Hi @jimmy ,
Appreciate your response. Helpful! Your response reminded me of the framework I was introduced to in the past in one of the courses I took but I am not sure of the origins of the methodology. It was about applying the framework of logical consistency, empirical adequacy, existential relevance to the answers provided by a religion about the question of origin, meaning, morality and destiny.
Now I also recall, what you share about coherence and correspondence is also true of the journey of CS Lewis coming to Christianity. For example, in the article, C.S. LEWIS THE TRUTH-SEEKER: HOW GOD FORMED A GREAT CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST, Joel Woodruff writes -
" Now Lewis explored pantheistic religions such as Hinduism and the monistic world of Buddhism. He was intrigued by the idea that the “Absolute” rather than being vague was somehow immanent, within and around everything. Perhaps everything really was spiritual and matter was an illusion. This worldview seemed to touch his imagination and was more intellectually challenging.
However, again, his logic forced him to realize that pantheism was unable to explain the physical and spiritual worlds in a way that seemed to bear any resemblance to reality. To totally abandon the obvious, the physical world, and claim that it is just an illusion went too far. What’s more, within pantheism there seemed to be no way to link goodness and truth. He would later write in his book Miracles , “The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you.”
Lewis knew both through logic and from exploring his heart within, that there must be another way to explain the world as we see it."
"Lewis knew that truth would somehow reconcile the rational, intellectual external side of his life with the deep yearning that he felt from the internal imaginative side of his being. Finally, after years of thinking, reading, arguing, debating, reflecting, engaging in discussions with friends, and reading literature, Lewis gave in to the intellectual idea that God exists. He writes, “In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”7
At this point, Lewis had converted to theism, the idea that God created humankind and the world in which we live. A Creator God best explains the reality that we perceive with our senses and the inner longings that we have for something greater than ourselves. But Lewis still had not converted to Christ. He had fallen into the camp of the monotheistic worldview held by Jews, Christians, and Muslims and was simply a theist.
And finally Joel Woodruff writes about Lewis coming to Christianity-
"On September 19, 1931, Lewis went for a walk with his friends Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien behind Magdalen College on a favorite trail called Addison’s Walk. That night they discussed the literary idea of myth. Myth as they defined it was a story that passed on some element of truth and touched the imagination.
Tolkien argued that the difference between all other myths and the Christian myth was that the Christian story really happened in history through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus was who He said He was, and He really arose from the dead. He encouraged Lewis to approach the New Testament story with the same passion he exhibited when approaching other literary works.
One aspect not dicussed in this article is how polytheism was ruled out but this journey of CS Lewis seems like something to look into further in understanding how to apply the frameworks of logical consistency, empirical adequacy and existential relevance to different worldviews.
Anyway, thanks for getting us started on the response.