RE: Help me out here, Ex Buddhists.
April 30, 2015 at 10:25 am
(This post was last modified: April 30, 2015 at 10:38 am by Brian37.)
No religion magically pops out of dirt. Humans create new clubs based on surrounding and prior motifs. Buddhism isn't any different. The first Buddha had parents and a surrounding society and prior claims he became aware of and built on. Just like we can accept that Christianity came form Jews.
Religion was never required for evolution to occur otherwise we would see evidence of the dinosaurs creating their own monuments to their gods. We would see cockroach gods. If one can accept that the meteor had no concern for the survival of dinosaurs why is our species so stuck on our current placebos?
It isn't any sort of call to end religion by force, just a statement of fact as to why humans invent them. Humans seek to group, humans also make attempts to explain the world around them. The problem is far more often than not our species perceptions of reality are notoriously flawed. Whatever good you can find in Buddhism you can find similar motifs in every religion. Which says to me our species behavior isn't in the labels but in our evolution.
Religion exists, not because humans need it, it exists because our species history of gap filling. For the same reason one rightfully rejects the polytheism of the ancient Egyptians despite their 3,000 year success.
Please drop the old cold war crap. No sane atheist I would call sane should want the west to become Stalin's Russia. And even with atheists, they also miss it when I say not even "atheist" should be worshiped as a word or treated like a moral code. "Atheist" merely means off, nothing more. I get a lip twitch from atheists when they try to claim "when we get in the majority we will treat you better". NO, that type of short term thinking is due to our current status of being a minority, but we won't be around hundred of years from now regardless of who the majority becomes. Not even atheists should ever think they are above cruelty.
Now when you talk of Stalin, he had more in common with a god than I do. Both blind loyalty to a religion or blind loyalty to one party, are still blind loyalty.
DONT STUPIDLY accuse me as being the same fascist type as state fascism or religious fascism. I am extremely Jeffersonian in valuing anti monopoly concepts where no one aspect of society gets too much power. But I am also very Jeffersonian in saying sorry just because you like what you believe does not mean it deserves to be free from blasphemy. Having the right to make a claim is a given, but others also have the right to criticize that claim. Human rights are a given, but ideas by themselves do not have rights outside the ability to express them. Others also have the right to respond to what you claim.
NOT ABOUT FORCE !
Saying the earth revolves around the sun doesn't take away others rights to say stupid shit that the sun revolves around the earth. When I say Buddhism doesn't get a pass, I am not trying to force it out of existence. I am merely saying it is a human invention like all other religions.
No one, especially not me is advocating a utopia. I am simply putting the facts out there. What others do with them in accepting them or rejecting them is their business.
Religion was never required for evolution to occur otherwise we would see evidence of the dinosaurs creating their own monuments to their gods. We would see cockroach gods. If one can accept that the meteor had no concern for the survival of dinosaurs why is our species so stuck on our current placebos?
It isn't any sort of call to end religion by force, just a statement of fact as to why humans invent them. Humans seek to group, humans also make attempts to explain the world around them. The problem is far more often than not our species perceptions of reality are notoriously flawed. Whatever good you can find in Buddhism you can find similar motifs in every religion. Which says to me our species behavior isn't in the labels but in our evolution.
Religion exists, not because humans need it, it exists because our species history of gap filling. For the same reason one rightfully rejects the polytheism of the ancient Egyptians despite their 3,000 year success.
Please drop the old cold war crap. No sane atheist I would call sane should want the west to become Stalin's Russia. And even with atheists, they also miss it when I say not even "atheist" should be worshiped as a word or treated like a moral code. "Atheist" merely means off, nothing more. I get a lip twitch from atheists when they try to claim "when we get in the majority we will treat you better". NO, that type of short term thinking is due to our current status of being a minority, but we won't be around hundred of years from now regardless of who the majority becomes. Not even atheists should ever think they are above cruelty.
Now when you talk of Stalin, he had more in common with a god than I do. Both blind loyalty to a religion or blind loyalty to one party, are still blind loyalty.
DONT STUPIDLY accuse me as being the same fascist type as state fascism or religious fascism. I am extremely Jeffersonian in valuing anti monopoly concepts where no one aspect of society gets too much power. But I am also very Jeffersonian in saying sorry just because you like what you believe does not mean it deserves to be free from blasphemy. Having the right to make a claim is a given, but others also have the right to criticize that claim. Human rights are a given, but ideas by themselves do not have rights outside the ability to express them. Others also have the right to respond to what you claim.
NOT ABOUT FORCE !
Saying the earth revolves around the sun doesn't take away others rights to say stupid shit that the sun revolves around the earth. When I say Buddhism doesn't get a pass, I am not trying to force it out of existence. I am merely saying it is a human invention like all other religions.
No one, especially not me is advocating a utopia. I am simply putting the facts out there. What others do with them in accepting them or rejecting them is their business.
