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Jack Cummins

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I read a recent article in 'Philosophy Now' magazine which said how Ayer had a near death experience in hospital towards the end of life. He saw a 'di...
November 27, 2021 at 10:49
I sometimes have black hole days and I wonder if psychological black holes are in any way parallel to physical ones. But, in the psychological ones I ...
November 27, 2021 at 10:41
I am glad that I don't have to do any exams. They really could go either way. I particularly hated multiple choices and preferred essays because it al...
November 20, 2021 at 19:23
That's an interesting point you make about pain and suffering. However, I am not sure to what extent one may become illogical as a result of pain or l...
November 20, 2021 at 18:39
I just wish to add that play may be an essential aspect of the creative process, because it involves both imagination and experimentation. It may be t...
November 19, 2021 at 21:48
Play may be seen as frivolous or as serious because it embraces fantasy. Winnicott spoke of the teddy bear as being an important transitional object i...
November 19, 2021 at 21:16
No, I haven't left for good and just finished doing house clearance yesterday...It was such a big job and I had to take about 100 teddy bears to chari...
November 18, 2021 at 14:24
Perhaps morality needs a combination of logic and emotion in order for it to be balanced. Logic or rationality is needed to assess the best course of ...
November 18, 2021 at 13:37
I love the song 'Levels' by Avicci, as for me it may involve stepping into further dimensions. Music may be a way of tapping such dimensions and who k...
November 08, 2021 at 17:14
I found confession terrible because the things which I felt were my sins were just too complicated to explain in a little confession box, so I was ext...
November 05, 2021 at 12:36
I am not sure what you are questioning exactly. Is it the idea that religious perspectives speak of 'hidden' reality? What I mean is that in many reli...
November 03, 2021 at 14:13
I agree that the most that can be done is to challenge what is written about God. As the thread discussion suggests, proving or disproving God is 'dif...
November 02, 2021 at 20:13
I was just reading your post from yesterday and I do agree that religious systems often claim authority on the basis of 'hidden truths'. That does mak...
November 02, 2021 at 19:49
I still don't see why you seem to support the idea of 'cognitive hygiene'. What about the concept impresses you so greatly? You emphasise the importan...
November 02, 2021 at 17:36
Well, I know that you call me 'truthseeker' and, to some extent that is true, but, at other times, I do query such a quest. To a large extent, I do ap...
November 01, 2021 at 23:14
Is it all a 'wild goose chase'? Is it all a mixture of 'bad philosophy', and running round in circles literally, or on various threads about 'truth', ...
November 01, 2021 at 22:14
I can see your point about magical fantasy. Reza Azlan quotes Feuerbach. Part of the problem which I see is that it possible to back up almost all arg...
November 01, 2021 at 20:27
I would definitely agree that religion is not necessarily to achieve 'transcendence'. But, I am still left wondering what is needed, because so much o...
November 01, 2021 at 19:22
I have just been reading, 'God: A Human History of God', by Reza Aslan (2O17), and this may offer an interesting perspective in regard to the question...
November 01, 2021 at 18:27
There is no easy solutions for forms of suffering, especially emotional pain. It is not like sewing up a bleeding arm. Apart from medications to relie...
October 31, 2021 at 21:36
Yes, I was horrified at the notion of cognitive hygiene, even when links were given. It seems like cleaning out the negative as if it is 'dirt'. I hop...
October 31, 2021 at 21:00
Movements like postmodernism are extremely interesting because they are able to sidestep the big divisions between theism and atheism, as well as betw...
October 31, 2021 at 12:21
You say that the division between religion and philosophy is not related to science and are 'the same roots, different trees'. This may be true in the...
October 31, 2021 at 11:56
I don't see how that the idea of possibility in itself makes something 'real', because all it suggests is some remote chance rather than something def...
October 31, 2021 at 05:04
Your post is interesting, because I was wondering if what I wrote was too much of a generalization about the split between religion and philosophy his...
October 31, 2021 at 04:53
It is probably more about different choice of words, and the term ' emotional wellbeing' is usually used rather than 'emotional health'. Generally 'me...
October 31, 2021 at 04:34
That is unusual, and I find it interesting, although horrible, because so far no particular idea or use of ideas has ever made me vomit literally. So,...
October 30, 2021 at 20:57
You may be querying the basis of the way in which Christians are using Wittgenstein's ideas but I find your claim that it makes you 'ill' as a bit ext...
October 30, 2021 at 20:44
In speaking of combined origins of religion and philosophy, rather than simply common origins, the point which I am trying to make is that many thinke...
October 30, 2021 at 20:07
When speaking about the harshest aspects of existence, I am referring to the existential aspects of existence which cause so much suffering, ranging f...
October 30, 2021 at 19:47
It is true that there is religious thinking and, on the other hand, the ideas within wisdom and spiritual thinking. It is possible to have spiritual i...
October 30, 2021 at 10:40
It is true that science and logic cannot disprove God, but, on the other hand, science and logic cannot prove God's existence. There was Anselm's onto...
October 30, 2021 at 10:32
Aside from books being written on philosophy and religion, there was the whole tradition of theology, and it was a vast body of thought. I tried readi...
October 30, 2021 at 08:01
I like your image of multiple keys, but not being able to find one that fits, in thinking about the esoteric. I can see that Gnosticism and Rosucriani...
October 29, 2021 at 20:58
There is plenty of literature on esoteric aspects of religion and philosophy, ranging from Gnosticism, the Rosucrucians, theosophy and the ideas of Ru...
October 29, 2021 at 11:36
Yes, that book sounds worth reading. You are good at finding them online, while I seem to still find most of the ones I read as paper books on shelves...
October 29, 2021 at 11:32
The idea which you refer to of there being one true reality is an approach which many, especially thinkers of religious viewpoints adhere to. I find s...
October 29, 2021 at 08:24
Your answer offers a good summary of the way in which religious and philosophical approaches have unifying but slightly different angles 'as operating...
October 29, 2021 at 08:13
Yes, I probably wanted answers to the existential questions and was extremely disappointed when they could not be found. Instead, there may be those w...
October 29, 2021 at 01:05
The question is whether the idea of the 'void ' leads to meaningless or potential sources of finding meaning in life. What is the void, is it an absen...
October 28, 2021 at 18:34
I didn't have a particular theoretical basis for choice of the word 'secular age'. I used it because, as I understand, statistics show that people hav...
October 27, 2021 at 18:10
Charles Taylor's book sounds interesting and I will try to find out more, so thanks for the recommendation.
October 27, 2021 at 17:56
You raise many questions, and Socrates as well as Jesus accepted the pain of death, as did some Christian martyrs. Part of the problem in understandin...
October 27, 2021 at 17:55
The origins of Western religion is interesting and I am sure that Greece was central, but it is probably extremely complex. That is because there was ...
October 27, 2021 at 17:43
I was just reading your reply and it would probably be too simplistic to say that philosophy provides a replacement for religious ideas. I was thinkin...
October 27, 2021 at 17:28
One aspect of your thread question on knowledge gained by smelling and touching etc is the aspect of sensory pleasure. The reason why I say this is be...
October 27, 2021 at 16:52
Your reply is interesting and I come from a Catholic background, and I do still go to church with a friend at times. However, I feel that going to chu...
October 27, 2021 at 16:38
I think that it may be likely that I wish to 'have a cake and eat it', but, beyond this, I do wonder about how the idea of the collective unconscious ...
October 25, 2021 at 21:48
I began a book by Victor Frankl last week, so I will bear in mind your question, and, hopefully be able to give an answer to this in a few days; and m...
October 25, 2021 at 21:17
I am not sure whether one may remain happy or not with Jung's analysis. He looked at the aspects of experience, and I did spend some time in Jungian a...
October 25, 2021 at 21:05