When in Sarah's review of 'One Great Whole', she wrote "using his background in Philosophy", it made me think to look at this College thesis again. The intro paragraphs feel similar to the big claims made in that book, and my idealism. But going further into the paper reminds me of the complexity of some philosophical books and concepts, and the analytical training and exercise it was to go through that program at Colorado College. The 40 pages of this thesis that I still have and posted here, feel significant also in terms of the difficultly it was to organize and structure the conceptual progression in the three book series.. and when I review this paper, I see what helpful preparation this assignment was.
I'm sharing this because it shows so many cool things I loved about philosophy, especially the analytical detail of Wittgenstein's philosophy of language explored here. I have always loved reading difficult writing, because doing so makes me feel like I'm getting smarter in the process, or exercising my brain. Years later, really trying to understand some of the points from this thesis once again, gives me this feeling. The intro here is very simple, but there is more complexity and challenge in the sections to follow. I personally think that while human reason has serious limitations in terms of deriving knowledge about metaphysical truth, the human attempt to have tried to do that with philosophical inquiry and reflection was admirable.
The word 'Philosophy' means "Love of knowledge", which in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is only an issue in so far as it would distract people from loving God and others, or to become puffed up in pride for having knowledge. The major irony is that for all the philosophers love of knowledge, you can only derive so much with reason without having good premises and data to work with. It's for this reason that these books are unique, or a very special kind of analytical reflection. They are working with material that has it's roots beyond the mortal/material or earthly veil. NDEs gives stories and evidence of the Spirit world, and the HEF is part of the immortal substance of the human soul that is able to be measured by scientific instruments.
Reflection on premises and material of this world cannot bring information about spiritual things, or the world to come. But reflection upon spiritual things, and the glimpse of the eternal world that is opened in NDEs, and scientific findings regarding the HEF can provide insight into spiritual concepts. The main purpose of the books is to use these new evidences as material to reflect upon in support of religious and spiritual understanding. They are not offered as a replacement of anything scriptural, but as additional supportive evidence and argument of scriptural truth..
This paper is interesting, and shows some of the exercises in analytical detail that were a precursor to writing the books..
(Download is given below)
