The Occult,
Kabbala, Alchemy, etc.
I
have zero interest in any of these except insofar as they supply
motivations for my fictional characters. If
you are curious about unfamiliar symbols, letters, characters, etc.
appearing in my work, you may find useful information here. Among
great scientists of past generations were some Christians who developed
some ways of thinking about religion that I find very interesting,
e.g. the Unitarianism of Sir Isaac Newton, the Monadology of Leibniz,
and Latitudinarianism, which influenced John Locke and informed
the approach to science that was taken by Lord Kelvin. The
latter (Latitudinarianism) says that humans aren’t smart or well-informed
enough to develop theological systems, religious laws, etc. that
can be taken for absolute. It is naturally appealing to scientists.
Scientists can see perfectly well that we don’t know or understand
everything yet, and so they are naturally suspicious of prophets
or theologians who claim to have it all figured out! At any rate,
this is what I think about when I think about religion. See
also Politics for some material relevant to this topic. |