Yaser Mirdamadi's lecture: 'The Problem of the Philosophical Explanation of Religious Diversity'

Outline of the talk: Presenting a classification of various views in response to the question: What philosophical explanations have been offered for the phenomenon of religious diversity in the modern era? And answering the question: Which of these views better explains the phenomenon of religious diversity, philosophically speaking?

Different Views on the Philosophical Explanation of Religious Diversity

´1- Religious Relativism

´2- Religious Suspensionism

´3- Militant Religious Exclusivism

´4- Moderate Religious Exclusivism

´5- Religious Inclusivism

´6- Militant Atheism

´ 7- Friendly Atheism

´ 8- Agnosticism

´9- Religious Pluralism

´Which of these views better explains the phenomenon of religious diversity, philosophically speaking?

´In the view of the speaker, the ninth view (Religious Pluralism) better explains the phenomenon of religious diversity philosophically.

´ In what follows, I will briefly explain and critique the views, and I will defend the ninth view.

1- Religious Relativism

´Religious Relativism: There are different conceptions of the sacred, and there is no way to adjudicate between these conceptions; therefore, each group's conception is truth for that group.

´Critique: 1- Loss of the normative dimension: "Truth" is reduced to a descriptive dimension.

´Critique 2: Relativism closes the door to dialogue, and is thus prone to fostering violence and deception.

2- Religious Suspensionism

´Religious Suspensionism: Let us abandon dialogue and reasoning about the truth or falsity of religions. Let everyone keep to their own religion or irreligion.

´Critique: Theoretical suspensionism is the same as agnosticism.

´Permanent practical suspensionism is contrary to the pursuit of truth.

´Temporary practical suspensionism, however, is sometimes expedient.

3 and 4- Religious Exclusivism (Militant and Moderate)

´Religious Exclusivism: God has manifested only in one of the religions, and other religions are deprived of divine manifestation and salvation.

´Jewish, Christian, and Islamic exclusivism.

´Critique: Exclusivism is incompatible with the transcendence of God: God is too transcendent to manifest in only one religion.

´Moderate exclusivism recognizes the "right to be wrong," but militant exclusivism does not.

5- Religious Inclusivism

Religious Inclusivism: God has had a complete and perfect manifestation in one religion, but some other religions also benefit from incomplete divine manifestations and lower degrees of salvation.

´Critique: Inclusivism is exclusivism, but in a milder form. From the perspective of divine transcendentalism, however, God is too transcendent to have a complete and perfect manifestation in one religion. Divine manifestation is either all-encompassing or it does not exist.

6 and 7- Atheism (Militant and Friendly)

´Atheism: The world lacks consciousness, and human consciousness is reducible to brain neurons (the mind is the brain: naturalism)

´From an atheistic perspective, all religions are false.

´Critique: Atheism has not yet been able to explain the phenomenon of "consciousness." Friendly atheism acknowledges the possibility of being "wrongfully right."

8- Agnosticism

´ Agnosticism: Metaphysical beliefs (or at least some of them) are unknowable.

´Critique: Science itself has metaphysical foundations; on this basis, agnosticism leads to general skepticism, according to which even well-established scientific beliefs are unknowable.

´There is no difference between religious and non-religious metaphysical beliefs (insofar as they are metaphysical).

9- Religious Pluralism

´Religious Pluralism: The great world religions are all manifestations of the Truth and bring salvation.

´John Hick (1922—2012) was one of the most influential pluralist philosophers of the twentieth century.

´ The world is ambiguous and can be interpreted religiously or non-religiously.

´ The world religions share a common pattern of liberation.

´Religious experience provides epistemic justification for religion. But this religious experience can be seen in similar forms across different religions. Thus, religious experience provides epistemic justification for different religions.

´Different religions are different responses to the divine Reality.

´All the great world religions are salvific, because they all possess an ethical framework.

´Moving from self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness

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Conclusion

´Religious pluralism is both the most philosophically defensible option and has a close connection with the most defensible part of the theological traditions of monotheistic religions (negative theology).

´"Religious pluralists of the world, unite."

´Religious pluralists of the world must enter the arena of philosophical defense of religious pluralism.

´Religious pluralism has found very serious philosophical opponents (such as Alston and Plantinga).

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Sources for further study

´Hick, John. “Religious Pluralism.” Edited by Donald M. Borchert. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Thomson Gale, 2006.

´Basinger, David. “Religious Diversity (Pluralism).” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward N. Zalta, 2014. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/religious-pluralism/.

´Norton, Michael Barnes. “Religious Pluralism.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d. http://www.iep.utm.edu/rel-plur/.

´Tuggy, Dale. “Theories of Religious Diversity.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d. http://www.iep.utm.edu/reli-div/.

´Basinger, David. Religious Diversity: A Philosophical Assessment. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. This work is a philosophical defense of religious exclusivism

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The Problem of the Philosophical Explanation of Religious Diversity

London Literary and Art Society

December 2016

Yaser Mirdamadi

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