1  2  Next

I just finished a book a short time ago by Lionel Tiger and Michael McGuire called God’s Brain. Without coming down on either side of the argument it describes how the brain is wired to believe in a God in every culture.

This morning I heard an interview with Lionel Tiger who provided one of the most profound descriptions of organized religion which I've always had issues with.


Drinking Bird.jpg [ 3.79 KiB | Viewed 444 times ]

Remember these? He said this best described the way that an organized religion works and why it keeps working.

Religions want us to believe we are sinners but that by going to whatever particular church you go to once a week we can be forgiven and be saved. By attending the religious function, we can go back to our regular lives committing whatever “sins” during the following week we just have to return to the church again the next week to be forgiven and the process starts again.

The Catholics of course have raised this to an art with the confessional. Murder folks from Monday to Saturday. Come in Sunday, admit your sins to the Priest and you’re good to go for the next week.

Seriously though, the book is an interesting read. In my profession as a Psychologist, the belief of “Man Creating God” is pretty common. This book does a great job of explaining why without stating there is or isn’t a God.

   

Buddhism does no such thing.

   

Bart, you’re splitting hairs.

Although I loath to quote Wikipedia….



Just another method of pointing out what’s wrong with us and how to fix it.

   

I think this book sounds like a very interesting read Poquas, I'll check it out.

The argument about Bhuddism is actually weather it is a religion or a philosophy, there is no supreme being to be worshipped in Bhuddism, rather a set of doctrines about how one should live and act, experience suffering for oneself and desire for nothing.

   

I actually know a number of practising Buddhists. They call it a religion, but I understand your point. I think anything that encompasses a group of people to follow a specific form of dogma at the same time is an organized religion/cult/club......

   

This guy's explanation speaks to religion, not spirituality. I consider myself somehwat of a spiritual person, though you'd never catch me in a church/synagogue/mosque/temple. My reasons for being spiritual have nothing to do with expiating my sins.

My spirituality comes from a wonder and awe at the cosmos around me, and the improbability of my being. It comes from the taste of a ripe summer strawberry. It gives me a perfection for which to strive.

   

I hear you, though I know a number of practicing Bhuddists as well and they don't refer to it as their religion, there are varying disiplies within Bhuddism itself though and differences of interpretation (like any religion, lol). I'm still gonna read that book though.

   

the concept of sin, especially 'Original Sin' is quite different between Christianity and Judaism, as in Judaism doesn't believe in it. Jews believe we are born sin free and it is in later life when we follow our yetzer tov or yetzer hara(good or bad impulses)that sinners and righteous people separate.

Even the idea of Satan is different. Satan is merely the angel tasked with testing man to prove he is worthy, not the embodiment of evil as portrayed in movies and fables.

Also, Christians and Muslims seem more concerned with the 'Afterlife' than their current one on earth. If you study the Torah, you'll find very little on heaven or hell, but most teachings deal with how you govern yourself on earth. Enjoy it you have no guarantees you'll have another. That is solely up to God.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... rlife.html

   

Well it's quite a bit different. What Buddhism points out as wrong (arising from ignorance, not a moral transgression) is your response to the vagaries of life. That's quite different than thinking you have to appease a punishing deity. Buddhism is meant to help you change how you respond to the slings and arrows. Kind of a Serenity approach without asking for God's help.

Actually, I agree with the Dalai Lama who said "all paths lead up the same mountain." Many Buddhists, especially Asain ones born into it, approach it very similarly to Christianity - supplicating Buddhas for good fortune etc. The Amitabha Pure Land people, who pray to Amitabha to re-incarnate them to the Pure Land are really no different than Christians wanting to go to heaven.

But all religions have way more sophisticated adherents, who aren't about a guy in the sky. They understand that it's a inner journey, that overlaps but supersedes say psychotherapy. If you know anything about Transpersonal Psychology, say Wilber with his Spectrum of Consciousness, that's heading in that direction.

   

Transpersonal Psychology. That's the equivalent of the fringe religious practice in my field. Personally, I don't put much "faith" into it.

   

It's certainly not about faith. More about accepting people's needs to connect with the bigger picture. It can be combined with any actual therapeutic methods you want, it's more about keeping an open mind.

   

The bigger picture is the problem. It's extremely subjective and often includes the particular bias of the individual treating or being treated. When the bigger picture involves spirituality, it's no longer a science, it's theology.

   

You really see yourself as a scientist? You're not bringing in your beliefs and subjective experience to your work? Sounds like a computer could do the same thing.

   

As a (former) practising psychologist (or medical professional) the fist skill to master is compartmentalization. My beliefs should never and don’t affect the diagnosis or treatment. If they did, I couldn’t be able to do the type of jobs I did. That applies to any practitioner. Without that ability they’re not going to be very good at what they do and it becomes obvious very quickly. Burnout or thrownout.

   

Funny, a friend and former classmate of mine who is a psychiatrist, says that about psychology in general. According to him, if it were really a science it wouldn't be part of the Arts program. Then again he thinks chiropractors are quacks and and charlatans too...at least he tells his wife that, who happens to be one.

   

1  2  Next