| | Eg. Buddhism, some forms of Hinduism.. Nontheism is often mistakenly thought to be irreligious (anti-religious) despite the fact that religions can be nontheistic-orthopraxic (orthopraxy involves correct practice including but not limited to ethics, functional virtues, and the arts and disciplines involved in Equality, hospitality). A nontheist is neither a theist nor an atheist (nor, for that matter, an agnostic) and does not define reality through any black and white God vs. God or The Forces of Good™ vs. The Forces of Evil™ dualism. The Buddha didn't deny that there were Gods, but he did briefly differ with the definition of deity and then went on to put a fierce focus on orthopraxy and personal and community excellence...and part of excellence is choice of foucs, so I like this: The Buddha usually replied to questions about the existence of God(s) with silence but told the story of a man shot by a poisoned arrow. As the doctor moved to pull the arrow out of the wound, the man grabbed his hand and asked: "Before you treat me, tell me, who shot me with the arrow? Was he of a warrior or some other class, tall or short, young or old, dark skinned or light skinned?" Ignoring the question, the doctor pulled the arrow out in answered the question in doing so -- the patient would have died without pulling the arrow out. So, you can spend your time in endless speculation or get on with excellence, some mysticism, some pragmatism. Or, as I'd like to say, where the focus goes, the energies flow, which ensures more of the same, and that is why, in part, I wrote Painting Pluralism the say I did, in reaction to an atheistic organization putting up billboards, and why my path is an orthopraxy, though I'm not exactly Buddhist. |
| | Posted 11/8/2009 11:55 AM - 6 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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