“And Athiests have the answers?” - a response.

Earlier today, I was reading through a conversation in a FaceBook politics discussion titled What role should the personal faith of a President play in his/her decision-making?, with the sub-subject “And Athiests have the answers?“. Here is my contribution to the discussion:

This has been an interesting and - dare I say it? - entertaining dialog. I have explored different spiritual or religious beliefs over the years, and once I can get past the surface of each “belief structure” I find that each of these are culturally-derived systems for the education of people regarding that culture’s system of morals and ethics, and that each bears at least some historical fact. Am I a Christian? No. A Muslim? No. A member of any organized religion? No, not really. If I need to be categorized for some reason, it would be as a “buddhist”, but I do not think of buddhism as a religion in the formal sense, but simply as a way of making my way in the world.

Do I believe that Jesus the Christ lived 2,000 years ago? Yes. Was he an extraordinary man? Yes. Did Muhammad live? Yes. An extraordinary man? Yes. Did Siddhārtha Gautama the Buddha live 2,500 years ago? Certainly. Was he an extraordinary man? With out a doubt. Plato? Ditto. Aristotle? Yep. Einstein? Again, yes. Ghandi? Of course. All extraordinary people? Absolutely.

Is there a common lesson to be learned from all of these extraordinary people? In my limited mind - yes. And that is? To paraphrase Tenzin Gyatso, the XIV Dalai Lama, “All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness; the important thing is that they should be part of our daily lives.” “This is my simple religion: there is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” And, (paraphrasing again) the Buddha himself said: “Do not believe what you have heard. Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations. Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times. Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage. Do not believe in conjecture. Do not believe in authority or teachers or elders. But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.”

So what is the one “truth” that I have become convinced of? It is that I know ABOUT many things, but I truly KNOW nothing. To say anything else would be hypocrisy.

~ by Thor on January 6, 2008.