interesting conversation. In fact, I have been in a lifetime struggle to answer these great questions and to find meaning in this existence, if there’s any. Brace yourself…because this is going to be heavily nerdy. I am speaking to myself here. This is more of a self reflection on how I tackle the greatest and age-old philosophical questions.
Tags: empiricism, knowledge, rationalism, science, truth
Dr. Jose Rizal: The foremost Filipino deist
Posted by Joemar | Filed under History, Philosophy
There are so many things that ordinary Filipinos do not know about their national hero. Even if his two novels (Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo) is being studied in high school and his life and works in college as part of the curriculum, many things have been left out of importance. Many details in the novels have been omitted and some aspects of Rizal
Tags: deism, jose rizal
You might be a deist without knowing it
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy
A large portion of the population of established religions today are nominal members, which means that they are only members by name. Most of them still attend worship/church services but some never go to church at all. Most of these nominal members believe in the essential doctrines of their religion specially those that seem to be right in their judgment. But, when the teachings of their religion go against their common sense and rational thinking, they reject them.
In my observation, many Catholics in the Philippines (I can only speak of my fatherland), especially those who are highly educated, are of this type. They choose which doctrines to believe and which doctrines to reject; a reason why they are referred to by Catholic authorities as “cafeteria-style” Catholics. I presume that nominal members of other religious groups do the same. And also those nominal members of many religions around the world do the same.
Tags: deism