The Relationship between Buddhism and Science: Secularisation Flashcards
AO3: How does the West approach religion?
It is post-christian, atheistic and secular.
AO3: What did Don Culpitt write about religion in the West?
‘Religion today has to become belief less’.
AO3: How is Buddhism not seen to be typically religious?
It rejects the idea of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God.
AO3: What did Buddhism reject from Brahmanism?
Brahman as the eternal and unchangeable constant reality.
AO3: What does Paul Tillich believe the ultimate concern is of a theistic religion?
Faith in God which is not found in Buddhism.
AO3: Historically what was the Buddha found to be?
Scholars such as Batchelor propose the Buddha and its originality is wholly atheistic and secular.
AO3: What did researcher Trevor Ling discover?
1973 - ‘The Buddha: The Social Revolutionary Potential of Buddhism’ - stated the Buddha was not a founder of religion and his teaching was not religious.
AO3: Why did the Buddha’s teachings flourish?
It came from a time of economic flourishment - a class of intellectual and wealthy came asking questions.
AO3: What teachings did the Buddha apply to the newly rich?
Anatta - Not focus on the self but general welfare.
Also gave them the concept of the sangha to focus on the common wealth of society.
AO3: What does Ling argue led Buddhism to become a religion?
‘Continually reoccurring human religion-making tendency’
AO3: How does Batchelor argue against the enlightenment being mythical?
Instead the realisation that he could give up alaya - his place in life.
It was understanding contingency not ‘gaining a privileged knowledge into some higher truth’.
AO3: What religion did the Buddha dismiss?
The priestly religion of brahmins, dismissing it as unintelligible and legitimising an unjust social structure.
AO3: What may be seen as false reification in Buddhism?
The central theme of Karma.
AO3: How does the Buddha adapt a pragmatic view of Karma?
In the Sivaka Sutta he outlines pain or pleasure is ‘entirely caused by what was done before’.
AO3: What forms of Buddhism can be seen as non-theistic?
Therevada and the initial forms of Buddhism.
AO3: How does Batchelor show Buddhism to be theistic?
During his time in Dharamsala in the 1970’s he told a story of an evil demon which was captured by monks specialising in exorcism in a triangular box, sealed with vajras and buried deep in the earth.
AO3: What seven terms did Ninian Smart outline to recognise religions?
1/ Ritual: forms and orders of ceremonies.
2/ Narrative: Mythic stories
3/ Experiential: experiences of devotion
4/ Social and Institutional
5/ Ethical and legal
6/ Doctrinal and Philosophical
7/ Material
AO3: Where does Kant say the metaphysical exists?
In the noumenal realm - the realm of the abstract and the Absolute.
AO3: What is the Buddhist version of the noumenal realm?
The ‘other shore’ that is completely empty (shunya) of anything empirical eternally.
AO3: How is the Buddha outlined to be aware of the two realms?
The Buddha’s title of lokavid meaning ‘knower of the world’ as he could see these two realms.
AO3: Why may there be conflict over the philosophical or religious debate?
Academics study the religion from the outside whilst the believer follows from within.
AO3: How did the Dalai Lama view Western academics?
After visiting Michigan University students doing a seminar on Mahayana he outlined that it left him with the historical Buddha bereft of his omniscience.
Is Buddhism presented as a secular philosophy?
Buddhism has frequently been presented in the West as a secular philosophy: in the 19th century, Victorians such as Huxley believed there was an original ‘pure’
form of Buddhism which was entirely atheistic.
What does Stephen Bachelor see Buddhism as?
Stephen Batchelor sees Buddhism as a rational philosophy and way of life in After Buddhism: ‘Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age’ published in 2015.
