Re: [asa] McGrath, Torrance, and Monistic View

Yes, I'd forgotten this. It's the chapter by Warren Brown, "Evolution, Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Soul." He does use the term "monism" to include his position of "nonreductive physicalism."

IMO there's the good deal to be said for that view - when talking about human beings. But the claim that mind can be understood entirely (though nonreductively" in physical terms seems to founder when it comes to God. & it's really only a view in which God (if God exists) can be understood as physical that could be called "monism" in the strict sense.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Merv
  To: David Opderbeck ; asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 6:53 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] McGrath, Torrance, and Monistic View

  I think "monism" can also refer to a perspective of a unified body and soul. One of the authors in Keith Miller's "Perspectives ..." I think advocated a position referred to that way -- i.e. "soul" being seen as a physical manifestation just as the body is. It's been too long since I read it or listened to him when he came to K-State, so I can't be more specific, but it was written within the context of being evangelical, so I would guess that not everyone shares in the "dualism = orthodox and monism = heterodox" formula. Perhaps Keith Miller can elaborate if he's still following these threads. I may be putting words in somebody else's mouth.

  --merv

  David Opderbeck wrote:
    Thanks Phil. The person I was speaking with isn't evangelical or Christian at all in any traditional sense. He was criticizing McGrath's evangelical-ness when he used the term "monist." Maybe he used the wrong term?

    On 10/15/06, philtill@aol.com <philtill@aol.com> wrote:
      David,
      I spent a week sitting in a TV studio as part of McGrath's audience while he taped a seminar on science and Christianity. During the entire seminar I never picked up that McGrath was anything other than an orthodox Anglican evangelical. I never picked up that he held to any monist ideas of God. Perhaps this is someone's interpretation of McGrath's beliefs, rather than McGrath's own interpretation of them.

      "Monism" usually means that belief that only One entity fundamentally exists, and that all the varied things we experience are really just manifestations of that One. Monistic faiths include Pantheism (incl. Hinduism), which asserts that everything is really God in the final analysis, and atheism, which asserts that everything is really non-God in the final analysis. Non-monistic faiths include Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, because they assert that God both exists and **created** things, and that this creating brought into existence things that stand as **other** than Himself. That is, there is a Creator/creation distinction in non-monist faiths, and so God is not the only thing that exists. It has been claimed that the good vs. evil distinction cannot exist in monism, since good is defined by the creator and non-good can only be a property of beings that are not the creator. Hence, good and evil ultimately just illusions in monist belief systems like Hinduism or atheism. I have a hard time believing McGrath is really monist.

      He seemed like a very nice person, and you might get to speak with him if you give him a call. He is not teaching right now because he won a Templeton fellowship to focus on research regarding the interface between science and Christianity, and he was very excited about that. He might be willing to talk with you if you introduce yourself stating your credentials and your interests.

      best,
      Phil

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Received on Sun Oct 15 19:37:46 2006