Our Faith in Science (If science proves Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change)

New York Times ^ | 11/12/2005 | TENZIN GYATSO, 14th Dalai Lama

[SeekAndFind]

SCIENCE has always fascinated me. As a child in Tibet, I was keenly curious about how things worked. When I got a toy I would play with it a bit, then take it apart to see how it was put together. As I became older, I applied the same scrutiny to a movie projector and an antique automobile.

At one point I became particularly intrigued by an old telescope, with which I would study the heavens. One night while looking at the moon I realized that there were shadows on its surface. I corralled my two main tutors to show them, because this was contrary to the ancient version of cosmology I had been taught, which held that the moon was a heavenly body that emitted its own light.

But through my telescope the moon was clearly just a barren rock, pocked with craters. If the author of that fourth-century treatise were writing today, I'm sure he would write the chapter on cosmology differently.

If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change. In my view, science and Buddhism share a search for the truth and for understanding reality. By learning from science about aspects of reality where its understanding may be more advanced, I believe that Buddhism enriches its own worldview.

For many years now, on my own and through the Mind and Life Institute, which I helped found, I have had the opportunity to meet with scientists to discuss their work. World-class scientists have generously coached me in subatomic physics, cosmology, psychology, biology.

It is our discussions of neuroscience, however, that have proved particularly important. From these exchanges a vigorous research initiative has emerged, a collaboration between monks and neuroscientists, to explore how meditation might alter brain function.

[headsonpikes]

Sudden showers have washed the cherries;

The bees hide in the linden tree.

[TigersEye]

Yeah, I try to smell the roses. LOL

[imardmd1]

Nothing wrong with rat mazes and behavioral psychology. It just stumbles when it gets into the morality of motivation.

[imardmd1]

And there are lots of things, I believe, that mankind STILL does not see because we are not looking for the right thing.

Yes, good insight. If you can't admit that a human can be both a suffering servant and king of all creation, and is ruining your religious construct, you need to kill him, don't you? If not in reality, at least in concept.

[D-fendr]

Any religion that science alone can prove or disprove isn’t a religion.

[onedoug]

I have faith in the scientific method to indicate to me something of how the world works. And I have faith in Torah to teach me something of how God works in the world.

[kimtom]

“And is science proves that Christianity is right, then Christianity will have to be discarded..”

/s

Funny

[kimtom]

Some think the behemoth and leviathan of Job may have been the hippopotamus and crocodile...”

Not!

[Truthsearcher]

Makes sense. Buddhism is just a philosophy, it’s not based on revelation, it’s not based on evidence. It’s based on idle speculation and contemplation. So when theories and speculation are contradicted by facts it’s easy to abandon the speculation in favor of facts.

[cuban leaf]

Some think the behemoth and leviathan of Job may have been the hippopotamus and crocodile...”

Not!

---

People tend to look at the people back then almost as one dimensional cartoon characters. I’ve heard people say the bible is bogus because in the old testament insects are called “8 legged” because people didn’t know they had six legs. No, the people ATE them and were quite familiar with what they are and how they are constructed. It is just a red herring.

Same with this. They knew that a hippo or elephant’s tail is nothing like a “great cedar”. And it is pretty easy to kill either with the most basic of weapons. especially when a few guys get together.

The creatures described in Job are significantly more formidable.

[kimtom]

“..Same with this. They knew that a hippo or elephant’s tail is nothing like a “great cedar”. And it is pretty easy to kill either with the most basic of weapons. especially when a few guys get together.

The creatures described in Job are significantly more formidable.
..”

Agreed!!!

I imagine Africans hunted Hippo, and crocs.....

These were most likely animal that are extinct.
my apologies

[HiTech RedNeck]

Many things in scripture are given from a point of perspective. See what already has been discussed above before jumping in.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Perhaps larger varieties of the animals we know now... at any rate, this has to be understood from Job’s point of view. God wouldn’t bother trying to wow Job with a spider or a grasshopper, but He might wow a housefly with that.

[kimtom]

Agreed...but

"The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings’ palaces" (prov30:28). The prophet Isaiah also used spiders to teach an important lesson. He spoke of people who were so evil that they "hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web" (Isa59:5)

"..their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works." .."

Thanks!