(Originally written April 20, 2007 in Book 7)
Philosophy of Religion
John H. Hick
A Philosophical Framework for Religious Pluralism
We can assume that the Real (an ultimate being) is one, but that human perceptions of the real are many.
Immanuel Kant distinguished between the noumenal and phenomenal world:
1) Noumenal World - the world as it is
2) Phenomenal World - the world as it appears to the human consciousness
Kant used this distinction in psychological/epistemological theorizing, but it can be applied physiologically. The table I perceive would be a swirling universe of discharging energy to a micro observer.
"The way the world appears to us is the way the world is for us as we inhabit and interact with it" (Hick, 120).
The Real can also be understood as having a noumenal existence, while our interactions with the Real are said to be a phenomenal one. Thus the Real is one and our experience with it is pluralistic.
The various gods of religions are different personae of the Real. Each personae is unique and embodied in a particular religion.
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