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  1. Vishvavajra

    Is it moral for God to punish us?

    Seems like a pointless question when you consider that this scene in the Gospel is a literary construct. The characters say what they do not because actual historical people said those things verbatim, but because it made for the best narrative in the eyes of the author. It's a bit like asking...
  2. Vishvavajra

    Evolution theory turns colleges into hellholes of depression

    I have attended multiple universities and currently teach at one, and I can affirm that you have no idea what you're talking about. You are not. In this thread alone you have been invited to support your assertions and have refused every single time, usually responding with ad hominem attacks...
  3. Vishvavajra

    What would evolution being disproved do for creationism?

    Because creationists don't study other cultures, they don't realize that their creation myth isn't the only one, so they think it's the only alternative to scientific theory and the obvious winner if science were to somehow take a dive. It's a consequence of living in countries with a strong...
  4. Vishvavajra

    Evidence showing evolution from one species to another

    Nothing in this sentence is true. If you're going to debate evolutionary theory, you ought to learn about it first. "Survival of the fittest" isn't actually a scientific concept. The theory of evolution by natural selection is rather different in fact from what you seem to think it is. But...
  5. Vishvavajra

    Does the existence of aliens change your belief in God and/or your religion?

    Several Buddhist teachings take for granted that there are other worlds and dimensions of reality that are inhabited by sentient beings, but that doesn't affect Buddhist practice in any way, apart from maybe broadening a person's perspective.
  6. Vishvavajra

    Religous People: What Convinced You To OBEY and BELEIVE In A God/Gods/Higher Power ?

    Nothing so far has convinced me to believe in, much less obey, a higher power. Despite that I'd still consider myself religious. Buddhism is an odd religion in that it's perfectly compatible with atheism, provided the atheist doesn't get all dogmatic about it. There are gods in Buddhist myths...
  7. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    Where you lose me is in the assertion that "impersonalized self" is a coherent concept. It seems to me there is no concept of selfhood that is not on some level an attempt to personalize reality, which entails conceptual divisions. After all, the concept of "self" is meaningless without the...
  8. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    No, that's a corruption of what Nagasena said in his dialog with King Milinda. In that case the (rhetorical) question was, when you use one lamp to light another one, is the new flame the same or different from the one used to light it? The answer is that it is both the same and different, or...
  9. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    One seeks liberation from vexations, which are a problem in the present. Karma is relevant in that in order to believe that the cessation of vexations is possible, you need to view them as arising naturally from certain causes and conditions. Reincarnation isn't actually part of the equation...
  10. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    That's one way of approaching it. Another is to deconstruct the assumptions inherent in the question. When asked where people go when they die, Shakyamuni responded with a question: where does a fire go when it goes out? In that case the problem isn't the lack of knowledge of where it goes, but...
  11. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    Well, if you look at the life of Shakyamuni as it's been handed down to us, you'll see that even the rich suffer from the same fundamental dissatisfactions as the poor, even if they enjoy greater material comforts. Indeed, those material comforts are often a means of distracting themselves from...
  12. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    Yeah, no. That's New-Ageism, not Buddhadharma. Actual Buddhist teachings aren't easy to hear. They don't encourage complacency or self-satisfaction. The entire tradition is based on a fundamental sense of dissatisfaction and uses that to impel people towards practice that will cultivate...
  13. Vishvavajra

    Evidence Macroevolution Does Not Exist

    Those are very poor analogies. Do you actually crash your car, killing yourself each time you test a driving method? Do your other experiments have a significant chance of giving you cancer? Cancer is, after all, entirely a product of the exact same mechanism by which evolution occurs, and it...
  14. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    All schools of Buddhism have stories about gods and often even practices that involve them. Their role is nothing like the monotheistic God of the Abrahamic religions. Nor is it terribly helpful to personify or identify with the Dharmakaya, much less treat it as God. The Dharmakaya does not...
  15. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism and the concept of "no" soul, "no" God

    That's... what Theosophists and other occultists/New-Agers do. They quote Buddhist scriptures with an eye towards supporting their own views, regardless of the context and purpose of the Buddhist teachings. This desire to find a "Buddhist God" or a "higher self" is completely heretical from the...
  16. Vishvavajra

    Citta

    Yeah, what is mind when it is at rest? What is mind when it is not reflecting anything? When you get below the thoughts and habitual tendencies, that basic capacity for awareness remains, and in a sense that is what we are.
  17. Vishvavajra

    Evidence Macroevolution Does Not Exist

    You seem to be laboring under the belief that "improvement" is this inevitable phenomenon. That is very much not the case. A few mutations turn out to be adaptive, but most aren't. Natural selection is the theoretical model for how the few adaptive mutations get passed on and sometimes result in...
  18. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism after death

    It's not a very good article. As typical of occultists trying to cram Buddhist thought into their worldview, it doesn't make any particular effort to understand Buddhist doctrine or the kind of language used in Buddhist teachings and why. It's much more interested in pushing the author's own...
  19. Vishvavajra

    The Connection between Happiness and Compassion

    Happiness is being free from vexations, able to be and act without artificial limitations, manifesting the mind's pure innate freedom. Simply giving things away may not bring happiness, but with correct attitude generosity is a good way to cultivate the mental habits that contribute to...
  20. Vishvavajra

    Citta

    The problem here is that there's an equivocation on the word "awareness" or "mind." Used in the conventional sense, both refer to emergent phenomena that arise according to conditions that are in no way independent of the body and will not continue to arise if those body-conditions are not...
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