Logical and Ethical Issues of Religious Belief (An Old and Rare Book)

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This book reproduces the series of 1978 Stephanos Nirma-lendu Ghosh lectures which I delivered at the University of Calcutta in August-September, 1980. I wish to thank the Donor family, the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of the University of Calcutta, for allowing me this opportunity to go back to my old university and share my thoughts with my old friends, colleagues, teachers and students. My special thank is due to Mr. J. Pal who made my visit a very pleasant one, and to Mr. Saroj Mallik who helped me in many ways during my visit.

It is a happy duty to thank all those who helped preparing these lectures and finally the book. Prof. Kalidas Bhattacharya has always encouraged me and stimulated my thoughts in numerous conversations and correspondences. A brief discussion with Prof. Gopinath Bhattacharya was immensely satisfactory. Dr. G. Sastri's encouragement is kindly acknowledged. I received comments and criticisms from many who were present in the lectures. It goes without saying that the final version reflects my acceptance of many of these comments. I wish to thank specially Swami Lokeswarananda, Profs. Naresh Chandra Chakrabarti, Kalikrishna Banerjee, N. B. Chakrabarti, Pranab Kumar Sen, Pradyot Kumar Mukhopadhyay, D. P. Chatto-padhyay, Sailaja Kumar Bhattacharya, Prabal Kumar Sen, Kisor Chakrabarti, and Dr. Sukumar Bose.

An invitation to the Indian Academy of Philosophy provided me with the opportunity to have discussion with Profs. C. Bhattacharya, R. Das, S. Chakrabarti, Dr. Apala Chakrabarti, and 'Dr. Sandhya Basu.

I am very grateful to Swami Lokeswarananda who made my stay at the R. K. Mission Institute of Culture very enjoyable and rewarding.

To Arindam Chakrabarti special thanks are due for not only his help and comments but also his abiding interest in this book. And I am more grateful to Dr. S. Bose, Professor N. Chakrabarti and Sri Prabal Kumar Sen for their ungrudging help in seeing this book through the press. Without the help from the last it would have been impossible to publish this book.

INDIAN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

`Indian Philosophy of Religion'—the main title of my Step-hanos lectures—can also be rephrased as 'Philosophy of Indian Religions'. What I have tried to do in the course of these lectures is to develop an impressionistic outline of a sub-discipline `philosophy of Indian religions' in the way I often envision it myself. Each philosopher is entitled to defend his approach or views. In such an attempt, it is not necessary for him to prove that all other approaches are wrong or misdirected, but rather to give enough reason to show why a particular approach appeals to his mind rationally, to his aesthetic sense as well as to his sense of propriety. This situation is as much true in the case of philosophies as it is in the case of religions.

Existence of different and divergent religious faiths is an undeniable fact and it is scandalous to claim that one religion is superior to all others. Such claims usually degenerate into quarrels expressed as "My God is better than yours", which is only a caricature of the children's quarrel "My dog is better than yours". Therefore, in order to expand, explain and defend one's religious faith, one need not prove that all other religions are false or bad or both. But one can certainly give enough reason to show why a particular religion appeals to him aesthetically and rationally as well as to his sense of propriety. And in this matter, I wish to include even scepticism as a religion, for there are and always have been many sceptics and agnostics in our midst, and they may try to explain why scepticism rather than any particular faith appeals to them.

There does not exist, as far as I know, a well-defined discipline today called "Indian Philosophy of Religion". And I think that a beginning should be made. India is the original home for at least three or four world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. She also houses today many other world religions. Islam is the most prominent one, and besides, there have been Christians and Jews in India from very ancient times. If knowing a lot of science is helpful for developing a philosophy of science, knowing a lot of religions should be considered helpful in developing a philosophy of religion.