Not all religions work that way. That was a pretty sweeping statement for someone advocating a scientfic viewpoint.
do you believe in heaven?
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Not all religions work that way. That was a pretty sweeping statement for someone advocating a scientfic viewpoint.
Soldato
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Most of the major ones and most of the followers of those religions do, thoughNot all religions work that way. That was a pretty sweeping statement for someone advocating a scientfic viewpoint.
Not all religions work that way. That was a pretty sweeping statement for someone advocating a scientfic viewpoint.
So which religions dont use a belief system? and faith?
That's not what you said. You said religion "blindly accepts what they believe is the truth". As many scientists are guilty of that when they dismiss alternate theories and ideas simply because they favour their current one.
Not all religions work that way, including Buddhism and Spiritualism.
Other than those two, and probably a small selection of others, what he said is true though.
Is that not what faith is?
And does Buddism advocate trying to disprove its own religion? is this part of the teaching of budism? to try and disprove your beliefs?
These are genuine questions btw, Budsim isnt something I have looked into a great deal
But isn't that the point? I simply said that he was incorrect in what he said. "Well he was right except where he was wrong" doesn't countermand my statement, it supports it.
Yes it does. Buddhism is much more a system of development and a philosophy rather than a religion. It's based around meditation and good deeds, with a rather large dose of analytic thought, public debate and investigation to disprove earlier statements and theories and the writings and teachings are updated constantly to reflect this. There is no single book and no god.
As for "is that not what faith is?"... Well yes and no. After all you probably 'believe' the big bang theory (and hundreds of other scientific theories) but they could easily be wrong. While a true scientist (religious or not) would bear this in mind, many don't. Science 'believed' Newton couldn't be wrong before Einstein and Eddington proved them wrong; and there are many more examples. Much of religion doesn't require blind faith, in fact I'd say it is damaged by it. Likewise much of science is blinded by such faith, and likewise is damaged by it. They're not mutually exclusive.
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The idea that there is nowhere for my conscious to exist when I die is confusing and perplexing. I simply cannot imagine the death of my existence as when I die, the whole universe will cease to exist from one perspective.
I don't believe in heaven in the traditional sense, but I have no idea what will happen when I die.
I don't believe in heaven in the traditional sense, but I have no idea what will happen when I die.
But isn't that the point? I simply said that he was incorrect in what he said. "Well he was right except where he was wrong" doesn't countermand my statement, it supports it.
Yes it does. Buddhism is much more a system of development and a philosophy rather than a religion. It's based around meditation and good deeds, with a rather large dose of analytic thought, public debate and investigation to disprove earlier statements and theories and the writings and teachings are updated constantly to reflect this. There is no single book and no god.
In that case I appologise, and ammend my statement to
"Theistic Religions blindly accept......"
Being dead is just like before you were born.
And, I'm conscious now in this life, this is all I know exists, it may be possible to be conscious again in another, but if it doesn't happen, no matter because you won't know about it anyway.
And, I'm conscious now in this life, this is all I know exists, it may be possible to be conscious again in another, but if it doesn't happen, no matter because you won't know about it anyway.
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Ever heard of Lucid Dreaming?
The brain is very active during sleep and a hell of a lot more powerful. Through practice (or accident) you can indeed become 'concious' during sleep.
If I asked you right now to imagine and actually 'feel' what it's like to fly, or lay on a field of grass with all the individual blades of grass poking against your back, I'm pretty certain you couldn't, the concious part of your brain can't process such vast information. Yet during lucid dreaming you can do this easily and even feel it as though it is actually happening.
A common example I suppose would be that feeling most people have had of falling then suddenly waking up, your body obviously didn't move from your bed, yet your mind convinces your body it was real and to feel it.
We always have these kind of conversations at work, or should I say I bore people with talking about it
I think memory plays a huge huge part in our being. Assuming you don't know how to become concious during a dream, you live out that dream as though that's reality, it's only when you awake can you comprehend that it was all just a dream. It's like a switch in your head, when the dream light is on you're whatever you dream says you are, but when you wake that light turns off and the 'reality' light comes on and suddenly you're a completely different person.
Is it not a possibility that when we die we could also 'wake up' and be a completely different person/being and only then comprehend that our physical life was just a dream?
Interesting isn't it? Current quantum physics now agrees with what Buddhists and Spiritualists (and more?) have said all along; that the universe only exists because you're here to view it. With no viewer it ceases, and experiments have shown this over and again.
This teaching was the origin of the old (now rather famous) Zen koan [riddle]: "If a tree should fall in the woods, and no-one is around to see it - does it make a sound?".
In fact this only broaches upon a rather massive subject, that of 'emptiness' (Sanskrit; Shunyata), or the idea that nothing exists independently of anything else, and that everything is merely an illusion consisting of its component parts and dependent upon the viewer.
Spiritualism says the same thing, in that everything is the creation of your own mind (consciousness, not physical brain). Things only exist where you're there to view them, and ultimately you are actually the creator of all you see. Physics now agrees.
Mind = blown.
That is the fact.
however I like to beleive In reincarnation even though it's bullcrap, I want to come back as a Black grizzly
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Soldato
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If you're going to be obtuse, then nothing is fact, because we don't know what we can't observe yet.Fixed.
I hope you didn't mean to use 'obtuse' (dumb, unintelligent, mentally slow, boorish).
Of course nothing is fact, I've said that all along. My only point is that for all the ribbing they receive, people who believe in an afterlife are not all of the blind faith camp. Yet, more importantly, those who seem to profess "science" (or more accurately, the fact that physical death is the end) all seem to speak of "the facts" and "what really happens - or doesn't" in relation to physical death. Rather oxymoronic to expound a system of open enquiry while propounding closed-minded beliefs yourself. That's all I meant.
I suggest anyone interested in this thread watches "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman". It's an interesting overview of modern quantum physics and how it relates to various religions and spiritual beliefs etc. You'd be surprised how close they're becoming.
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They are, though - because there is no tangible and verifiable evidence to support the belief, so the belief is blind.
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A few years back I had an extremely close call where I actually felt my life slipping away from me. Basically I had passed out and fell backwards over the bottom edge of my bed and was choking. However I could still imagine, and I felt as if my body was underwater and running out of breath. Luckily my girlfriend walked in at the right time and brought me back to conciousness (by slapping me in the face repeatedly!) and I could see the surface of the water.
Anyway I do not personally believe in either a heaven or hell - but I do believe that our energy and body is recycled to the atmosphere and other animals lower down in the food chain to survive. Another belief I have is that as you die the chemicals in the brain start all kinds of reactions and will make you see things which MAY constitute some sort of feeling of an other-world type of experience.
Anyway I do not personally believe in either a heaven or hell - but I do believe that our energy and body is recycled to the atmosphere and other animals lower down in the food chain to survive. Another belief I have is that as you die the chemicals in the brain start all kinds of reactions and will make you see things which MAY constitute some sort of feeling of an other-world type of experience.
I think there's a difference between having blind faith there's an afterlife and accepting the outlandish! possibility there might be something after physical death, but hey chuck everyone in to the same brainwashed loony bin if they don't agree with majority of 'sensible' people, amirite?