Hi Laird!
I quote from the transcript: Sheldrake: "
I agree, and biblical scholarship has revealed all sorts of things about the Bible and it’s clear that SOME (my underlining) elements of it are mythic, they’re stories that grow up" (...)"The key thing is, I do think Jesus actually existed. I do think that Jesus actually went around teaching many of the things we read about in the New Testament and most biblical scholarship suggests that that was the case."
See, I have no problem with that belief - personally, I am agnostic about the real existence of the historical Jesus and to be honest I am not even particularly interested in the Bible etc. But those statements by R. Sheldrake are clear evidence of his believing the key tenets of the "Christian belief structure" (as you refer to it). I never meant that one has necessarily to believe 100% of the Christian belief structure to be still considered a believer of that faith (especially since there are gazillions of Christian denominations which do not all believe in the same things - but they share enough common ground to still consider themselves Christian, and to be considered as such by others).
So, he's a believer of that faith - so IF at the same time he wishes to imply (this is not 100% clear to me) that Lord Ganesha or Unicorns or Scientology are equally true because the rituals around them work for other people, I am sorry but he is thus ignoring the elephant in the room: there can be only one Ultimate Truth (and this does obviously NOT mean that I know it!)
Which links up to a question addressed to me by Charlie Primero: there must logically be one and one only ultimate Truth (even if we don't know it), because even the assertion/belief whereby there is no ultimate Truth and everything goes, hence there was a historical Jesus and at the same time we can develop a spiritual connection with Unicorns or Santa Claus and at the same time Scientology is not bullshit etc etc (ie: an assertion whereby mutually conflicting beliefs would all be true at the same time) would in itself be "the Ultimate Truth", supposing things are exactly like that.
Problem is, the vast majority (though admittedly not all, but this is just evidence of their not thinking things through) of the believers of any of these religions/alternative philosophies/spirituality forms (call them what you wish) would insist that no, they are right and the others are deluding themselves (ask any Christian who is truly a believer and not just going to church because it's something nice or reassuring or just conformist to do on a Sunday).
And personally, I find it hard to imagine (let alone disappointing) that the Ultimate Truth could be simply utter chaos (an inconceivably irrational 'thing" where everything and its opposite are equally true and real). But hey, it could certainly be the case. However this scenario is hardly one that believers (in anything) would agree with. If there is something all believers share, is belief in an order that "makes sense" (regardless of our ability to see it clearly).
Finally, on the topic of the placebo effect, Baccarat: if you suggest that turmeric works because there may be ways in which it interacts with other "factors" you are implying that there are material reasons for its effect. However "the placebo effect" is a different thing, it suggests that there is another way of healing beyond the material (from wikipedia): "The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and
the brain's role in physical health."
However what this "way/dimension" is we don't know for sure. And this is why attributing feeling better/ spiritual or physical healing to a spiritual connection with Jesus because he truly existed and is of course still out there somewhere or to Unicorns because they are allegedly real although in another dimension may or may not be just a delusion, but what is truly interesting and important is why it works, regardless of the actual truth of what specific people happen to believe in. THIS is what I am interested in, the ultimate Truth, not so much whether spiritual practices work or not.
The Ultimate Truth may in fact be that NONE of the things humans have imagined throughout the ages (Jesus included) are real. But they still 'work'. Why is that? Is there something behind reality that we have no clue about whatsoever but that seems to enjoy distracting (and dividing us!) by leading different people to believe in different things, no matter how outlandish, by producing 'results' for them, so that lots of different beliefs have something to show for themselves, but precisely for this (ie, there may be be something in each of them but none of them is demonstrably "the one") none of them can be considered THE right one, objectively?
I find this level of analysis to be truly important and although as I said I truly love Rupert Sheldrake I was disappointed that he did not address it. OK, he's not a philosopher, but I would have loved to hear his opinion on these deeper questions.