Religion, science and Buddhism

laurence82 SG

Think there was a debate on reconciliation of religion with science sometime ago, and i put forward some points in that thread, cant rem which thread tho

Just now, browsing thru the net, i saw this article which also support some of my arguments..will like to put it up here...

http://www.ksridhammananda.com/pictures/PUBLI/RELIGION%20IN%20A%20SCIENTIFIC%20AGE.pdf#search='intellectual%20buddhism'

An Eternal Now SG

Finished reading Ven.Dhammananda's great article.

I also enjoyed reading many of his other buddhist articles.

This monk is a Ph.D holder.

laurence82 SG

Hmm, got links for his other works?

Anyway, I onli see one mistake there, in which he says religionists challenge Darwin's Theory human evolved from ape.

Actually, it should be human share same ancestors as ape.

Origami SG

Actually he is correct in saying that. After all, which of the main religion says we evolved from apes? Smile

Gedanken SG

Interesting article.

Gautama Buhhda was well ahead of his time. Certainly, 2500 years ago he was practising many counselling techniques that were only introduced in psychology within the last 100 years.

I personally do not subscribe to religion, and I choose to view Buddhism in terms of philosophy than religion. From that perspective, the Buhhda was one of the greatest thinkers I have ever come across - his clarity of thought was amazing. The author is correct in highlighting how Buddhist philosophy regarding the Truth is parallel to the key operating principles of scientific research, and the only other religion I have seen reflecting that viewpoint is Sikhism.

An Eternal Now SG

A person who follows blindly without finding out the truth sees Buddhism as mysterious. The person who researched into Buddhism may find it complex. However the one who practices find Buddhism in fact, very simple.

There's an important point which Ven.Dhammananda pointed out:

Practice is important in Buddhism. A person who studies much but does not practise is like one who is able to recite recipes from a huge cooker-book without trying to prepare a single dish. His hunger cannot be relieved by book knowledge alone. Practice is such an important prerequisite of enlightenment that in some schools of Buddhism, such as Zen, practice is put even ahead of knowledge.

Viewing Budhism as simply a religion, or simply philosophy, are IMHO, not complete.

Ven. Jue-Hsing

A scholar once asked, "Buddhism seems a great theory, and I find it useful. Is Buddhism a Philosophy?"

"Master Shen-Kai once said 'Buddhism is not Philosophy but beyond Philosophy,'" I replied.

"Why so?" The scholar asked.

"Philosophy is a system of thoughts based upon logical reasoning." I answered. "However, Buddhism is about realizing truths while detaching from thoughts."

- www.bewithbuddha.org

laurence82 SG

No, I didnt mean there is a religion which says man evolve from ape.

What I meant was, in the article he mentioned Darwin claimed human evolved from ape. Darwin never said so. Its a common myth not checked up by people usually.