They may not outright state that humans are flawed however I think that this is a belief/attitude that is germinated by holding one belief/religious system over another. You say that you seek to maximize your potential and that your beliefs advocate that. I find that to be very subjective/contextual and don't really see how that separates your beliefs from other religious systems. Maximize your potential in what exactly? A Christian could say I seek to maximize my potential to be a good person and that their beliefs advocate that. A Buddhist might say they seek to maximize their potential to deal with suffering and that their beliefs advocate that. Now that is somewhat beside the point. I have to ask do you not follow your belief system because you think it is the best way to "maximize your potential?" Does it not then follow that you think that other belief systems are less conducive to maximizing potential? Moreover I have to ask why do you (or anyone) think they need a belief system to accomplish anything? I'm of the opinion that everything that can be accomplished with religion can be accomplished without it and much more.
I don't have a particular belief system even though I am a secular Buddhist. What I have is a meditation practice which is very similar to the relaxation response. If you go back to the early Buddhist writings Buddha basically said I have found some tools that help reduce suffering by teaching you to respond rather than react. Try them and see what you think. I tried them and they worked rather well for me. Now over the next 2500 years a lot, and I mean a lot, of bs was added on top of this but even so this still remained the core teachings. Of course they were laid out in the language of his time but that doesn't invalidate meditation and mindfulness as tools for living a better life. There is actually a lot of scientific research in these areas now and they are validating the basic concepts of mindfulness and meditation.
I dunno man, motivating hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to construct a mighty tomb for you is pretty awesome. I don't think I'm going to be able to persuade people to do that for me. :[
I think you can pick just about any societal issue. Take poverty for example. Buddhism could help you cope with being dirt poor and starving, While a more scientific approach would attempt to look at the problem of poverty more directly and attempt to alleviate the suffering even before it occurs. This is akin to someone suffering from a disease. One method can simply help people suffering from an ailment, the other can not only do that but also prevent others from suffering the same fate.
Nothing and annihilation, but your living god on Earth (me) will have swank digs in the afterlife. I've been on boards where a statement like this will be used as evidence of the moral bankruptcy of atheism. Me, I just take it as inspiration to improve my own killbot.
that's cool. at least you're not like 'the ancient ones' in "cabin in the woods". "please me or else".
There is nothing in Buddhism that prohibits me from working on cures to disease or eliminating poverty. If I am poor I can work to make my life better, go to school and get a better job at the personal level. I can help out others, share my time at different charities and take a social stand to improve conditions for everyone. I don't see how my meditation practice would be an issue, the same with mindfulness. Heck, I don't even consider my Buddhism to be a religion. It's more like a 2500 year old self help program.
Sorry man, that pay just doesn't cut it. Now if it includes decent room and board, free beer, short work hours and a beachfront location I may consider it.
Scientists, scholars and philosophers will also disagree about how results are interpreted - sometimes it is just persepctive, not absolutes. Take any event in history and there are few that are definitively "this" or "that" My route and journey in life are not dependent on someone else taking it with me. Nor do I require others to believe as I do. No it doesn't. My way is not your way, my truth is not your truth. Everything is - at best - personal gnosis and experience. Other ways may be inferior FOR ME, but for others they may well be the optimal choice What specifically do you think my religion stops me from doing that you are allowed to do? Name me one thing you can do without a religion that I cannot Atheists have belief systems and values that they can arrive at independent of any external authority or deity - do their values hold them back?
yes and no. i think i get what you're trying to say. you have to remember, that even though atheists, or presumably you, don't see things as absolutes, there are absolutes, whether we like or not. unless you can show me something that is itself and not itself at the same time, for example. i also get the problem of induction and that's a whole other debate. but for now, let's just say, there are truths for all of us. maybe you can interpret those 'truths' in different ways? i'm really not trying to open up pandora's box here, on an internet forum of all places. but philosophers (guys like sokrates and david hume, amongst others) have been grappling with your statement above for millenia.
Precisely - it's the journey that matters. As I said in the earlier post sometimes it is just a matter of perspective. Some things are of course demonstrably wrong, either factually or in terms of relative morality (but even that is only ever a snapshot of time really)
