Search for "More About Buddhism & Science"

Zen and the Art of the Sex Scandal

By Gary Gach

…all seem identical to Western codes of conduct, they arise differently in Buddhism. The Decalogue was revealed by divine commandment. In Buddhism, there’s no creator deity. Nor is there any central Buddhist institution, such as a Vatican. Rather, in establishing one of humanity’s first monastic orders, the Buddha set forth a matrix and process of conscious behavior (vinaya) based on actual conduct. As such, it’s thus not top-down but, rather, bot…

Reactionary White Buddhists Have Joined The Fight Against Critical Race Theory

By Ann Gleig

…anu Rheaume released an article titled “Critical Race Theory is Corrupting Buddhism,” which claims that critical race theory has not only “infiltrated colleges but also Buddhism in America.” Rheaume and two other white Americans, David Reynolds, a former Theravada monk, and Mark Vetanen, a Zen practitioner, have started a new podcast called “The Spiritual Right,” which reproduces much of Christian conservative anti-woke rhetoric: “The West has bec…

Buddha as Scientist, Entrepreneur & Self-Improvement Guru

By Michael Schulson

…tio, high energy consumption, high bandwidth consumption—nothing much good about it. This is about 76,000 years old.” Then Eastern traditions came along and offered an upgrade. Other Buddhist Geeks, according to Gleig, see Buddhism influencing our use of technology. This includes things like a more mindful approach to technology, or the “contemplative design” of websites that don’t do everything in their power to distract readers by, say, gratuito…

Religion and Science: Busting Assumptions

By Annie Hardison-Moody

…s like Richard Dawkins have accused the foundation of trying to manipulate science in order to prove something about religion. While the foundation’s grant recipients argue that is not the case, the controversies and questions that surround Templeton funding and projects bring to light a key question: How can and should we pursue research and teaching in the area of religion and science? In part due to the proliferation of Templeton funds, researc…

Elaine Howard Ecklund Wants to Dispel Myths Surrounding Religious Resistance to Science

By Sammy Feldblum

…ocused on demonstrating that despite the way that they’re generally talked about, science and religion are in fact compatible, or at least that people believe that they are. Is that fair? It depends who you’re talking to and what you mean by science. We surveyed evangelical Christians and mainline Christians like Episcopals and Presbyterians. We also surveyed members of non-Christian religions—Jews, Muslims, and Hindus—and members of historically…

Author Response to Commenters on Buddhism and Violence Article

By M. Sophia Newman

…akacupama Sutta was not a teaching given to young laywomen.” This is true. Buddhism’s historical emphasis on monasticism means many Buddhist teachers often didn’t intend to give teachings to laypeople at all. Many Buddhist practitioners today grapple with extracting insights from texts written in contexts highly dissimilar to our own circumstances. The same may be true of every religion, but the recent arrival of Buddhism to the West has made this…

Can Expelled Teach Us a Thing or Two?

By Arri Eisen

…cts my teacher is telling me. What if we changed things? What if we taught about science as a process, and taught both its power and limitations? What if we taught in science class that there are other valuable non-scientific ways of looking at the world? Some are not scientifically testable, and so are outside the realm of the scientific method. If we put ideas beside each other and show which are scientifically testable and which are not and why…

Science Mike Building a “Christian Science” Liturgy for the Nones

By D. Ashley Campbell

…s hardly a trailblazer int his respect. So what, if anything, is different about Ask Science Mike? According to McHargue, his work is uniquely suited to a digital world. “We’re this work for the Internet age,” McHargue said. “In a world where every idea is a Google search away and there’s too much information to create a coherent narrative, how do we help people adapt to that world at the intersection of science, faith and art?” “We’re using the I…

Atheist or Religious, We All Need Good Science

By Paul Wallace

…entific enterprise funded largely through a strong federal government. But science qua science really does stand largely aloof from politics (maybe that’s why it works so well). Science is really powerful. It shines a light on a world we could never have imagined. But science, properly understood, is not fit to be the arbiter of all religious or political belief. This is why the good folks at NCSE can say in all truth: Good science education is fo…

Creationism and Global Warming Denial: Anti-Science’s Kissing Cousins?

By Lauri Lebo

…d to increase the appearance of evolution’s controversy. Fostering Fear of Science The science blog Denialism has a list of themes used in the global warming debate that have been similarly deployed in intelligent design battles: Well-funded think tanks are capable of derailing a scientific consensus, in this case the consensus on global warming which has existed for nearly three decades; The goal of denialists is not to propose an alternative th…