S. Lourdunathan on Reason & Religion & Philosophy

8/12/2019 S. Lourdunathan on Reason & Religion & Philosophy

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Philosophy Faculty Seminar-1, S. Lourdunathan, 25th

July 2013, S. Lourdunathan

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Is it reasonable to be

religious?

If religion does not exist would God exist? If God

does not exist would religion exist?

01.Sometimes it is better to think; tothinkwhy we should think This is the

disposition of the way of being human

in a world of beings-not-human.

Modern thinking claims that thenature

of being human implies the centrality of

reflective-ability. Rene Descartes for

instance, is pretty assertive of the

indubitablethat we think, therefore we

exist, meaning to say ashumans we are

self-reflective or reason-able.

Alternatively the absence of self-

reflective capability forecloses the

potentiality of being human and

discloses the possibilities not-

sufficiently human. Though to

some/many extent, we as humans are

culturally domesticated/constructed we

are not mere entities devoid of self-

reflective or reason-ability.

02.The term religion does not and cannothave an essential meaning. Religion

means different things to different

people. For some, buying/eating fish on

Friday is a sense of religious identity, for

some going to pilgrim centers is a sense

of being religious, for some others

utterance of a set of words/prayers

repeatedly is a sense of being religious,

for some others (ritual-skillful players)

following/adherence of a set of rules

and regulations is a sense of being

religious, for some others being

theological (attributing specific

meaning) is the way of being religious

(for instance, instead eating fish on

Friday, save the Friday-money forcharity) etc. So, the definition of

religion is that it can have many

definitions and hence cannot be defined

in an essentialist manner.

antiessentialism

03.In this discussion, let me use the termsreligious and having faith as

synonymous. The claim that someone is

religious, I take to mean that s/he claims

to have faith and s/he is a religious

practitioner.

04.My primary concern is to ask: is itreasonable to be religious? To think the

reason for being religious is the concern

here, by which we as self-reflective

humans implore a sense of Faith

seeking understanding rather than

faith seeking faith for faith, cannot

seek by itself. (An egg cannot seek its

own reason for its being an egg. One

needs to the break the egg, if need be.

05.Breaking the Issues: Many people claim they are

religious. Why do they say that they

are religious? If so, what do they

mean when they say they are

religious? In other words, what is

the possible reasonableness on the

basis of which such claims are

justified? Are our beliefs justified

true beliefs?

If we claim that we are religious oncertain reasonable grounds, does it


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mean say that those who are not-

religious are irrational and after all

what is rational is rational if and only

if it is publicly rational and there

cannot be such thing called privatereason and what we normally call

private reason is only a matter of

private affairs and not necessarily

reason per-se.

If it is not reasonably justifiable tobe religious, why should one claim

that s/he is religious? That is to say,

that X is religious in absence of

being rational? If so, on the grounds

of the centrality human-reason, such

religious-humans, can we say ,

refuse to be rational?

If a claim to be religious is rationallyjustifiable does it amount to say,

those who claim to be non-religious

are irrational or non-rational?

Alternatively If we claim that we are

not religious does it mean, those

who are religious are irrational? Can

we justify our reasons to be

religious? Can we justify our reasons

to be no-religious?

Many religious persons claim thatreligion and morality are interlinked,

to be religious is to be moral, and if

so, does it mean to say those who

are not religious are non-moral?

And if one can be moral without

being religious why if it all there be

religious-claims. What is the

relation between reason and

religion and morality?

I think one can raise many more related

issues around this theme but let me

hold back to address the issue namely -

is it reasonable to be religious? if so,

what are the reasons on the grounds ofwhich one can justify ones reason to be

religious and if not otherwise.

06.There seems to be three types of globaltrends with reference to religious-claims

that operative in the recent times:

4.1. There are identifiable groups thatspine for a culture based on

unquestioning faith, they are

named religious fundamentals.

4.2. There are those who are religiousin a sense of unselfconscious

relationship to their traditions

4.3. There are those ignited by thesecular trends of modernity

needle a culture based on reason,

science, democracy and

technology- atheistic trends. They

consider religion as cultured-

despisers.

4.4. There are those who struggle tofind a balance/bridge between

faith and reason.

4.5. Who am I and what is myidentity in relation to religion is

still an identity issue for many.

Philosophical discussions do always

treat the study of religion as one of its

intimate subject of inquiry and in fact it

is not far from truth if I claim that

religious claims deep down are

philosophical and not vice versa. The

relation between philosophy and


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religion remains so intimate those

philosophical inquiries make the faith

in the path of understanding.

07.We shall first look at these statements:(i) John says, I am religious

becauseI have faith.

(ii) Peter says, I am religiousbecauseI have sufficient reasons

to be religious.

(iii) Suresh says, I am religiousbecause I have sufficient

reasons, the reasons of my claim

to be religious are moderately

reasonable.

Between these first two statements or

positions, the because in the first

statement in fact does not have any

because(reason) for it only repeats the

first part of the statement. It is like

saying: I am religious because I am

religious (I have faith). Such a

statement lacks any epistemic validityfor the second part of statement

prefixed with because merely restates

the first part of the statement. It is a

matter of repeating the case in question

hence redundant. It is like saying India

is a spiritual country and Gandhi is from

India, therefore Gandhi is spiritual. (To

put it differently), X belongs to a

particular system of religious belief,

therefore X is a believer (I hold) is

similar to saying, X religious because he

belongs to religious sect and therefore X

has faith. Repetition of a position in-

question does not amount to provide

the reasonableness of it. A

statement/position cannot be

conclusively be legitimized to be true no

matter how often it is repeated and

how-different ways it is repeated.

08.This is what is often termed as theproblem of begging the question or

circular reasoning. (Lourdu says, God

must exist. Antony asks, How do you

know that God exists? Lourdu

responds:Because the Bible says so.

Anonty asks, Why should one belief

whatever is said in Bible?. Lourdu

responds: Because the Bible is the

word of God this is what is known as

the problem of begging the question or

argument in circularity) I know for

certain we do make such repeated

claims thinking that we are trying to

assert but what we do is we are

repeating the original statement.

Antony Flew would say this, a fine

brash of hypothesis is killed by thousand

qualifications.

09.Truth necessitates its merit and not its1000 times repetitions. That be reason,

that St. Augustine, in his Sermon

(43.7,9) asserts, Crede ut intelligas

(Believe in order that you may

understand ). This means that faith

demands trust in a reliable source and

Faith if it is to be FAITH(in Augustinian

sense, should seek understanding.Understanding or knowledge provides

the foundation for being faithful to Faith

(being religious). Augustine would go

further to argue that while faith comes

first in time, knowledge comes first in

importance). In fact, the French


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Philosopher Rene Descartes, cogito

ergo sum is but a derivation from the

catholic Augustinian position, dubito

ergo sum (I doubt therefore I am).

(Note: this is one of the reason I feeloften skeptical about peoples position

that faith does not require knowledge,

and I believe such tall claims are anti-

catholic. This is one of the reasons,

Vatican documents demands the

necessity of a serious study of

philosophy and serious study of

philosophy means, letting the students

to study philosophy in centers where,

the philosophical is taught and not

mere philosophyis taught.

10.Repetition may serve the purpose of adomineering position or self-domination

but it lacks any authentication.

Repeated acts of feeding the chicken in

the farm is not intended to promote the

chickens but its moral intention is to

feed the chicken in order to be fed by

the feeders, a process of self-

gratification and not necessarily the

gratification of the chickens, the other-

gratification. Repetition of any assertion

does not have truth-value rather it does

posses the value of undue domination

on/for those it is repeated.

11.The third statement is a questionregarding not only the reasons but the

reasonability of the reasons of ones

claim, and this is what exactly what I

intend opening up for a discussion

(though I have not finely addressed this

issue here, we may reserve it for the

more discussion).

12.Hence, philosophically speaking, anyassertion or claim needs to be rationally

justified. In other words, a truth-claim is

true in so far as it conceives the

possibility of its truth-conditions. Astatement/position is authenticated to

be true if and only if it propels its truth

conditions. This is one of the reasons,

that an epistemic position demands that

knowledge-claims must be justified true

belief.

13.And so, the question is it reasonable tobe religious demands a serious sense of

thinking the reasons to be religious. The

statement Peter says, I am religious

because I have sufficient reasons to be

religious is more plausible than the

statement of John I am religious

because I have faith. The statement of

Suresh is more reasonable than the

former ones. The last one, calls for an

epistemic validity. It is, as per the

Augustinian position, is the way of being

Christian within the Catholic Church -

Faith seeks understanding.

14.Reasonableness to be religious: Religious practice reduces the chances of a

person committing suicide: A study

conducted among suicide victims, those

with no-religious practices are more prone

to suicide attempts than with those who

practice religion

Religious practitioners and Churchattendants were less prone to depression:A large Canadian study involving 70,000

adults found that those who attended

Church services regularly had fewer

depressive symptoms than average.

Interestingly, those who described


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themselves as spiritual, rather than

religious, had more depressive symptoms.

Both effects were true regardless of age,

sex and other variables.

Religious practices help the bereaved tocope with the loss/death of loved ones:

One recent study examined 135 relatives

and close friends of those who died in a

palliative care centre at one, nine and 14

months after bereavement. People with no

spiritual beliefs did not resolve their grief

over the period of the study, those with

strong beliefs did so progressively, and

those with low levels of belief showed no

change for the first nine months, but they

began to resolve their grief after that point..

Religious practice reduces risk-taking andsexual behavior among teenagers: One

major study involving over 2,000 young

people aged between 11-18 showed church

attendance and involvement in a church-

based youth group reduced risk-taking

behaviors such as smoking, alcohol use,

marijuana use, truancy and depression,

even when controlling for confounders such

as socio-economic status and self-esteem.

Religious practices reduce and sexualbehavior among teenagers: Regarding

sexual activity, church attendance and

youth involvement reduced sexual activity.

Furthermore, the risk-taking behavior that

often occurs in early adulthood was less

marked in the religious cohort. Self-esteem

was also higher among those attending

church.

Reduces or able to fight Alcoholism,smoking: Of those who are saved from

alcoholism, people with religious practices

are more than that of people without

religious orientation/practice.

Religious practice enhances self esteem:astudy reveals that the self-esteem level of

those who belong/practice religion is higher

than that of those who do not.

Religious practitioners have lower numberof sexual partners: A survey of 1,100

American adults aged over 18 found that

those who were religious had a lower

number of sexual partners than those who

were not

Religious practice adds to life expectancy:A meta-analysis of all studies relating to

religious involvement and longevity was

carried out in the year 2000. A total of

126,000 people were involved. It found that

active religious involvement increased the

chances of living longer than the average by

29%, and participation in public religious

practices, such as church attendance,

increased he chance of living longer by 43%.

Enhances Marital Stability: The greatestamount of marital stability is found among

couples who practice the same religion.

Marriages in which neither spouse is

religious are the least stable. Marriages

between couples who practice different

religions, or where one is religious and the

other is not, fall in between these twopoles. Marital stability among religious

believers is explained partly by religious

injunctions against divorce, but it also may

be explained by the fact that religious

believers attach less importance to personal


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autonomy and more importance to

commitment.

Patient Recovery faster: A number ofstudies have been conducted to test the

effect of prayer on patient recovery. These

have compared groups of patients who

were being prayed for, but didnt know it,

and another group who were not being

prayed for. None of the patients knew they

were part of these studies. Measures such

as mortality, duration of fever and length of

stay in hospital were shorter in the prayer

group than in the non-prayer group.

However, these studies are not conclusive.

They only indicate that there may be some

positiveeffect from prayer because other

studies, for example involving cardiac

patients, have shown no effect.

Numerical strength: In India ReligionPracticing People numerically more than

those who do not practice religion.

Religious practitioners have a strongersense to values and morals: religion and

morality are inseparable.

Religion exists in multiple ways: (myprevious lecture at Chennai)

Rich & Poverty, Happiness argument:Among the poor people, those with

religious practice are happy in spite their

daily low-income, it is not surprising to see

that they are happy and visit temples and

churches repeatedly in spite of their lower

income. People who are rich does not any

way refrain from religious practices and this

means a question of happiness and

personal satisfaction of the religious

practitioners.

Post-modernity, in a sense is a way ofturning back to religious tradition.

15.The above-said studies, most of themsociological in natureargueto the effect

that people with religion (religious people)

are in an advantageous position than that

of those who are not in tune with religious

practices.

16.Most arguments or reasons for beingreligious can be classified in the

following ways. They are of the type of

argument from. These include:

16.1. Argument from humanpathology (Mother-Teresa)

16.2. Argument numericalstrength

16.3. Argument from tradition orcultural inheritance

16.4. Argument from morality16.5. Argument from

consciousness (not explained here)

16.6. Argument from no argument etc

17.Some questions on Reasonableness ofour reasons to be religious: Strength of the evidence does not

guarantee the truth of the

conclusive assertion: Pope John

Paul made the first visit to Brazil, in

1980; nearly 90 percent of the

population considered itself

Catholic; by the 2010 census, that

had fallen to under two-thirds, with

the number of Brazilians calling

themselves Protestants rising to 22

percent from 6 percent during the

same period. According to a poll

conducted recently by the local

Datafolha organization, only 57% of

Brazilians identify themselves as

Catholics, and fewer than 16% say

they attend weekly Mass. Protestant


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evangelicals are making strong

inroads among the Catholic faithful.

Argument from human pathology isan argument for security-needs:

Freud, for example, felt that belief inGod was a projection of our need for

security and for a father figure.

Religion is an easy-response andrecourse (safety-valve) to the un-

spelt identity problem.

Bertrand Russell to the effect thatan argument from the facts of the

world to the existence of God could

not be valid "as one could not

deduce a necessary conclusion from

a contingent premise".

Religion as a systematic entity, as itemerged in the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries, is a concept of

polemics and apologetics.

Reason is not the territory of thereligious practitioners. It is

psychological, emotional,

pathological, and cultural. No

amount of belief makes something a

fact

Conclusion: If we claim we are homo-

sapiens, and thereby we are self-

reflective let there be moments of/for

further reflections. Let faith seek its

understanding.

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S. Lourdunathan on Reason & Religion & Philosophy

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