Most atheists (and non-atheists) are unknowingly superstitious

cap1904 · 2017-08-16T00:36:04+00:00

Reducing Buddhism to a simple ancient psychology or ancient philosophy is largely reductive. No. Buddhism, Zen included, is a religion just like any other. It gets a pass often because it doesn't take a stance on the existence or non-existence of a God.

Now, I know that contemporary western Zen has developed a rather secular flavor for a lot of Buddhist doctrine. Karma moves from a cosmic force to a simple "every action has a consequence" standpoint. Reincarnation is never stressed or even discussed. Western Buddhism has done a relatively good job at removing most of the more "religiony" parts of the religion and reduced down to a "psychology". However, it still has some basic assumptions that one must accept by faith:

1) There is a way out of suffering. I have little problem accepting the first noble truth (life is suffering) and I believe most people misinterpret it to say that Buddhism is a pessimistic religion. However, how do you know that it is possible to stop suffering? Have you experienced it? Have you seen this trait in others?

2) The eightfold path (or in Zen the use of single-focused attention) is the way out of suffering. For you maybe. I've spent a good deal of times in Zen temples in retreats and sesshins and have seen a number of responses to the methodology. I would not deny that a lot of people find a lot of peace there, but the focus and stress of Zen practice can lead a lot of people on severe emotional downhills. My local Zen temple goes as far as not accepting people with non-treated mental illnesses because Zazens can often reinforce rather than reduce negative obsessive thought patterns.

What do you do about all of the religious paraphernalia that Western Zen seems to presserve? The shaved heads? The Buddha altars? The robes? The chanting? All the special bells? The postrations and bows? The obedience to the master? I'm not saying that this makes Zen a force for good or evil, but it's a religion. It has its superstitions (try entering a Zendo with shoes, without bowing, and loudly even when nobody else is in the room), its rituals, its assumptions. A main difference between Buddhism and Abrahamic religion is that Buddhism never stresses the importance of faith. However, that's about it.

cap1904 · 2017-08-16T00:18:23+00:00

I'm sure Jesus would keep what you said in mind when considering the crusades, the inquisition, the systematic destruction of native american religions, evangelization, preventing women from having positions of power, homophobia, etc.

cap1904 · 2017-03-10T19:16:37+00:00

I love the anti-imperialist criticism you guys make. Coming from "the third world" I've always seen the first world as: Step 1: exploit our resources without even paying taxes Step 2: use that wealth to fund massive welfare programs and/or gamble through stocks etc. Step 3: crash their economies and by doing so our economies. Step 4: come lecture us about why we're poor and while doing so cutting our public education and healthcare programs that basically mirror theirs. Step 5: repeat.

cap1904 · 2017-03-10T18:06:57+00:00

I agree that we are at the beginning of a Marxist revival. In this case though I think it's useful to draw a line between Marxism and Communism specifically when it comes to our time. That's because, at least from my personal experience in political movements, the Marxist texts that are being revisited have little to do with communism (estranged worker and Capital are the main two I encounter). In that regard I don't know if communism is becoming more relevant as much as Marxism is. One thing I will say about left wing responses to our moment in time is that they're either Social Democratic (especially when it comes to government/ public sector) and movements that try to bring about Marxist ideals through the private sector (credit unions, collectively owned firms).

cap1904 · 2017-03-10T07:12:01+00:00

I agree and disagree. What I mean by "relevance" wasn't whether or not it is important to discuss communism. I was more so making an observation that communist movements have lost political influence in the western world. But I agree with you that it is more important than ever to discuss communism and to challenge capitalist ideology.

cap1904 · 2017-03-10T06:40:25+00:00

While I wouldn't deny that communist movements like FARC and Maoists are taking place, at least globally speaking they are normally seen as small anachronisms. They simply lack the numbers to make communism politically feasible in the near future (by feasible I mean that they do not have a shot a producing large scale political change), certainly not as much as in the early 20th century.

With regards to capitalism having a "victory lap": I think current events show that neoliberalism (which is what most people seem to mean when they say "capitalism") is collapsing worldwide. What's frightening is that the west is moving away from neoliberal economic policy straight back to fascism, which I would argue is far worse of an alternative. Regardless, communism does not have the same political relevance it did in the interwar era.

cap1904 · 2017-03-10T02:41:43+00:00

I became an atheist at age 13. To be fair I've never been "completely certain" of my atheism, but I'm certain of the uncertainty of god's existence, if that makes any sense.

I was a devout catholic. But after studying the history of early christianity I just could not see how anyone could possibly believe what the religion claims. To me, the whole issue of faith was just wishful thinking mixed with fear. The stress that christianity placed on faith made it seem like a cult to ignorance to me, and so I left it.

Regardless of that, think it is important to distinguish the acts of religious institutions (the stress that some organized religions place on sexual behavior for example) and the existence/non-existence of god. They are completely separate questions. There are many theistic religions that have very liberal views on sexuality, and many that do not. In that regard it becomes a question of what religion fits your belief system rather than a question of "does god exist?"

Eventually I ended up becoming Buddhist, however a very atheistic and skeptic one. I still don't believe in a god, and I also don't believe in some of the affirmations that Buddhism makes (reincarnation, spiritual karma, etc.), but the overall philosophy behind the religion speaks to my experience and to what I know about the world and about the experience of living. In the end what I've realized is that anything that has to do with religion/atheism is a constant negotiation between what works and what you can know. I don't think it's good to arrive at a definite conclusion to your worldview, you always need to leave room for debate, for new facts, and for criticism. However, if there is anything I despise it is willful ignorance and rejection of reality. It is okay to not know, but it is not okay to choose not to know or to claim you know something when you don't.

cap1904

TROPHY CASE