Religion

[carpedm9587]

I'm recalling now C.S. Lewis' comment in the preface to Mere Christianity:

Source: Mere Christianity

It is at her center, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests at the center of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.

© Copyright Original Source

Lewis found that the ones who were most in agreement with his writing were the ones who were devoted members to their communion.

Blessings,
Lee

Yes, he did. And I actually love C.S.L. But to get to this principal, he had to ignore all of the rest of the divergent voices. For any given thought/idea, there is a core that speaks with one voice. That core is not, to me, a testament to the truth of the proposition. There are simply too many divergent cores...

[lee_merrill]

Yes, he did. And I actually love C.S.L.

Me too!

But to get to this principal, he had to ignore all of the rest of the divergent voices. For any given thought/idea, there is a core that speaks with one voice. That core is not, to me, a testament to the truth of the proposition. There are simply too many divergent cores...

But C.S. Lewis wrote about the core of Christianity, and found remarkable agreement across the various communions. Ignoring the divergences was ignoring the peripheral matters.

Blessings,
Lee

[Rushing Jaws]

I'm not sure where this belongs, so I'm using the lobby. I'm curious what people think of this:

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.

[David Hayward]

I'm not sure where this belongs, so I'm using the lobby. I'm curious what people think of this:

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.

I rather doubt that Buddhism will ever include the natural in a unity arising from experience, unless the unity be aesthetic rather than rational: here's from a New Yorker magazine review of two recent books on Buddhism and its meditation practices.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...d-what-it-cant

Or put more bluntly, Buddhism and 'science and reason' seem to be incompatible.

[carpedm9587]

Me too!


But C.S. Lewis wrote about the core of Christianity, and found remarkable agreement across the various communions. Ignoring the divergences was ignoring the peripheral matters.

Blessings,
Lee

Lee...give me any group of people (humans), and I can whittle away everything they do not agree on, and find a "core" of things they do. Any group. Whatsoever. Lewis isn't really saying anything, except he has found a basic truth about humanity. If the group shares a common bond (e.g., Christianity), then the core will include elements of that religion. The exact same thing can be said of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, etc.

[carpedm9587]

As with so many things, I have no idea what was in his mind when he said it - I can only speak to what it says to me, and what I take away from it. Given my starting place (atheism), when I read this I read a hope that eventually humanity will set aside its divisive god-based religions and find our common bond in our common humanity, and our common existence on this planet in this universe. And we will find our spirituality in the love and friendship that unites us, and our common quest to better understand the cosmos and our place within it.

[carpedm9587]

I rather doubt that Buddhism will ever include the natural in a unity arising from experience, unless the unity be aesthetic rather than rational: here's from a New Yorker magazine review of two recent books on Buddhism and its meditation practices.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...d-what-it-cant

Or put more bluntly, Buddhism and 'science and reason' seem to be incompatible.

As a non-Buddhist, I am not qualified to respond. I know very little about the beliefs or the practices. But thanks for sharing this.

[shunyadragon]

As with so many things, I have no idea what was in his mind when he said it - I can only speak to what it says to me, and what I take away from it. Given my starting place (atheism), when I read this I read a hope that eventually humanity will set aside its divisive god-based religions and find our common bond in our common humanity, and our common existence on this planet in this universe. And we will find our spirituality in the love and friendship that unites us, and our common quest to better understand the cosmos and our place within it.

I do not believe the citation you referenced rejects a God(?) based religion, and it indeed does present a naive view of Buddhism and the many variations. This interesting citation can read from different perspectives to justify one's own world view. For example; All religions define themselves as a cosmic religion throughout history depending how you choose to define 'cosmic religion.' You apparently define 'cosmic religion' as having no God(s).

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description."

Buddhism as it is definitely does not answer this description.

Transcending a personal God would not translate to no God at all. It does indeed reject the dogmas, doctrines and theologies that define God in terms of one personal God of one belief system as the dominant contemporary Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions and their variations.