Journal of the Philosophy and Religion Society of Thailand

Liminal Thinking: Create the Change You Want by Changing the Way You Think.

Chatchai Khumtaveeporn — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

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Secular Humanism, Liberalism, and the Erosion of Moral Foundations: Examining the Consequences in Contemporary Society

Hakim Sudinpreeda — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

The impact of secular humanist philosophy on contemporary society has indeed led to a decline in moral values. This decline can be attributed to several factors. Firstly, humanism's heavy reliance on reason, reminiscent of the Enlightenment era's emphasis on rationality, has hugely challenged traditional moral frameworks. Additionally, the promotion of progress based on freedom, as seen in liberalism, has hindered critical thinking and straightforwardly facilitated the support of dangerous ideologies. Moreover, the rejection of traditional religions by contemporary humanism overlooks essential aspects of human existence, so distorting the understanding of life's profound aspects, in addition to promoting utilitarianism. The principles of determinism, associated with social Darwinism, further challenge traditional morals. This web of interconnected factors ultimately contributes to moral nihilism and a hedonistic ethics that too devalues life. Not surprisingly, all the consequences mentioned are influenced by atheistic philosophies.

Lateral Thinking and Intuition

Chatchai Khumtaveeporn — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Humans create a frame of mind through social lives. This mind’s frame makes life easy, fast and efficient. But this frame neglects the data that does not match with it, so the mind sticks to the original frame. After the digital revolution, the world has had several dramatic changes. This requires lateral thinking to solve new confronting problems and take advantage of new arising opportunities. From the history of inventions and innovations, all of them are born out of lateral thinking, that can be classified into 7 types and the latter 4 types are lateral thinking caused by the work of an intuitive mind which involves gut feeling and hunch, outside the command of the conscious awareness. The intuition of experts are like ‘signposts’ to the answers. After the problem elements are rearranged and some random data is added, intuition becomes insight sent to the analytical mind, which is under the command of the consciousness. Every step to the solution can be rationally explained. Teaching students to be able to think outside the box must create an incubation period for learners to develop their informed intuition.

The Stigmata, Rainbow Bodies, and Hume’s Argument Against Miracles

Tyler Mcnabb, Erik Baldwin — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

The testimony that Jesus rose from the dead or that St. Francis miraculously received stigmata is supposed to vindicate Christianity over other religious traditions. Similarly, the rainbow bodies of important spiritual exemplars in Tibetan Buddhism can be taken to justify the Buddhist tradition over its counterparts. What should we believe when the evidence suggests that the competing miracle claims contained in two different religious contexts both happened? One of David Hume's arguments against miracles is that the competing testimonies contained in diverse religious traditions cancel each other out. In this paper, I argue against Hume. Specifically, I argue that there is logical space for thinking that Buddhist and Christian miracle claims are not competing but are to be understood consistently together.

Michael Tye’s Inferential view on animal consciousness

Weerawut Rainmanee — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

There are two main views regarding arguments for animal consciousness: the non-inferential view and the inferential view. While the former holds that we can perceive animal mental states directly because they are observable in their movements and interactions with others, the latter, defended by Michael Tye (2017), holds that animal mental states must be inferred from their behaviour. Tye argued that animal consciousness could be inferred from learning behaviour since animals can act differently in the same situation. This paper aims to analyze and defend Tye’s view based on two arguments. First, the ability of animals to learn from past experiences and apply that knowledge to guide present actions suggests that animals are conscious. Second, animals that learn to avoid situations causing previous pain demonstrate consciousness, as they actively seek to protect their bodies from further harm.