DP, My impression was that you were talking about atheists in general. My bad. I'm happy that Christianity brought you to Zen.
Mike ________________________________ From: DP <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thu, 7 October, 2010 7:06:39 Subject: Re: [Zen] Note One thing: you weren't on the forum, snf I have to say indeed they were gloating. For me it was Christianity that led me to Zen, so I cannot discount either. --- In [email protected], mike brown <uerusub...@...> wrote: > > Mayka, > > Fair enough. I've been pretty quiet on the forum recently, but felt I had to > respond to DP's assertion that atheists were "gloating" over scoring higher > in >a > > questionaire on religion. As an atheist myself I couldn't let that pass. My > responses were pretty much designed to goad a reaction from a glassy-eyed > fundamentalist, but to DP's credit he is much more reasonable, >intelligent and > > moderate than that (my apologys to DP for the assumption). To take the > matter > back to things Zen. I don't put Zen in the same category as religion, in the > sense of the monotheitic traditions, because Zen doesn't rely on words or > scripture and the outwardly ceremonial aspects can easily be dismissed > (they're > > just representative of a cultural overlay, anyway). I think there's a huge > difference between Jesus' exhortation to "Follow me (or else)" and Buddha's > "Ba > > a lamp unto yourself". I'm much more in the Sam Harris camp (an atheist and > a > scientist) than the Dawkins/Hitchens camp. Harris sees the danger of religion > mixing with politics, but doesn't dismiss the mystical/'spiritual' aspect of > human experience, although he does dimiss the religious overlay that is > usually > > put onto these experiences (in other words, peak/transcendant experiences >occur > > in all cultures and is a universal, human experience - not divine). Having > had > > such an experience myself, I can't dismiss them as easily as Dawkins et al. >Hope > > that puts things back on topic : ) > > Mike > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Maria Lopez <flordel...@...> > To: Zen Forum <[email protected]> > Sent: Thu, 7 October, 2010 3:26:17 > Subject: [Zen] Note > >  > Hello all: >  > Whatever them has always welcome in this forum. And that has made from this > forum a nice one to participate on. However, it has been noticeable to me >that > > the forum is getting less zen and more chatting and religious, politics >themes. > > That is gaining strenght and overtaking all the essence and energy of just > rare > > zen postings. And this is kind of sad. Discussions of all kinds plus >chatting > > are ok but if those discussions away of zen wave overtake the forum, then > what > is left for the practicioners to share or even to participate on it as the > posting gets swallow by all the rest non zen posting?. There are religious > boards for every religion, why not to become a member there and do the > posting > over there?. Just a thought. > Mayka >
