COULD WE IMAGINE A RELIGION FOR PRIVATE USE?
Keywords:
ReligionAbstract
Wittgenstein made the remark, “Make sure that your religion is a matter between you and God only,”1 during a discussion when his pupil and friend M. O’C Drury mentioned his intention to be ordained a priest after leaving Cambridge. Wittgenstein did not want to ridicule the idea, nor could he approve it. He thought that the clerical collar would choke Drury one day. He was thinking of the institutional and dogmatic aspects of being a priest in the Anglican Church. He found attempts to make religious beliefs as scientific theories or philosophical propositions offensive and ridiculous. Drury would be tempted to present Christian beliefs as more or less proved scientific hypotheses or logical conclusions in his sermons and teachings, according to Wittgenstein. It was in this context Wittgenstein had made the above remark.
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