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Scientific Method is useless in religion?

Milton Platt

Milton Platt

Well-Known Member
LuisDantas said:
Religion may and should be studied by science (mainly anthropology).

Whether religion itself as a place for the scientific method will depend a lot on how that religion is defined and practiced. Generally speaking, though, one of the main reason for having religion is to provide answers that science does not.
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Without the application of science, how does one determine that one's religion is providing any correct answers?
 
paarsurrey

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
LuisDantas said:
Religion may and should be studied by science (mainly anthropology).
Whether religion itself as a place for the scientific method will depend a lot on how that religion is defined and practiced. Generally speaking, though, one of the main reason for having religion is to provide answers that science does not.
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You mean religion is more useful than science for humanity's satisfaction. Right? Please
Regards
 
LuisDantas

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Milton Platt said:
Without the application of science, how does one determine that one's religion is providing any correct answers?
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Mostly by observing its effect on people. In a sense it is not too unlike politics, all the way down to the insuportable, endless controversies.

All the same, it is not at all hard to determine. It is hard to get a consensus.
 
LuisDantas

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
paarsurrey said:
You mean religion is more useful than science for humanity's satisfaction. Right? Please
Regards
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No, I do not mean that.

To the extent that I agree, I find it to have very dangerous drawbacks. Chief among them the encouragement of delusions and unwarranted self-entitlement.

The "cult of God" is definitely one of those drawbacks, perhaps the most harmful of them all. The obsession with afterlives is a close second.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
paarsurrey said:
When the mind stops thinking, one is dead. Right? Please
Do the dead ever do the meditation? Please
Regards
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Well it is a sort of a temporary ego psychological death, but it would generally take many years of meditation practice to realize a mind free from thought even for a few minutes, so don't worry about that. There is a related leaving of the body during the period of a quiescent mind, as in a deep sleep mind state, but the soul returns to body when one returns to the normal awake state of mind of ego consciousness.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
Jedster said:
Reminds me of someone talikg abou the Tao(that cannot be named)
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It is the same saying as about the Tao, but it also applies to anyone who pretentiously attempts to describe God, or Nirvana, or Brahman, or Allah, etc., or to claim to have conceptual knowledge of God, Tao, etc.. The thing is though, the practice of still mind meditation will bring an end to conceptualization during the still mind state, but that does not bring any conceptual knowledge of what is realized, for it is non-verbal.

Do you understand what I am saying? If not, and think there is some incongruency in my explanation, please quote my precise words that you think reflect the incongruency.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
syncretic said:
True.

Speaking of which, going to get started on that, haven't read any of it in a while.
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The saying is not in the Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu, but comes from The Writings of Chuang Tzu. Here is the Chapter where it appears... http://nothingistic.org/library/chuangtzu/chuang33.html

In the still mind state, there is dumb inaction.

As for the Tao Teh Ching, the key to the understanding is in verse 1, "The Tao that is spoken of (read conceptualization), is not the eternal Tao." The irony is that the next 80 verses are a conceptualization of the Tao.. :)
 
Jedster

Jedster

Flying through space
ben d said:
It is the same saying as about the Tao, but it also applies to anyone who pretentiously attempts to describe God, or Nirvana, or Brahman, or Allah, etc., or to claim to have conceptual knowledge of God, Tao, etc.. The thing is though, the practice of still mind meditation will bring an end to conceptualization during the still mind state, but that does not bring any conceptual knowledge of what is realized, for it is non-verbal.

Do you understand what I am saying? If not, and think there is some incongruency in my explanation, please quote my precise words that you think reflect the incongruency.
Click to expand...

Highlighted in blue: I have never thought of it that way, but see what you mean. I always thought it as Lau Tzu's humour. Both are acceptable to me :>)
TaoTe Ching is a favourite since first reading it some 40+ years ago.
Highlighted in red: I agree and that is why many of the orthodox members in various religions consider meditation as evil.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
The closest translation to that line the Daodejing is something like 'The Dao that is Dao is not Dao' :) I like that.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
Jedster said:
Highlighted in blue: I have never thought of it that way, but see what you mean. I always thought it as Lau Tzu's humour. Both are acceptable to me :>)
TaoTe Ching is a favourite since first reading it some 40+ years ago.
Highlighted in red: I agree and that is why many of the orthodox members in various religions consider meditation as evil.
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Yes, Lao Tzu was/is a master....more is revealed with every new insight... :)
 
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