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 Newsletter Nr. 668  
 Amsterdam, Julye 18th, 2017


HOW TO AVOID PROBLEMS INHERENT IN "GOD" LANGUAGE - JOSEPH DILLARD

The problems for Integral with using the word “God” are multiple and serious. They aren’t trivial. People who believe in God generally assume that life would be meaningless without Him, Her, or It. They also believe that thoughts are things, that is, because they can think of a concept like God that it necessarily implies the existence of God. They assume that their personal experiences of God are not only accurate depictions of an external reality but that these personal experiences accurately reflect universal experiences and truths. But these assumptions are essentially beliefs, coated with a thin veneer of rationality. The ability to think a concept does not imply its reality, despite what St. Anselm or Descartes might claim.[1] That you or I have an experience of oneness does not imply that oneness is the same for everyone, as demonstrated by the many conflicting historical experiences of oneness, God and godlessness, as in Buddhism.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/dillard5.html


PROBLEMATIC ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT AQAL'S MORAL LINE OF DEVELOPMENT - JOSEPH DILLARD

Whether individual behavioral transgressions (lying, stealing, hitting, physical abuse) disqualify a higher level of development or not is open to debate; there are issues of both quality, as in intention and context, and quantity, as in degree of damage, to be worked out. For example, you cannot simply say that lying is pre-conventional moral development and that anyone who tells any lie is therefore at a prepersonal level of moral development, that since moral development is for integral a core line that determines overall stage development, and that if you lie we have proof you are no further than late prepersonal in your development. It’s not that simple. There are obviously issues of quality and quantity of lying. What do you lie about? To whom? Why? In what circumstances? How often?

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/dillard6.html