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Monday, July 23, 2007

Different Varieties of Experience

20 Jul, 2007
Mukul Sharma, TNN

Pioneering psychologist and philosopher, William James, delivered his Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 and 1902 which became the basis for his highly influential and much quoted book, The Varieties of Religious Experience.

Being disdainful of organised religion, James felt that religious experience should be the primary topic in the study of religion, rather than its institutions.

By contrast, astronomer and science writer Carl Sagan delivered his Gifford Lectures in natural theology in 1985, which later formed the basis of the book The Varieties of Scientific Experience as a nod to William James. It’s a study in which he elaborated his views on divinity in the natural world.

In it Sagan wonders why the God portrayed by several religions of the world seems not to possess any knowledge about the universe beyond what was known at the time the scriptures were written. Why not a commandment, for instance, saying that thou shalt not exceed the speed of light?

After all if he, she or it created that limiting speed and knew that Einstein would discover it one day wouldn’t one expect a reference made to it perhaps at some point?

Interestingly, towards the end of the book Sagan actually answers the question himself when he says: “I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.”

Although both men were coming from the same place — namely, scientific pragmatism (though not necessarily total unbelief) — James didn’t have such a deterministic viewpoint. For it was said commendably of Sagan that the scientist was more than religious as he had left the priests and mullahs behind. What kind of unbelief, or belief, is that?

James had an elegant answer to that one: inexperience. But he didn’t go overboard in either direction and managed to remain philosophically afloat. After experimenting with such consciousness altering substances as were available in his time he concluded that while the revelations of the mystic hold true, they hold true only for the mystic.

For others, they are certainly ideas to be considered, but can hold no claim to truth without personal experience of such. In his world view there was no requirement for any god that might exist to expound creation individually.

This is the reason that James’ view on the psychology of religion is still considered one of the defining moments of human understanding of what many consider the divine.

Labels: Carl Sagan, Gifford Lectures, God, Mukul Sharma, religion, religious experience, scientific experience, William James

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