tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7756920.post8991701982514822776..comments2024-01-08T06:21:35.864-08:00Comments on Notes in Samsara: And something about New Atheists...Mumon Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01116967568502451788noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7756920.post-86467188220954923922011-11-14T17:32:22.719-08:002011-11-14T17:32:22.719-08:00The Buddha was certainly an atheist in the literal...<i>The Buddha was certainly an atheist in the literal sense</i><br /><br />That may be a possible reading,but not the only one, and not the traditional reading. There is a passage ..in an early text (Dhpd?) where Bdh. (often responding to hindu clerics) says something like ....do not make proclamations of whether...Brahma exists, or doesn't exist. But there can be no doubt that he is not a materialist--Mind exists, in some fashion, whether that offends the Herr Doktor Darwins or not (like PZ Huxley Myers, Harris, Bachelor, et al) . Yet the early pali texts rarely feature the bizarre supernatural events that the mahayana texts do (ie the Lotus sutra, for example).Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7756920.post-28060121021815095542011-10-26T07:32:20.502-07:002011-10-26T07:32:20.502-07:00Petteri:
True enough. When it's pointed out t...Petteri:<br /><br />True enough. When it's pointed out that, yeah, Buddhism <i>is</i> a religion, the standard response is, "Yeah, but I don't mean <i>your</i> kind of religion."<br /><br />Unfortunately, even in Buddhism, there's enough superstitious pap to cherry pick as well as aspects of it subject to abuse by the narcissist.<br /><br />But you're also dead on about Buddhist philosophy - I (perhaps because I'm a Westerner by upbringing & culture, but I'm not completely sold on that point) ...I ...can't see how a reasonably open-minded person can read the Lotus Sutra, or similar text, and not after awhile get the impression that it's not by any means to be taken literally. It simply doesn't read that way to me - it points beyond itself at every point.<br /><br />Myers, of course, would do well to practice stress reduction, but I generally like him.Mumon Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01116967568502451788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7756920.post-3973669739094732362011-10-26T06:39:48.222-07:002011-10-26T06:39:48.222-07:00That.
The flip side of the coin is, though, that ...That.<br /><br />The flip side of the coin is, though, that most New Atheists I've come across aren't interested in discussing anything Buddhism-related to start with. They simply dismiss it as yet another form of superstitious pap. And if you keep bringing it up, they will stomp on you. <br /><br />This often also applies to what ought to be relatively uncontroversial stuff, such as the possible health benefits of meditation. PZ Myers recently cudgeled mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy, for example.<br /><br />IOW, as far as I'm concerned, there's not much point in discussing Buddhism with (most) New Atheists. It only irritates them, and they're not interested in doing the work to understand what the discussion is about. Buddhist philosophy isn't trivial, and most of the New Atheist critiques of it aren't very well informed IMO. Like someone critiquing Marx without understanding his theory of value, or what he meant by dialectical materialism.<br /><br />There are exceptions, natch. One of the regulars at my zendo is a very public New Atheist, for example. He likes to wear antireligious T-shirts and stuff. He's a bit of a bastard, but I like him.Brikoleurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318706625291447339noreply@blogger.com