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  1. Vishvavajra

    What is the Buddhist stance on recreational marijuana use?

    It's certainly discouraged. Buddhists aren't going to come beat down your door and take away your stash or anything, but recreational intoxication is singled out as an activity that is counterproductive to the Buddhist path, to the extent that all confirmed Buddhists take a vow to abstain from...
  2. Vishvavajra

    Putting the JW Stand on Evolution into Perspective

    Mutation is an error in the duplication process of the amino acids that form our genetic material. If you don't know that, then I don't know how we can reasonably discuss this topic. Evolution occurs by the same mechanism that causes cancer, with the difference being that some mutations are...
  3. Vishvavajra

    Have you attended religious services for religions other than your own?

    I've been to a number of Christian services throughout my life, both at times when I was trying to identify as Christian and at times when I wasn't. Just this year I've been to a Catholic mass at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and a number of local Methodist services at my neighbor's church...
  4. Vishvavajra

    Putting the JW Stand on Evolution into Perspective

    "Macro-evolution" is not a scientific concept. It's an arbitrary line that creationists made up so that they could pretend that their position isn't completely unreasonable. There's a good reason why nobody in the scientific community recognizes those terms. The fact is that if you accept the...
  5. Vishvavajra

    Putting the JW Stand on Evolution into Perspective

    There's always the possibility that the entire body of evidence behind a scientific theory consists of illusions that have been projected by some supernatural force to fool us into thinking that something is happening. Of course, at that point you're positing that there's effectively no such...
  6. Vishvavajra

    The problem with religious morality...

    Indeed, people who are brought up with divine command theory have a great deal of trouble even imagining how people can be moral unless they're being told what to do by a higher power. The upshot is that they tend to end up morally immature and unable to correctly respond to difficult...
  7. Vishvavajra

    Is Science Better Than Religion?

    Science is absolutely better than religion at the things science was developed to do. When it comes to developing working theories about the natural world and how it works, there's no contest. Religion has no business pissing in that pool. However, science was not developed to be a replacement...
  8. Vishvavajra

    Which existed first "something" or "nothing"?

    Convenient, perhaps, in the sense that it serves as a cop-out that makes some people feel they can safely drop the question altogether. Sensible, not so much. For those who aren't satisfied with cop-outs of that sort, it doesn't answer any questions and only raises more. It just kicks the...
  9. Vishvavajra

    Which existed first "something" or "nothing"?

    Interestingly, neither Hebrew nor Norse creation myths feature creatio ex nihilo, which isn't really something you find in ancient creation myths in any culture. In the Norse myth the cosmos is formed from the corpse of Ymir, much as in the Babylonian creation myth it's formed from the corpse of...
  10. Vishvavajra

    Which existed first "something" or "nothing"?

    "Something" and "nothing" are mutually dependent concepts. Neither one is intelligible except as a negation of the other. Therefore it would be impossible for either to preexist the other.
  11. Vishvavajra

    Buddhists don't believe in G-d: why should they have a scripture then?

    Insight gained from asking the right questions in the right circumstances, in a way that is possible for everyone but is seldom actually realized. It's important to understand that in Buddhist thought, the ultimate truth of reality isn't something that's secreted away from us in another world...
  12. Vishvavajra

    Buddhists don't believe in G-d: why should they have a scripture then?

    Buddhadharma is a revealed religion in a sense, but it's unique in that the revelation is something that anyone is capable of finding out for themselves. What the teachings of the Buddhas do is to make the path easier for people so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel each and every time...
  13. Vishvavajra

    Buddhists don't believe in G-d: why should they have a scripture then?

    There are a couple of problems here: One is that you're using a sketchy translation made in 1901 by someone from a Christian background, who is using terms familiar to his own culture to render concepts that may not actually be so analogous if you look beneath the surface. For example, what is...
  14. Vishvavajra

    Putting the JW Stand on Evolution into Perspective

    I find myself wondering about the 19% of Buddhists who didn't answer yes to that one. There's no such thing as Buddhist creationism, so it's probably a case of certain people being overly clever and pretending not to understand the question. As for JWs, the sad fact is that there is a dreadful...
  15. Vishvavajra

    Evolutionists, where, geographically, did man evolve?

    I wouldn't say creation myths have no basis in reality. They do express certain things about human experience. At the same time, they are not meant to be taken as fact. They make no sense to begin with if taken at face value, and moreover there are literally thousands of them. The irony of the...
  16. Vishvavajra

    poll what religion would you choose

    Daoism has enough similarities to Buddhism that it would be familiar, though Buddhism goes further. Also, I practice Taiji, so that would be complementary.
  17. Vishvavajra

    Is Jesus Christ a God or Do You Beleive in Jesus the Human ?

    What is a god, really? In the traditional sense, including the Greco-Roman culture of the time, if Jesus receives worship, then that makes him a god to some people. Is Jesus to be identified with the god of the Jews? Most Christians think so, but it's not clear Jesus would have agreed. In his...
  18. Vishvavajra

    Perspectives on Polytheism

    It makes more intuitive sense to me than monotheism, as far as that goes. If you've got a bunch of beings who are doing their best, you might end up with a world like this one. Monotheism seems to require special pleading at every turn to explain the state of the world, and there's a huge danger...
  19. Vishvavajra

    Evolutionists, where, geographically, did man evolve?

    Not seeing why we need a special term for that. Is someone who believes in gravity a "gravitist"? If you believe the world is round, are you a "sphericist"? Are those who accept the germ theory of medicine "microbists"? Either people accept that science is a valid methodology for interpreting...
  20. Vishvavajra

    Creationists Fight Eight-Year Old Girl's Proposal

    Because the right-wing politicians have to put on a dog-and-pony show for their supporters. That way when the next election comes around they can point to it and shout, "Look, I'll fight against progress in any conceivable form! Vote for me again!" And they will, because that's what Republican...
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