Great piece, Dr. Goff. I very much appreciate your honesty, humility, and intellectual courage in making the jump to Christian belief. I myself am a Christian of a more orthodox sort, but my journey has been long and winding enough to fully understand how and why others can disagree with this or that point in good faith.
Welcome to the Church! All of us Christians are some kind of heretic, so I will not condemn you (“In the way that you judge others, you too shall be judged” and all that). I would only ask if you’ve been baptized, and encourage you to be if you have not. Christians disagree about just about everything, but everyone from Mormans to Jehovahs Witnesses to Coptics and Catholics baptize. It’s more important than it sounds from the outside. If you have t been baptized yet, you may be surprised what a difference it makes: even for heretics!
Nice one Philip. I like your presentation of faith as trust and your analogy to the climate crisis. Imagine if we all sat around doing nothing because we don’t have sufficient evidence that we can succeed in dealing with it. A self-fulfilling prophecy. As William James said, that idea seems like “the queerest idol ever manufactured in the philosophical cave.” Although maybe he hadn't encountered eliminativism.
Among Christian philosophers, Kierkegaard is my favourite. I also recently read The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. You might like that one if you haven’t read it. A very liberal view.
Thanks! Yes, I was drawn back into religion a long time ago by Borg, and that was essentially the view I had for many years (talked about it in my Why? book). I've moved a little bit closer to orthodoxy with this more recent change.
"Reaction videos seemed to come in two waves: first traditional Christians telling me I’m not really a Christian, and then atheists telling me I’m believing a load of nonsense."
Just tell them you're a Gnostic. The former will run to Google and the latter will hear 'agnostic' and leave you in peace.
Christianity is vast, vast, vast — I should say this is coming from a sympathetic non-Christian (I grew up in the Bible belt, so the Jesus thing is, as W. James would say, not a live option for me). There are many 'heretical' Christians out there, though you wouldn't necessarily know it. Don't let the naysayers get you down!
Just read your Aeon piece. Absolutely excellent! I've called myself an agnostic for many years, but my understanding is really much closer to what you've articulated. I studied Theology and Philosophy at Glasgow University and your piece is one of the best theological essays I've read in a long time. I will order 'Why? The Purpose of the Universe' and look forward to reading that. I teach Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) at Bishopbriggs Academy. @MrGilmour on X. It's astonishing that we've been lumbered with a false dichotomy for so long.
Thanks Eliot. I think of believe as high confidence that something is true. Trust is a decision to let yourself be guided by certain claims that you are not confident are true. I might trust a new friend even if I'm not yet confident that they are reliable.
Thanks for this! Interesting as ever, lots to mull over. I shall ponder
Re religious belief, for me it has always been a 2 step process:
1. I think that the inexplicability of there being something rather than nothing points in the direction of some form of theism, for entirely 'natural' (ie non revelation based) reasons
2. I think that the best and most appropriate response to the idea that some form of theism is true is to have the humility to follow the religion of one's ancestors, which in my case is Christianity.
Additionally, I've never been in the least bit impressed by paradoxes and conundrums related to mutually incompatible omni-predicates... omnipotent means very very powerful, and we have no basis even to presume to conceive of what limitations or capabilities this involves. There is no contradiction. Deliberately incoherent definitions of the attributes of God are silly, unnecessary, and due to daft philosophy and theology not scripture.
Good read. I sympathize with your view. I’m agnostic, but I think there’s a decent chance God exists. I am skeptical of mind-physicalism, but don’t have a particular non-physicalist in mind to replace it. Nonetheless, it does seem more likely that Mind (God) is in someway inherent to or tied to the universe if we somehow have nonphysical minds.
I also think it is more satisfying intellectually to think Mind is the center of reality - it seems to fit more into why there is order in the world and why anything exists. Also even a bit of subjectivism that minds seem like the most important thing in the universe, so it would be odd for the universe to be able to produce something greater than it (this is very tangential lol). But I would be curious how you spell out the connection between panpsychism and theism more.
And I also agree that there is decent evidence for the Resurrection given that such an event is possible (God exists). But I’m more sympathetic to amoral Deism than Christianity due to the prevalence of evil in the world.
Great piece, Dr. Goff. I very much appreciate your honesty, humility, and intellectual courage in making the jump to Christian belief. I myself am a Christian of a more orthodox sort, but my journey has been long and winding enough to fully understand how and why others can disagree with this or that point in good faith.
Thanks!
Welcome to the Church! All of us Christians are some kind of heretic, so I will not condemn you (“In the way that you judge others, you too shall be judged” and all that). I would only ask if you’ve been baptized, and encourage you to be if you have not. Christians disagree about just about everything, but everyone from Mormans to Jehovahs Witnesses to Coptics and Catholics baptize. It’s more important than it sounds from the outside. If you have t been baptized yet, you may be surprised what a difference it makes: even for heretics!
What a lovely inclusive message! I was baptised Catholic as a baby, but I'm thinking of getting confirmed in the Anglican church at some point.
Nice one Philip. I like your presentation of faith as trust and your analogy to the climate crisis. Imagine if we all sat around doing nothing because we don’t have sufficient evidence that we can succeed in dealing with it. A self-fulfilling prophecy. As William James said, that idea seems like “the queerest idol ever manufactured in the philosophical cave.” Although maybe he hadn't encountered eliminativism.
Among Christian philosophers, Kierkegaard is my favourite. I also recently read The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. You might like that one if you haven’t read it. A very liberal view.
Thanks! Yes, I was drawn back into religion a long time ago by Borg, and that was essentially the view I had for many years (talked about it in my Why? book). I've moved a little bit closer to orthodoxy with this more recent change.
"Reaction videos seemed to come in two waves: first traditional Christians telling me I’m not really a Christian, and then atheists telling me I’m believing a load of nonsense."
Just tell them you're a Gnostic. The former will run to Google and the latter will hear 'agnostic' and leave you in peace.
Christianity is vast, vast, vast — I should say this is coming from a sympathetic non-Christian (I grew up in the Bible belt, so the Jesus thing is, as W. James would say, not a live option for me). There are many 'heretical' Christians out there, though you wouldn't necessarily know it. Don't let the naysayers get you down!
Just read your Aeon piece. Absolutely excellent! I've called myself an agnostic for many years, but my understanding is really much closer to what you've articulated. I studied Theology and Philosophy at Glasgow University and your piece is one of the best theological essays I've read in a long time. I will order 'Why? The Purpose of the Universe' and look forward to reading that. I teach Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) at Bishopbriggs Academy. @MrGilmour on X. It's astonishing that we've been lumbered with a false dichotomy for so long.
I'd love to know what you mean when you distinguish between "trust" and "belief", but don't really spell out the distinction.
Is it a distinction between intellectual and existential?
Thanks Eliot. I think of believe as high confidence that something is true. Trust is a decision to let yourself be guided by certain claims that you are not confident are true. I might trust a new friend even if I'm not yet confident that they are reliable.
Thanks for explaining. That's an interesting way of parsing them.
Thanks for this! Interesting as ever, lots to mull over. I shall ponder
Re religious belief, for me it has always been a 2 step process:
1. I think that the inexplicability of there being something rather than nothing points in the direction of some form of theism, for entirely 'natural' (ie non revelation based) reasons
2. I think that the best and most appropriate response to the idea that some form of theism is true is to have the humility to follow the religion of one's ancestors, which in my case is Christianity.
Additionally, I've never been in the least bit impressed by paradoxes and conundrums related to mutually incompatible omni-predicates... omnipotent means very very powerful, and we have no basis even to presume to conceive of what limitations or capabilities this involves. There is no contradiction. Deliberately incoherent definitions of the attributes of God are silly, unnecessary, and due to daft philosophy and theology not scripture.
Good read. I sympathize with your view. I’m agnostic, but I think there’s a decent chance God exists. I am skeptical of mind-physicalism, but don’t have a particular non-physicalist in mind to replace it. Nonetheless, it does seem more likely that Mind (God) is in someway inherent to or tied to the universe if we somehow have nonphysical minds.
I also think it is more satisfying intellectually to think Mind is the center of reality - it seems to fit more into why there is order in the world and why anything exists. Also even a bit of subjectivism that minds seem like the most important thing in the universe, so it would be odd for the universe to be able to produce something greater than it (this is very tangential lol). But I would be curious how you spell out the connection between panpsychism and theism more.
And I also agree that there is decent evidence for the Resurrection given that such an event is possible (God exists). But I’m more sympathetic to amoral Deism than Christianity due to the prevalence of evil in the world.
You get Philip Goff? 🙂