Proof of any Eastern Religion?

[John J. Bannan]

I got nothing against Eastern religions, but what proof do any of them have that anything they say is right? Reincarnation? Please. Nirvana? Ha!

 

[mybreathyourlung]

I understand what you're getting at, but the same thing can be said of any religion.

There's no proof of reincarnation just as there's no proof of a heaven.

 

[John J. Bannan]

Yeah, but isn't reincarnation sillier than Heaven? Why would nature need me to be reincarnated? Can't make a butterfly out of something else besides me? Heaven at least permits the continuity of the same person - just in a different place and physical form.

 

[Nickelodeon]

So you're ridiculing other faiths due to lack of evidence???

 

[John J. Bannan]

Lack of evidence? No. Lack of common sense.

 

[Nickelodeon]

Common sense is misleading. Yours beliefs are nonsense to them.

 

[Wisdom_Seeker]

I got nothing against Eastern religions, but what proof do any of them have that anything they say is right? Reincarnation? Please. Nirvana? Ha!

dude, Nirvana is what Christians call heaven, or better, the "Garden of Eden". A few concepts vary, but I believe Jesus taught about reincarnations as well.

 

[spidergoat]

First of all it's incorrect to lump all Eastern religions together. There's a diversity of thought that simply isn't taught in history class. I'm assume you are referring to Buddhism, so I'll start there.

Nirvana is a shift in consciousness, a state of mind that is accessible to anyone.

Reincarnation can be better understood when you understand that Buddhism views the self as illusory. Also, every particular phenomenon and object is illusory due to our knowledge of it being merely perceptual, and furthermore, everything is temporal. There are no permanent things, and no permanent boundries. The implication of this means that every "incarnation" that has ever been is just a rearrangement of atoms that already existed. So there is one set of atoms that just get incarnated and reincarnated over and over as different things. Due to cause and effect, every action these beings make has reverberations through time. So, what you do effects the future and therefore future incarnations.

In human society, there is also culture, which most of us inherit, so our patterns of thought are not invented anew in every person. This is another kind of reincarnation. Some would even postulate that the culture is the mind. Our brains are machines that accept the programming of culture, and this creates mind. It is this mind that happens to inhabit the bodies that DNA and nature tend to proliferate.

 

[John J. Bannan]

I thought reincarnation was thought of as me later being a flower or a bug. Obviously, the matter in our bodies gets recycled - but somehow I don't think that's all Buddists mean by reincarnation.

 

[peta9]

Yeah, but isn't reincarnation sillier than Heaven?

Lack of evidence? No. Lack of common sense.

I'm dead serious when I say scientists should dissect the christian brain to find out how it ticks. It is really amazing how they are unable to detect their own ludicrous thought processes. Your comments are like the fattest person laughing at a chubby person for being overweight.

 

[John J. Bannan]

So you say skinny.

 

[spidergoat]

I thought reincarnation was thought of as me later being a flower or a bug. Obviously, the matter in our bodies gets recycled - but somehow I don't think that's all Buddists mean by reincarnation.

The Buddhist proposition would say that there is no "you".

 

[John J. Bannan]

If Buddists mean nothing more than that our bodies get recycled, well then why would I want to be a Buddist?

 

[Nickelodeon]

If Buddists mean nothing more than that our bodies get recycled, well then why would I want to be a Buddist?

So your faith is based on what you want (ie wishfull thinking), as opposed to what really is?

 

[Orleander]

If Buddists mean nothing more than that our bodies get recycled, well then why would I want to be a Buddist?

???I thought the spirit was recycled, not the body. Your body gets recycled into the earth.

And if you think reincarnation is silly, we need to talk about flying soldiers with wings and a virgin birth.

 

[John J. Bannan]

Scientists just verified that virgin birth is possible in sharks. Why not humans?

 

[Orleander]

Ah yes, a fish can, therefore Mary could. Sounds like christian logic to me.
lol

 

[Nickelodeon]

Sharks can also breathe underwater, therefore so should humans.

 

[John J. Bannan]

Actually, it's not just fish. Mammals are the only animals that haven't been shown to do it. Nonetheless, who knows?

 

[spidergoat]

If Buddists mean nothing more than that our bodies get recycled, well then why would I want to be a Buddist?

I think it means more than that. It implies an intimate, inseparable connection between yourself and others (I think Jesus said something like that). It means that your actions will become your future, so we should be good.

Frankly, I'm surprised that you would suggest popular appeal has anything to do with the tenets of a religion. I do think that is the case, and that religion has evolved like a virus to appeal to it's host and ensure it's spread.



BTW, I don't know what a Buddist is, try Buddhist.


There is also a big difference between so-called eastern religions and western religion. Eastern religions can hardly be called a religion as we in the west know it. For instance, there is nothing you need to believe to be a Buddhist, they don't believe in belief.

Taoism proposes something they call the Tao, which is the tendency of the Universe to self-organize in a passive sense. It's the quality of things to achieve a kind of balance. It cannot be seen or experienced in itself, it's nature is mysterious. I don't think they would mind too much if someone pointed out that such a force cannot be proven to exist.