FROM CHAPTER 2 - Religious diversity and pluralism Chad Meister Introducing Philosophy of Religion (Routledge: 2009) p.42 amazon/Introducing-Philosophy-Religion-Chad-Meister/dp/0415403278 .... John Hick has developed one of the most impressive approaches to religious pluralism to date. He argues that there is a plurality of paths to salvation, and each of the great world religions offers such a path. He denies the view (widely held by atheists and others) that religion is only a human projection. However, utilizing Immanuel Kant’s distinctions of noumena (things as they really are in themselves) and phenomena (things as they are experienced by us given the categories of our minds), Hick argues that one’s experiences and descriptions do depend on the interpretive concepts through which one sees, structures, and understands them. So, while some experience and understand Ultimate Reality, or “the Real,” in personal, theistic categories (e.g. as Allah or Yahweh), others do so in impersonal, pantheistic ways (e.g. as nirguna Brahman). Yet others experience and understand Ultimate Reality as completely non-personal (e.g. as nirvana or the dao). The Hindu parable of the blind men and the elephant poignantly reflects this point (see box below). For Hick, in our groping for the Real we are very much like the blind men – our viewpoints are constricted by our enculturated concepts. ... A second version of religious pluralism attempts to avoid some of the philosophical and other pitfalls of the pluralistic hypothesis. For the aspectual pluralist, there is an objective Ultimate Reality, and this Reality is knowable to us. Thus, unlike the pluralistic hypothesis, and in very non-Kantian fashion, we can offer valid descriptions of the noumenal – we can “get at” the Real. In fact, as philosopher and theologian Peter Byrne maintains, each of the different religions is reflecting some aspect of the Real: “the different systems of religious discourse are descriptive of one and the same reality because that reality has multiple aspects … [and] … the one transcendent manifests itself in diverse ways.”23 Byrne uses the notion of natural kinds in order to clarify the position. Just as the natural kind gold has an unobservable essence as well as observable properties or qualities – being yellow, lustrous, and hard – so too the Real has an essence with different experienced manifestations. The Real manifests different aspects of itself in the different religions given their own unique conceptual schemes, religious structures, and practices.24 ... Questions for review/discussion 1. Is religious truth different from scientific truth? Does it matter? Explain your answer. 2. Is it reasonable to believe that one’s own religion is true in its core beliefs and other religious are false in their core beliefs while also being tolerant of those religions? Why or why not? 3. How would you describe Professor Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis? Is it plausible? Do you believe it? Why? 4. Explain aspectual pluralism. What are some benefits of this view? What are some concerns about it? 5. How does religious relativism differ from religious pluralism? What are some similarities? 6. Which of the six approaches to religious diversity do you find most persuasive? Why? 7. Do you believe it is possible to compare rival religious systems in such a way that one can objectively assess their plausibility? Explain your answer. 8. The Dalai Lama has said the following: “It is unhelpful to try to argue on the basis of philosophy or metaphysics that one religion is better than another. The important thing is surely its effectiveness in individual cases” (emphasis mine). Comment on this claim. 9. If a fundamental claim of a religious system is that God created the world, including flora and fauna (plants and animals), does this contradict biological evolution in such a way that the system should be rejected? Explain your answer. 10. Can one hold to exclusivism or inclusivism and also be religiously tolerant? What would tolerance mean in these cases?
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