Buddhism places a high value on finding the truth. This fundamental principal allows for an acceptance of science, as it is seen as a modern truth to most. Furthermore, Buddhists believe in the evolution of human consciousness—this evolution, along with the truth presented from science, allows for an over arching acceptance of biological evolution. Even more interesting is that in the Agganna Sutta, a sacred Buddhist text, Buddha explains the world as having evolved over time. Though there is no mention of biological evolution, there is still an emphasis of evolution as a whole—both physically and spiritually. Tibetan Buddhism is known as the branch of Buddhism that has the largest emphasis on reincarnation, which is the most relevant to this research. Reincarnation is driven by the decisions made in each life and is basically the knowledge that one’s spirit travels between material beings over different lives. The spirit evolves as one becomes closer and closer to Nirvana, or perfection. Karma, too, influences the lives of the reincarnated as this idea causes the consequences of both good and bad deeds from each past life to be brought over to the current life. Overall, Tibetan Buddhism and evolution flow very well together as various Buddhist beliefs in spiritual evolution and karma, and the search for truth lead to the acceptance of science and evolution.
Spiritual evolution is a key aspect of Buddhist philosophy. According to Bill Broderick in the Cobourg Atheist, “Spiritual evolution supposes that the soul or conscious entity that animates a human or animal body somehow survives death and returns to life in a somewhat evolved form. ” The article goes on to say that over time and after countless reincarnations, a sou...
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Rinpoche, Samdhong. Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism in Today’s World; forward by 14th Dalai Lama. (Tibet: World Wisdom, 2006), 264.
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The third chapter of The Buddha Meets Socrates asks, “Is science a distraction?” To answer this question, the text addresses three major underlying questions: what is science, what is the purpose of science, and can science lead us to truth? The chapter incorporates several Western views, comparing and contrasting them with the Buddhist view elucidated by the Karmapa. The first question as to the identity of science is developed through a traditional Western view, invoking the minds of Socrates, Descartes, and Kant. To what end science proceeds is then questioned with respect to Nietzsche with reference to Socrates, and is compared with the views of the Karma. Lastly, regarding the pursuit of truth, the eastern and western thoughts clearly
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Reincarnation is a central belief among Hindus and Buddhists. This is the belief that a person will be reborn into a new body over and over again. Being born into a human body is considered a “precious and rare opportunity for the soul to advance toward its ultimate goal of liberation from rebirth and merging with absolute reality.” The ultimate goal is to escape this cycle through good deeds (Fisher 75). For Hinduism this is called moksha, and for Buddhism this is called nirvana.
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Western psychology is concerned with the investigation of understanding the negative aspects of human behavior, emotions and the mind, and to some extent, with changing them. The Buddhist approach to the investigation of the mind is unscientific, as defined by the science of Western Psychology. It is not concerned with laboratory conditions, control groups, or ‘objectivity’ in the sense of the experimenter being separate from and impartial to the subject (Nettle, 2005). In Buddhism, the person conducting the experiment and the subject are the same. Buddhists seek truth, as do scientists. Science, for the most part, sees the world as something external, which can be observed and understood as truth. Psychology involves understanding the human experience through the study of the mind and how perception governs behavior. Buddhism sees perception as internal and of one’s experience of the outside world as a fundamental part of understanding the truth within our self.
In the western world, a dominant belief is that after life, a person’s soul is sent to a place of eternal bliss, heaven, or a place of eternal damnation, hell. To Buddhists, this concept is not the norm. Buddhists believe that a person is reincarnated into another life form, either human or animal. What life form a person is reincarnated as is determined by the person’s karma. The concept of karma not only affects reincarnation, but also what path a person’s life takes. While much of the concept of karma is believable and comprehensible by a person of any denomination, some aspects are dependant upon a belief in reincarnation and that a person will eventually be punished for his sins or rewarded for his good deeds, whether in this life or the next. At the same time, in order to believe in how reincarnation works, a person must understand the idea of karma.
At first glance, many facets of science and religion seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Because of this, I have generally kept them confined to separate spheres in my life. I have always thought that science is based on reason and cold, hard facts and is, therefore, objective. New ideas have to be proven many times by different people to be accepted by the wider scientific community, data and observations are taken with extreme precision, and through journal publications and papers, scientists are held accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work. All of these factors contributed to my view of science as objective and completely truthful. Religion, on the other hand, always seems fairly subjective. Each person has their own personal relationship with God, and even though people often worship as a larger community with common core beliefs, it is fine for one person’s understanding of the Bible and God to be different from another’s. Another reason that Christianity seems so subjective is that it is centered around God, but we cannot rationally prove that He actually exists (nor is obtaining this proof of great interest to most Christians). There are also more concrete clashes, such as Genesis versus the big bang theory, evolution versus creationism, and the finality of death versus the Resurrection that led me to separate science and religion in my life. Upon closer examination, though, many of these apparent differences between science and Christianity disappeared or could at least be reconciled. After studying them more in depth, science and Christianity both seem less rigid and inflexible. It is now clear that intertwined with the data, logic, and laws of scien...
Stenmark, Mickael. How to Relate Science and Religion. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.