Tuesday 22 March 2011

Neuroscience vs Buddhism

Following yesterday's post I came across this opinion article on the connection between neuroscience and Buddhism. Clearly there is a lot out there about these connections. To quote a particularly juicy paragraph:
Western thought is hardly monolithic or simple, but monotheistic religions made a simple misstep when they didn’t apply naturalism to themselves and their notions of their souls. Time and again, their prominent scholars and philosophers rendered the human soul exceptional and otherworldly, falsely elevating our species above and beyond nature. We see the effects today. When Judeo-Christian belief conflicts with science, it nearly always concerns science removing humans from a putative pedestal, a central place in creation. Yet science has shown us that we reside on the fringes of our galaxy, which itself doesn’t seem to hold a particularly precious location in the universe. Our species came from common ape-like ancestors, many of which in all likelihood possessed brains capable of experiencing and manifesting some of our most precious “human” sentiments and traits. Our own brains produce the thing we call a mind, which is not a soul. Human exceptionalism increasingly seems a vain fantasy. In its modest rejection of that vanity, Buddhism exhibits less error and less original sin, this one of pride.
The author follows that up by making an interesting point. Buddhists are clearly happy to bask in the reinforcement of their beliefs by science, but will they be equally happy to accept that there is currently no scientific evidence for reincarnation?

1 comment:

  1. Hello there,Buddhism and neuroscience have parallel however very unique conventions for inspecting cognizance and its connection to the body.These customs about-face no less than 2500 years to the Buddha and Hippocrates.While both disciplines place incredible attention on experience and reason,their methods of research and check are drastically diverse.While neuroscience looks at mind-brain forms to a great extent equitably,utilizing progressively modern innovation,Buddhism seeks after its research primarily by improving solidness and clarity of subjective awareness, and coordinates that awareness around the investigation of cognitive occasions and other phenomena.Thank you.
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    AJAIB SINGH JI

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