Week 5&6

1. Why is Faqir Chand's experiences important in understanding the projective nature of religious visions and miracles?

People seem to experience visions or miracles when their lives are in great danger or when they are on the verge of death. Faqir Chand's experience gives us an insight into what really happens when a person experiences a vision or miracle. Among the many life experiences he shared, he spoke of a vision he had while serving in the military that saved his life and the lives of many others in his crew. Once in a battle, Chand and the other soldiers realized that they would all die if they were attacked again before ammunition supplies reached them. He, like the others, was afraid for his life. In the book "The Unknowing Sage“ Chand states "In this very moment of fear the Holy Form of Hazard Data Dayal Ji appeared before me and said, ‘Faqir, worry not, the enemy has not come to attack but to take away their dead. Let them do that. Don't waste your ammunition’"(Lane 14). After following the instruction he successfully saved all his crew’s lives. He realized that everyone will have their own vision according to their belief at that very moment. He later concluded that If a person has a strong faith in his God, his God will appear to him and help him in times of need “My faith was strengthened, and I concluded whosoever remembers God in whatever form, in that very form he helped his devotee” (Inner Visions and Running Time). The film “Near Death Experiences: Neural Projections and Staying Alive” provides a few examples such as a high school student who saw a beautiful bicycle instead of a religious figure in the near-death state. This is because the visions that can be seen at the moment of death depend on the individual's own beliefs and experiences. "This helps explain why Christians having NDE’s tend to see Jesus at the end of the tunnel and not Lord Krishna and why Sikhs may see Guru Nanak and not the Virgin Mary. That NDE’s are culturally variable is instructive, even if there may well be core elements common to all—from tunnels, lights, and inner sounds" (Near Death Experiences).

2. What is meant by the phrase, "philosophy done well is science; philosophy done poorly remains philosophy."

Philosophy and science are essentially the same, answering different questions through the formulation of propositions, rational thought and rigorous proof. In the ancient Greek period, philosophers took the whole world as an object of study. However, since the rise of natural science in the 17th century the central problem of philosophy has shifted from the nature of the world to man's knowledge of it. Philosophy discussed infinity and continuity before mathematics, philosophy discussed the atom before physics, and philosophy discussed the elements before chemistry. Philosophy is the precursor of the natural sciences, and it provides the direction for human research and the accumulation of knowledge.

On the other hand, Philosophy is too vague to be compared with the precise scientific disciplines. Whenever science makes a new discovery, philosophy has to stop and listen. The strength of science lies in its ability to provide quantifiable evidence to support its theories, and it is like a microscope that is continually discovering new laws of nature. Philosophy, on the contrary, is the telescope of mankind, through which we can see the infinite wonders of the universe. Perhaps every time we arrive at a new place, we use a microscope to observe and study it. But facing the infinite universe we still need a telescope to show the way.