Increasingly puzzled by the assertion that rigorous religious scholarship and rigorous religious practice are incompatible... Are there any scholar-practitioners in the academy who are out and proud without facing ostracism? Even worse than what I encountered in the sciences...
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Replying to @NoaidiX
I think they can be incompatible. When I was a student I had a professor of Buddhism who told me she believed Tantric adepts meditated well enough they could fly. I felt that this religious belief of hers made her less valuable as a scholar.
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Replying to @ericlinuskaplan
While such rhetoric can be problematic, particularly if touted as fact (rather than entertained as possibility) in an academic setting, this isn't what I'm getting at. Beliefs aside, let's say she prays, meditates, attends church/etc., or engages in other religious *practice.* 1/
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Replying to @NoaidiX @ericlinuskaplan
A critical first-person perspective is not automatically impossible as a result of her practice. In my experience, a critical first-person perspective on practice can substantially enhance one's scholarship, especially if these practices are the "object" of one's studies.
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Replying to @NoaidiX
Im troubled cause it makes it harder to understans the social function if religion. Like if somebody believed Christians in usa believe “God hates gays” because He actually does, i think they are hindered from understanding the relation of religion and politics in USA.
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Replying to @ericlinuskaplan
Again, I'm talking about *practice,* not belief. Even scientists have their own problematic beliefs and tendencies toward confirmation bias. Expressing personal opinions is not the purpose of scholarship. A *practitioner* of a particular religion is not necessarily doing this.
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A critical first-person perspective precludes any appeal to "it's this way because it's this way." A critical first-person perspective, entirely compatible with religious *practice,* entails scrutinizing the "object" of one's study from the inside-out as well as outside-in.
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