From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: "What does science tell us about God?" (Time Magazine)
Date: 7 Jan 93 23:02:28 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <zlsiida.662@fs1.mcc.ac.uk> zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd) writes:
>In article <ksand-231292160136@wintermute.apple.com> ksand@apple.com (Kent Sandvik ) writes:
>
>>In article <1hanpkINNfmb@crcnis1.unl.edu>, e_p@unlinfo.unl.edu (edgar
>>pearlstein) wrote:
>>>             The essential conflict between science and religion is in 
>>>        how one arrives at conclusions.  Religion generally is based on 
>>>        authority: a person, a book, or a set of traditions.  It has 
>>>        Eternal Truth, coming from authority, which its adherents stick 
>>>        with regardless of any evidence.  Science is based on reason 
>>>        and evidence.  It does not recognize absolute authority, 
>>>        considers "truth" to be relative and tentative, and takes the 
>>>        attitude: Don't tell me, show me. 
>
>>Someone please update me, but I'm sure religions exist that has
>>the same attitude: "Don't tell me, show me". (Zen) Buddhism is one of the
>>few action-oriented religions I'm thinking about.
>
>>Kent
>
>As it does not postulate a god, Buddhism is a special case.  It gets lumped 
>in with religions although it is really philosophical/psychological system.
>Zen comes closest to practical science: your mind is the lab...
>"Magick" is similar, but here some schools do postulate a god or gods.
>
>Spot the missing indefinite article above (why did I prefer typing this over 
>editing the error?)
>
>
>  No Trespassing: 4/17ths of a haiku.     D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk   fax 6040
>  Dave Budd, MCC, Oxford Rd, Manchester, England    (44|0)61-275-6033  

Zen may be a special case, but most other forms of Buddhism contain worship
rituals, prayers, priests, etc.  They also have canons of teachings and
detailed expositions about matters of life and spirit.  I would venture to
say that the outward forms represent a kind of external discipline that the
follower of an inner meditative path, such as Zen, imposes upon himself.
But many common people, not those in the monasteries, practice forms of
Buddhism that are quite similar to the forms of Christianity, insofar
as they are what one would recognize as "religion".

I think that Christianity was originally experiential too.  The outer forms
did provide a framework of soul discipline for those who were not able to
follow an independent path, but the framework became more and more rigid
as the inner content, or much of it, was lost.

After the Reformation one of the Christian movements that sought to return
to the experiential origins of Christianity was the Quakers, whose leading
founder was George Fox.  My own church, The Christian Community, is a non-
denominational movement based on the Christian sacraments (i.e. action-
oriented), but like the Quakers, there is no imposed doctrine, and complete
freedom of belief.  Likewise, there is not imposition of moral values on
members, and anyone may participate in the sacraments and life of the
community, member or not.  We might characterize ourselves as Zen-Quaker-
Catholics, I suppose.

As for the absence of a divine being, does Buddhism deny the existence of
God or the Gods or does it simply not deal with the subject?

Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc