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  1. Vishvavajra

    Creationist Error #4: Really, really "believing" something is the same thing as "knowing" something.

    Careful: knowing isn't as cut and dried as you imply. What we call "knowing" is usually a form of inference based on experience. That's already one step removed from direct experience, and even direct experience isn't infallible. Epistemology is a headache at the best of times. If there's a...
  2. Vishvavajra

    Where do Proponents Of Intelligent Design Propose the Designer Came From?

    In short, yes, that's a serious problem with creationism, and it's not really possible to get around it without copping out on some level. Paul Tillich, one of the most important theologians of the 20th century, called this out as a problem. If God is a being, then God cannot be responsible for...
  3. Vishvavajra

    Where do Proponents Of Intelligent Design Propose the Designer Came From?

    For example, the assertion that it claims to be "God's Word." The Bible as a whole does not claim anything whatsoever about itself. It's an anthology of different texts that were assembled long after the individual texts were composed. None of the authors had anything to say about the final form...
  4. Vishvavajra

    Alberta 'creationist' finds 60m-year-old fish fossils

    Apparently that's what the old man thinks, since he said he hasn't changed his mind and still believes the world was created 6000 years ago. Why people go through such mental contortions is beyond me. It seems a supernatural entity created the world in such a way that it would appear many...
  5. Vishvavajra

    Evolutionists, where, geographically, did man evolve?

    What's an "evolutionist"?
  6. Vishvavajra

    Buddhism: Polytheism

    "Polytheism" is a word that potentially means a wide range of things, so it's hard to give a simple answer to the question. Buddhism comes out of the ancient Vedic tradition in India, a culture that recognized a wide variety of gods and other spiritual beings. Buddhist myths and scriptures...
  7. Vishvavajra

    Is it a sin to seek knowledge?

    The Eden myth belongs to a type. The closest analog that people might be expected to be familiar with is the myth of Prometheus & Pandora from Hesiod, but there are others from around the world. These myths express the feeling that people have that things used to be easier, and that as people...
  8. Vishvavajra

    Practical guidance for following the eight-fold path

    It's related. You develop faith by having some knowledge of the nature of the problem, including the possibility of resolving the problem. Wrong views would include the notion that people are essentially broken, such as concepts of original sin or total depravity in the Western Christian...
  9. Vishvavajra

    Was the real Jewish Garden of Eden located in Jerusalem?

    It's based on a type of irrigated pleasure garden known in the Middle East, sure. I think that's all we can say, really. There's not enough to go on to posit that it's based on a specific garden in a specific place, especially as the details in the Eden myth are vague and only there to serve the...
  10. Vishvavajra

    Is it a sin to seek knowledge?

    The modern Christian concept of sin was pretty alien to ancient Hebrews. The Eden myth wasn't written as a morality tale. Like its close analog in the Greek tradition (Prometheus, Pandora, etc.), it's about how the gods limit mankind by balancing a benefit with a detriment, lest humans usurp the...
  11. Vishvavajra

    Was the real Jewish Garden of Eden located in Jerusalem?

    False dichotomy. Myth is neither fiction nor literal fact. It's only modern people who have the idea that something must either be literal fact or else some made-up nonsense. Ancient peoples had no such expectation and knew very well how to construct meaning using myth as a medium.
  12. Vishvavajra

    Practical guidance for following the eight-fold path

    Having right views is the first step. That means believing that you are inherently free and that your vexations can be transcended through mindful practice. If you don't believe the path works, then you won't practice diligently. If you have right views, then you put those views into practice...
  13. Vishvavajra

    Why don't we have more artwork representing the Christian God (i.e. the Father)?

    The ancient prohibitions against his depiction in sculpture might have something to do with it. When he is depicted he just ends up looking like a generic bearded patriarch, which is a rather less impressive image in this day and age, not to mention of questionable usefulness. Nobody wants to...
  14. Vishvavajra

    Was the real Jewish Garden of Eden located in Jerusalem?

    You think the original authors and audience thought it was literal, or you think the Garden of Eden was a literal, physical place? The former is somewhat more defensible than the latter, though not much. The latter is utterly indefensible. It's a creation myth, one of a type. The language and...
  15. Vishvavajra

    at the pearly gates, would you descend into hell if they said it would save 2 sinners?

    Bodhisattva vow, so yes. We are none of us saved until we are all saved. In the end there can be no discrimination. Fortunately, hell is a state of mind.
  16. Vishvavajra

    Was the real Jewish Garden of Eden located in Jerusalem?

    No, you have it backwards. The rivers in the Eden myth are named after rivers in the Middle East, which were the major rivers known to the authors and their audience. People were talking about those rivers for a very long time before the Eden myth appeared. Compared to the Mesopotamians and...
  17. Vishvavajra

    Is it a sin to seek knowledge?

    Knowledge isn't a sin in the Eden myth, which isn't really about sin in an case. That's just how later Christian readers have chosen to interpret it, since that's how they tend to want to view everything. The Eden myth isn't about how people did wrong. It's not really about crime and...
  18. Vishvavajra

    So Tim Minchin...

    He's a talented musician and comedian. He's also a very human and sensible fellow underneath it all, I think. He kids because he loves, and because he really does care about people and wants them to be better. And because he thinks it's funny.
  19. Vishvavajra

    Was the real Jewish Garden of Eden located in Jerusalem?

    What does "real Garden of Eden" mean? It's a mythical place. It's also geographically impossible if taken literally, as all the major rivers known to the ancient Hebrews flow out of it. One might as well ask where the "real Asgard" is or the "real island of the Cyclopes."
  20. Vishvavajra

    Informing my husband of my change in religious stance

    Conveniently, he has chosen a religious culture that will never expect him to grow or change. It's why people shouldn't be given arbitrary authority over others: it stunts their growth at the same time it makes them complacent. It's why patriarchy is destructive to men as well as women, even if...
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