Wayne, I like what you said about uncertainty. The way I see it, the less we know about a proposition, the more staunchly we tend to defend it. It happens in science too much. But it happens in religion, even more. In the end, we can know with some certainty what we feel at the moment. And with a great deal of reasoning we can be pretty sure of the proposition "I think I think; therefore I think I am." Further afield, we actually know very little. So I tend to think that the truth of a religious proposition lies not in some essence of fact, but in how we would feel about living in a group, a society, a world that embraces the same proposition. For example "all people are equal before the law." When religious ideas and practices help us to be more kind, reflective, and open to other people, I think they can help us feel better about our place in society. And they can help us be part of a happier society. It is my opinion, however, that a great deal of theolog...
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The problem western Christians have with meditation is cultural, not religious. They've unthinkingly bought into the modernist point of
view which is totally materialistic. When I taught at Messiah, at least once the parents of a student complained to the Dean about some
imagining exercises I did with Acting students. I was using "meditation," which was clearly not Christian. Such is the stupidity of certain evangelical Christians who don't even realize that it's THEIR viewpoint that's not Christian.