Religion and Intuition

[osgart]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

Science very often discusses evidence outside the bounds of human intuition. Scientific evidence is often mathematically based.

Do people need to break off from their trusted intuitions in order to know important things about existence?

 

[sooda]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

Science very often discusses evidence outside the bounds of human intuition. Scientific evidence is often mathematically based.

Do people need to break off from their trusted intuitions in order to know important things about existence?

Intuition would be based on prior experience and paying attention. .. and even then it is not foolproof. Did you think it was supernatural?

 

[leov]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

Science very often discusses evidence outside the bounds of human intuition. Scientific evidence is often mathematically based.

Do people need to break off from their trusted intuitions in order to know important things about existence?

I think that it rather intuition helps sorting out religion. Intuition helps to find spiritual rationality in a religion.

 

[osgart]

Intuition would be based on prior experience and paying attention. .. and even then it is not foolproof. Did you think it was supernatural?

No, not supernatural. Religious People seem to put a lot of trust in their intuitions. And there is a lot of input out there that caters to those intuitions.

 

[exchemist]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

Science very often discusses evidence outside the bounds of human intuition. Scientific evidence is often mathematically based.

Do people need to break off from their trusted intuitions in order to know important things about existence?

Intuition is a very valuable way of developing ideas and hypotheses, in science as in other fields. But in science, obviously, a hypothesis has then to be tested against observation of nature. So quite clearly, intuition alone is not enough for science.

I would take issue with your statement that scientific evidence is mathematically based. I don't think that is right. It is physically based, i.e. based on observation of nature. Such observations require gaining data from the physical world, so cannot be merely mathematical.

 

[osgart]

I think that it rather intuition helps sorting out religion. Intuition helps to find spiritual rationality in a religion.

Do you think intuition can be deceptive at all?

 

[sooda]

No, not supernatural. Religious People seem to put a lot of trust in their intuitions. And there is a lot of input out there that caters to those intuitions.

I wouldn't know.. I come from a long line of religious people who went to MIT and Ga Tech.. worked at Oakridge, NASA etc.

They aren't much on religious "intuition".

 

[osgart]

I wouldn't know.. I come from a long line of religious people who went to MIT and Ga Tech.. worked at Oakridge, NASA etc.

They aren't much on religious "intuition".

What made them religious then, if i may ask?

 

[sooda]

What made them religious then, if i may ask?

Going to church their whole lives.. but they weren't fundamentalists.

 

[leov]

Do you think intuition can be deceptive at all?

It can. If you are not ready to process information, imo.

 

[osgart]

Going to church their whole lives.. but they weren't fundamentalists.

I used to go to church because of tradition, culture, family influences and not because i was a believer. By religious people I do mean believers.

 

[steveb1]

I understand intuition as a hunch that ends up reflected in life events and situations, or that was a dead end from the get-go. One can have an intuition that God and the Spirit exist, but how one proves it by life-observation escapes me.

 

[bobhikes]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

Science very often discusses evidence outside the bounds of human intuition. Scientific evidence is often mathematically based.

Do people need to break off from their trusted intuitions in order to know important things about existence?

It depends what you think are the important things about existence. For me Nurishment, Protection and Procreation are about all I need.

Whether water is made of 2 parts hydrogen to 1 part oxygen/ Not necessary.
A formula for gravity/Not necessary
How the earth formed/Not necessary

Science is all interesting information but really not necessary for our existence and wasn't necessary for at least 100000 years. It is a good read and helps create jobs and can provide avenues to the big three but not necessary.

 

[sun rise]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

When I've had flashes of intuition, it had nothing to do one way or another with religion.

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

My intuitive flashes also had nothing to do with gaining knowledge. They have come in the form of a sense that I should do something.

One example was having the urge to contact someone which came out of the blue. It turned out that person was dying and I had no idea she was anything but healthy. There was no reason for that urge since I had no facts to back it up.

 

[osgart]

When I've had flashes of intuition, it had nothing to do one way or another with religion.



My intuitive flashes also had nothing to do with gaining knowledge. They have come in the form of a sense that I should do something.

One example was having the urge to contact someone which came out of the blue. It turned out that person was dying and I had no idea she was anything but healthy. There was no reason for that urge since I had no facts to back it up.

But there are people whom have religious intuitions. The idea of a creator is such an intuition. Teological arguments appeal to intuitions. There would be no believers without these intuitions.

 

[sooda]

I used to go to church because of tradition, culture, family influences and not because i was a believer. By religious people I do mean believers.

Good for you.

 

[sealchan]

Does religion appeal to people's intuitions?

Is intuition a reliable means of gaining knowledge?

Science very often discusses evidence outside the bounds of human intuition. Scientific evidence is often mathematically based.

Do people need to break off from their trusted intuitions in order to know important things about existence?

Sorry I missed this thread until now...

Here is my understanding of intuition based on Jung, cognitive science and some other perspectives...

Intuition is an "irrational" cognitive function which allows us to perceive "truth". It is a complementary opposite to sensation which aims at differentiating the directly observable facts of our existence. Intuition, like sensation, is irrational in that it does not construct knowledge based on rational argument but rather perception of what is. Where as sensation focuses on allowing us to recognize objects of the senses and to understand their physical progressions through sensory spaces, intuition operates to find persistent patterns across sensory modalities. Mathematics, or the quantification of our sensory experience, is very much a matter of intuition grasping the patterns of our sensory experience. Also the way we often map sensory experiences to other unrelated topics shows how intuition is always creatively looking to connect different things back together in some more abstract context.

Intuition and sensation as complimentary pairs of opposite functions of cognitive perception help to contextualize and validate each other. Too much reliance on one at the expense of the other creates a mal-adaptive attitude in the individual psyche.

Now, religion often addresses things at a level above and beyond the day-to-day practical level. As such it typically relies on intuitive perceptions about the nature of things. In this way intuition is key in religion as it must rely on some commonly intuitable pattern that can be seen to "lie behind" the more "mundate facts" of practical reality. As such these intuitive perceptions (beliefs) give us some sense of freedom from or transcendence of our more practical, sensory experience. This freedom is vital to our personal psychological "hygiene". Well-crafted fantasy even is made such that enough of the patterns of our real lives can be found in the fantasy that we can be momentarily caught up in an alternate reality and be shown a perspective that gives us hope for a betterment of that reality we find ourselves in. This is the ultimate value and function of religion in a healthy society.