Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism
Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism
Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism
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<strong>Atheism</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Theism</strong> 45<br />
There are all sorts of possible explanations of the numinous. Here is an<br />
example. I love the hills. Hills at the top of a glen can look a bit like huge<br />
crouching animals, <strong>and</strong> this may make us feel towards them as one would<br />
towards conscious beings, even though we know that they are solid rock <strong>and</strong><br />
have no personality whatever. With this ‘as if ’ feeling there can be one that<br />
I am inclined to describe as numinous. It presumably arises from some neurological<br />
harmoniousness that comes from the fact that the structure of our<br />
brains is largely that of our early prehistoric ancestors <strong>and</strong> so is adapted to<br />
surrounds of wilderness, or something like wilderness (even though the hills<br />
had been cleared for sheep). I do not put this forward as a serious piece of<br />
psychology, as a good explanation for the sort of case that I have in mind.<br />
I am neither a psychologist nor an anthropologist. It obviously will not do as<br />
a general explanation, since many mystics have hardly been hill persons or<br />
lovers of wilderness. I put it forward as a suggestion that naturalistic explanations<br />
of mystical experiences need not be too hard to come by. I do not want<br />
to decry the experiences: the experiences can certainly be valued, <strong>and</strong> as I said<br />
in an earlier section, contemplation of the laws of nature can certainly induce<br />
religious emotions, <strong>and</strong> these should be prized. As a philosopher I often<br />
wonder what it would be like to spend all one’s life on practical <strong>and</strong> humancentred<br />
concerns, such as politics, economics, town planning, <strong>and</strong> all sorts of<br />
business, administrative <strong>and</strong> managerial activities, with no time <strong>and</strong> leisure to<br />
indulge the philosophic <strong>and</strong> scientific impulse to contemplate the universe at<br />
large. It is fortunate indeed that most people do not have this impulse, for<br />
they are the people who make the world go round. In hospital I do not want<br />
too dreamily philosophical a nurse or physician. One of the virtues of organized<br />
religion is that whether it is true or false it does to a certain extent cater<br />
for the speculative <strong>and</strong> even to some extent cosmic impulses in a wide section<br />
of the population, despite a certain anthropocentricity in some features of<br />
some of the world’s religions.<br />
Religious experience does of course often take specific forms depending on<br />
particular religions or cultural circumstances. Catholic peasants may report an<br />
encounter with the Virgin Mary, whereas Muslims, Jews or Buddhists would<br />
hardly do so. Again particular circumstances may have something to do with<br />
it, as in the case of Paul on the road to Damascus, feeling turmoil <strong>and</strong> guilt<br />
about his previous activities of persecuting Christians, seeing a great light <strong>and</strong><br />
seeming to hear the voice of a risen Jesus. (Acts xii, 3–19; xxii, 6–21; xxvi,<br />
12–18. In the first of these passages Paul’s companions are said to hear the<br />
voice, but not in the second. Perhaps the light could have been an unusual<br />
light in the atmosphere. A sceptic would have to take the companions having<br />
heard the voice too as an embellishment of the story in later years, or of the<br />
companions’ recollection soon afterwards.) Joan of Arc heard voices, <strong>and</strong><br />
some have put this down to tuberculosis affecting her brain. The point is not