Evidence for religion

ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
I had the same reaction.

One thing that I can definitely recommend is Warner's book Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality.

It's genuinely, laugh out loud funny. The chapter titles include: 'In my next life, I want to come back as a pair of Lucy Liu's Panties' and 'Pass me the Ecstasy, Rainboy. I'm going to Nirvana on a Stretcher!'



That actually only ever happened to me once. It was one of those moments when real life exceeds all your expectations.

Just to return to the topic of atheism, although I've read Dawkins' The God Delusion and Hitchens' God is not Great, the most persuasive accounts of anti-theism/disbelief I have come across were both authored by ex-Muslims. Those were Ali Rizvi's The Atheist Muslim and Alom Shaha's The Young Atheist's Handbook.

Rizvi is especially interesting because he points out that atheism is punishable by death in 13 Muslim countries, and in 2014 Saudi Arabia declared all atheists to be terrorists. Apparently, unofficial bootleg translations of the writings of Dawkins and others in the New Atheist camp are covertly circulated in many Muslim countries and are popular because these Western authors are giving voice to views that it would be dangerous for their readers to publicly express.

Hope nobody gets the impression that I am anti-Muslim from reading the above as there is much to admire about Islamic culture and philosophy. It's a faith that gets stereotyped and treated as if it is a monolithic entity but nothing could be further from the truth.



Thanks. I'll be in a position to be a more active contributor in a week or so.



At the moment I am reading a book on something called 'Terror Management Theory' called The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. One of the reviewer's blurbs on the back states: 'The most comprehensive and well-evidenced account to date of the idea that fending off the awareness of death is the prime mover of the human condition.'

It's fascinating so far, though Buddhists would absolutely concur with the previous statement.
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Some very interesting stuff...in some regard the horse has bolted and us humans can't really turn back the clock and 'unevolve' ourselves (though many try).
Will drop those book links into a wish list too.
Buddhism does seem to come quite close to helping along the way, not that it's the silver bullet for everyone perhaps.
Of late, given a very bad year last year (and many 'stagnant' ones previously) I've found going out of my way to be more social...has helped the inderstanding of both myself and others. A lot of exercise and a bit of reflection (I do an occasional bit of meditation in yoga) and its helped me enormously through this 'shit-strom' of life. I get more of those rare moments where everything seems euphopric...sometimes when working out/running, listening to incredible music or simply observing nature (sex...I've forgotten to be fair). Think there's a word in Buddhism for this. Ruish of chemicals I'm sure...but they're extremely peacful moments (and coming off some royal lows they feel much more appreciated).
I have my chldren I love and that's enough at the moment. It's a bit of a fight life, but sometimes you have to enjoy that battle and the victories.
 
"I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."

Thomas Jefferson, 1883
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
"I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."

Thomas Jefferson, 1883
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Smart man - Well, apart from all the slavery stuff.
 
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Psychedelic Casual said:
I’d say “find solace from something real, take up meditation, go to a masseuse, get a hobby that isn’t too strenuous, don’t start getting deluded with mumbo jumbo”
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And so then how might i describe what I experience through meditation? Apperently it doesn't exist if it's not something that can be captured in words/numbers/symbols etc....
 
arfurclue said:
And so then how might i describe what I experience through meditation? Apperently it doesn't exist if it's not something that can be captured in words/numbers/symbols etc....
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True relaxation. Training yourself to empty your mind of what jobs you have to do/what worries you have/what is stressful to you at any particular time. Training yourself to be able to relax your muscles and start the process of removing tension in muscles that can be causing pain or tension in your head. Focusing on the music playing, the cells in your body or your surroundings and letting go of the thought of the bills you have to pay or the big job that needs doing in work tomorrow, even letting go of being awake and start to descend into REM and sleep.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
True relaxation. Training yourself to empty your mind of what jobs you have to do/what worries you have/what is stressful to you at any particular time. Training yourself to be able to relax your muscles and start the process of removing tension in muscles that can be causing pain or tension in your head. Focusing on the music playing, the cells in your body or your surroundings and letting go of the thought of the bills you have to pay or the big job that needs doing in work tomorrow, even letting go of being awake and start to descend into REM and sleep.
Click to expand...
Yes. And the deeper one goes into this, the more more one might feel 'whole' as conflict dissolves within...the more one one might feel fluid and so not so separate
from one's surroundings...the more one might come to be aware of 'essence' not just form...and beyond this - maybe one might discover that one is not strictly limited
by the understanding of who one thought oneself to be. Fun, huh? And in this way some 'religious' teaching may take on a different meaning than they
appeared to have before.
 
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