The pre/post conflation reminds me of Terence Tao’s discussion of math pre/post proofs (https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/theres-more-to-mathematics-than-rigour-and-proofs/), which I’ve found to be a helpful guide in my journeys through math. I’m not surprised the distinction occurs more widely than in just math, but this post has encouraged me to keep the concept on hand in contexts outside of math.
I also enjoyed the discussion about how various religions are all getting at the same concepts through different lenses/frameworks. As an atheist, I have no interest in, say, Christianity per se; I enjoy learning about the historical, psychological, and sociological components in the same way I enjoy learning about many aspects of humanity, but I’m not really interested in things like grace or transubstantiation or exegesis because it all falls under the label “false” or “irrelevant”. Having said that, I’m also very much aware that many Christian thinkers have insights that are relevant even for people who don’t share their belief in God. But I can’t get myself to slog through writing that is mostly false/irrelevant just to glean some nuggets of wisdom.
It would be excellent to find a book that synthesizes all of the most insightful aspects of the major religions, strips them of their cultural/theological labels into something more generic, and presents the stuff that’s been “replicated” (in the sense of multiple religions all coming to the same conclusion modulo cultural/theological labels). Do you know of a book that does this? Is Integral Spirituality a good example? It seems like it’s in the right ballpark, or at least would reference many books that are.
Integral spirituality is an earlier Ken Wilbur work, I’ve just started “religion of tomorrow” and it might be what you are looking for. I am only a few pages in right now so no guarantees.
The pre/post conflation reminds me of Terence Tao’s discussion of math pre/post proofs (https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/theres-more-to-mathematics-than-rigour-and-proofs/), which I’ve found to be a helpful guide in my journeys through math. I’m not surprised the distinction occurs more widely than in just math, but this post has encouraged me to keep the concept on hand in contexts outside of math.
I also enjoyed the discussion about how various religions are all getting at the same concepts through different lenses/frameworks. As an atheist, I have no interest in, say, Christianity per se; I enjoy learning about the historical, psychological, and sociological components in the same way I enjoy learning about many aspects of humanity, but I’m not really interested in things like grace or transubstantiation or exegesis because it all falls under the label “false” or “irrelevant”. Having said that, I’m also very much aware that many Christian thinkers have insights that are relevant even for people who don’t share their belief in God. But I can’t get myself to slog through writing that is mostly false/irrelevant just to glean some nuggets of wisdom.
It would be excellent to find a book that synthesizes all of the most insightful aspects of the major religions, strips them of their cultural/theological labels into something more generic, and presents the stuff that’s been “replicated” (in the sense of multiple religions all coming to the same conclusion modulo cultural/theological labels). Do you know of a book that does this? Is Integral Spirituality a good example? It seems like it’s in the right ballpark, or at least would reference many books that are.
Integral spirituality is an earlier Ken Wilbur work, I’ve just started “religion of tomorrow” and it might be what you are looking for. I am only a few pages in right now so no guarantees.
I don’t. Integral Spirituality might have some of what you’re looking for, but only incidentally, since it’s really trying to do something else.