I received a recent comment
on my wall regarding this post:
“Wow! Why don't
people post anything about Islam or Buddhism or any other religion besides
Christianity. Curious. I don't feel the need to walk on anyone else's beliefs
but I am puzzled that others walk all over mine. It's just an observation.”
Most people who know me know
that I'm an equal opportunity skeptic when it comes to organized credulity and
unreason in general. I posted this
mainly because Christianity is the majority religion in Western culture and to
make the general point that most beliefs systems seem strange to people outside
their spectrum of influence. I
thought this quote (it’s from a T-Shirt) did a wonderful job of fundamentally
putting it all on the table - there is nothing here that is not a core belief
of the religion. I recently posted
a movie on my Wall regarding the Ramanaya of the Hindu faith (it was called
Sita Sings The Blues). It was
basically a cartoon dialogue between three worshipers of Hindu faith discussing
the myth and questioning various parts while basically, playfully “roasting” it
(while still respecting it).
I don’t understand why Christians
in general seem to lack a sense of humor when it comes to the questioning some
of their more outrageously held beliefs. No one is walking all over the
religion here. I highly respect
the teachings of Jesus (whether he actually existed or was created by the Romans to unify and control people is not the point), who clearly tells us that love can transform human life
(something I honestly, wholeheartedly believe). But I don’t believe that we need to accept the fact that he
was the son of god who was born of a virgin, ascended to heaven and will one
day return to earth to incorporate these truths into our lives. I understand
that such systems of beliefs generally help quell existential fears and give
humanity a sense of control over the ambiguity of life, but as Richard Dawkins
(author of The God Delusion) has
said, “the fact that a believer might be happier than a skeptic is no more to
the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” It is often said that there is a razors
edge between enlightenment and despair.
I believe that we’re all
adult enough to admit that one can respect another person’s faith and still
question it. I don’t know where
the meme came from that suggests that ones belief is off limits from basic
Socratic questioning. I don’t know
why credulous faith in this country is supposed to be accorded intellectual and
cultural accommodations to the extent that it is generally seen as “rude” to
question it. Sam Harris (author of
The End of Faith) puts things in perspective when he asks, “when was the last
time that someone was criticized for not “respecting” another person’s
unfounded beliefs about physics or history? I believe the same rules should apply to ethical, spiritual,
and religious beliefs as well,” (especially since so much human suffering can
be directly attributed to credulous faith and religion throughout the
centuries). For me, this is what
makes an honest criticism of religious faith a “moral and intellectual
necessity.”
With that said, I would also
like to add that, contrary to popular belief, Buddhism is not a religion. There are no dogmatic rules or
codes of ethics written in stone to be obeyed without question as with other
faiths. It is a spiritual path
that was originally founded upon an exploration of intuitive wisdom and does
not require the blind acceptance of a god hypothesis. It is said that only through a deeper level of understanding
of human suffering can one truly feel compassion for another - therefore a
sense of morality is believed to naturally arise from within. It takes a great deal of practice to
reach a state of non-judgmental awareness that can support such insights -
therefore meditation becomes a core practice of Buddhism.
Buddhism is fundamentally
about rebirth, not reincarnation (and there’s a big difference there). As any belief takes different forms as
it migrates from where it began, some “sects” of Buddhism have come to
incorporate supernatural beliefs, but that is something that has generally been
“added” to the mix. Buddhism at
it's core is fundamentally a psychology that generally does not concern itself
with unjustifiable beliefs - only with what is knowable. With that in mind, it generally rejects
unsubstantiated beliefs, such as the idea of original sin (that humanity was
infected by a woman and is therefore wretched and evil) because the evidence
does not support it (evil is seen more as a general byproduct of human
ignorance obscuring our inherent wisdom and compassion for one another). Personally, I can’t think of a more
pessimistic outlook than the sin hypothesis, but that’s just me.
Faith in Buddhism does not
concern itself with something external, invisible and unknowable – it lies with
humanity itself. The basic
thought regarding god is the fundamental idea that, in the words of Lama
Govinda, “when men look up into the space of heaven and invoke a power that is
supposed to reside there, they’re more likely invoking forces within themselves
being projected outward.”
-Xtp
