It is a point on which people are bewildered and lost in doubt. The following is adapted from the first of two lecturesthe Fifth Annual B. God is a supernatural being and therefore God does not exist. First Baby Born Using Three-Parent Technology. Appeals to the ineffable quality of Nirvana may be legitimate, since Buddhism defines Nirvana as that which is radically different from anything which we now experience. Book: Six Ways of Being Religious (Cannon), { "10.01:_Nagasena_Replies_to_the_Questions_of_King_Milinda" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10.02:_Anselm\'s_Faith_Seeking_Understanding" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10.03:_Chapter_Summary" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10.04:_Study_Questions_on_Similarities_and_Differences" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10.05:_For_Further_Reading" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10.06:_Notes" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()" }, { "00:_Front_Matter" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "01:_General_Introduction" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "02:_Thinking_Generically_about_Religion" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "03:_Different_Ways_of_Being_Religious" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "04:_The_Ways_of_Being_Religious_Exemplified" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "05:_Variations_in_Quality_of_Practice_of_the_Ways" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "06:_Using_the_Framework" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "07:_Applysing_the_Framework_to_the_Whole_of_Buddhism" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "08:_Applying_the_Framework_to_the_Whole_of_Christianity" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "09:_The_Way_of_Mystical_Quest" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "10:_The_Way_of_Reasoned_Inquiry" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "11:_The_Way_of_Right_Action" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "12:_The_Way_of_Devotion" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "13:_The_Way_of_Shamanic_Mediation" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "14:_The_Way_of_Sacred_Rite" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "15:_Comparing_Buddhism_and_Christianity_by__Means_of_the_Framework" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()", "zz:_Back_Matter" : "property get [Map MindTouch.Deki.Logic.ExtensionProcessorQueryProvider+<>c__DisplayClass228_0.b__1]()" }, 10.1: Nagasena Replies to the Questions of King Milinda, [ "article:topic", "license:ccbync", "authorname:dalecannon", "licenseversion:40", "source@https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/facbooks/1" ], https://human.libretexts.org/@app/auth/3/login?returnto=https%3A%2F%2Fhuman.libretexts.org%2FBookshelves%2FReligious_Studies%2FBook%253A_Six_Ways_of_Being_Religious_(Cannon)%2F10%253A_The_Way_of_Reasoned_Inquiry%2F10.01%253A_Nagasena_Replies_to_the_Questions_of_King_Milinda, \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}}}\) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\), 10.2: Anselm's Faith Seeking Understanding, source@https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/facbooks/1, status page at https://status.libretexts.org. Nothing is objectively good or bad (i.e., independently of us). In a dialogue with his disciple Vaccha, Buddha says of the Enlightened One: to say that he is reborn would not fit the case to say that he is not reborn would not fit the case to say that he is both reborn and not reborn would not fit the case to say that he is neither reborn nor not reborn would not fit the case (A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, p.290). Donec aliquet. Perhaps we evolved; perhaps we were seeded by aliens; perhaps something else altogether. There is no agreed-upon point at which Nagasena's authorship may be said to end (and the work of other hands begins), nor has this been perceived as an inherently important distinction by monastic scholars. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus, is an atheist. Buddhists therefore accept what Buddhism scholar Mark Siderits calls a mereological reductionism about persons: they claim that the parts exist, but the supposed whole does not. ", "Is there then any attribute of nibbana found in other things that can be demonstrated by a simile?". Just this: the four questions mentioned above can also be applied to usto human beings. Nagasena is credited with popularizing the phrase. [17], Consider first the Islamic worldview. Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna. ", Basic points unifying Theravda and Mahyna, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nagasena&oldid=1135273385, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 23 January 2023, at 17:31. According to the biblical view, all humans are descended from one man (and one woman): The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. In the final analysis, nothing exists for a reason and nothing happens for a reason. Naturalism, by definition, rejects the idea of any transcendent supernatural cause, from which it follows that the universe is either eternal or came into existence spontaneously without any prior cause (both positions are defended by Naturalists today). In modern times, this concept is similar to the idea of "anarchy.". Before his enlightenment, he was a noble person called Siddhartha . Here I wish to take a cue from philosopher Alvin Plantinga by suggesting that in the West today there are three main competitors vying for spiritual supremacy: three fundamental perspectives or ways of thinking about what the world is like, what we ourselves are like, what is most important about the world, what our place in it is, and what we must do to live the good life.[1] Plantinga labels these three perspectives Christian theism, perennial naturalism, and creative anti-realism. I propose to simplify matters by referring to them (in adjusted order) as Naturalism, Postmodernism, and Christian Theism. There are two other major problems with experience here: (i) If experience is suffering, how could the experience of enlightenment result in liberation? An individual human has merely instrumental value toward a collective end. trans-historical view of human nature, I also aim to show that human nature is a necessary condition for demonstrating that alienation does occur in capitalist society, and presumably any other society that sup presses the better parts of species-being. Would it be philosophically justifiable to accept the Buddhas suggestion that these problems are not in need of urgent address? Embryonic research. A. Donec aliquet. There is a tradition that Nagasena brought to Thailand the first representation of the Buddha, the Emerald Buddha. The main burden of the following discussion will be to argue that in the end only one of these worldviewsChristian Theismcan supply any firm basis for human dignity and human rights. According to this legend, the Emerald Buddha would have been created in India in 43 BC by Nagasena in the city of Ptaliputta. So our starting point will be an examination of the no-self doctrine. Some Naturalists find a strict scientism too narrow, but they will still affirm empiricism: one can only know what is perceived through the senses. Good actions will bring about peace and happiness. A human organism has no more intrinsic worth than any other arrangement of atoms. Donec aliquet. Fusce dui lectus, congue vel laoreet ac, dictum vitae odio. Our value is whatever value we ascribe to ourselves. Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna. The redeemed are not merely renewed to the image of God but conformed specifically to the image of Christ, the God-man. For a strict, consistent Naturalist, this is a question without an answer. Week 6 DQ 2021 school year. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Reams could be written in answer to that question; I will restrict myself to one concluding observation. human nature is shaped by socioeconomic conditions and more focus on humans as both individual and collective creatures. Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna. So much for the Postmodernist worldview and anthropology. In characterizing what a self would be if it were instantiated, Buddhists have claimed three main properties: permanence, control and numerical identity. Radhakrishnan (an Oxford philosopher and later President of India) appeals to Udana 8.3, where the Buddha states, There is an unborn, an unoriginated, an unmade, an uncompounded; were there not there would be no escape from the world of the born, the originated, the made and the compounded (S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy Vol.1, p.320). If something is valuable, thats because it is valuable to us. Your worth is what you are worth to me. We are physical, material beings. His traditional textile depiction shows him holding a khakkhara in his right hand and a vase in his left; an excellent example can be seen on one of the thangkas in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. By freedom from distress and danger, by purity and by coolness. it is not-born. The basic idea behind Antiques Roadshow is that members of the public bring to a traveling roadshow what they believe to be antique itemscabinets, chairs, coins, vases, and so onand have the items examined and appraised by experts who identify the items, give background information on their provenance, and place a value on them. As George Gaylord Simpson famously put it, Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind.[6]. They explain the process as being like a candle that passes a flame from one candle to another. Simplethere is no God! Needless to say, the existence of God is the most foundational presupposition of the biblical worldview. They arent self-sustaining and free-floating. (Similar statements can be found among the early church fathers.) We also acknowledge previous National Science Foundation support under grant numbers 1246120, 1525057, and 1413739. The definition of Nirvana is crucial to determining whether the no-self doctrine and the Buddhist project of liberation are compatible. Truth doesnt exist in the abstract, independently of God. To each question Nagasena replies negatively. On neither of these viewsSubjectivism or Utilitarianismare there any absolute duties or constraints on human actions. Seeing nothing there to be taken hold of, as on a red-hot iron ball, his mind overflows with discontent and a fever takes hold of his body; hopeless and without a refuge he becomes disgusted with repeated lives. I should begin this section with an apologia for my use of the label Postmodernism. Truth is not something to be discovered so much as something to be created. The essence of Postmodernism, as I envisage it here, may be expressed in this proposition: there are no absolute norms and there is no objective reality. St. Athanasius famously declared of Christ, He became man that we might become God.[21] Needless to say, there are orthodox and unorthodox ways to understand that statement! Dont all monotheistic religionsat least the so-called Abrahamic onesshare the same basic anthropology?, Those are understandable questions, but I want to challenge their premise by briefly noting some important differences between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Transgender Man Gives Birth after Conceiving With Transgender Wife Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. In short, something is true because we have decided that it is true, either individually or collectively. Nevertheless, both worldviews are engaged in a kind of metaphysical alchemy: an attempt to derive meaning and value from ultimate meaninglessness and valuelessness.[9]. See, e.g., Quran 98:6-7, where believers are referred to as the best of creatures, and unbelievers as the worst of creatures.. If there was a self, it would be permanent. A common view among Naturalists is that all of the sciences can be reduced to physics: biology can be explained in terms of chemistry, which in turn can be explained in terms of physical entities and properties. The topic of this lecture is anthropology: the study of mankind. The idea of permanence is closely related to that of numerical identity. If we understand Athanasiuss aphorism along orthodox biblical lines, I believe we can understand why Christianity ascribes a dignity and value to human nature that Judaism simply cannot. The 'chariot' is a conventional way of referring to the entirety of what might be understood to be a chariot. Just as Hume's arguments implies an experiencer behind the perceptions, so to Nagasena's not-self implies an experiencer behind the stream of conscious acts. Something is valuable, objectively speaking, simply because God values it and delights in it. Such preliminaries established, let us consider some of the defining tenets of Christian Theism under the four now-familiar headings. Christian Theisms view of ultimate reality. We have no value that is independent of our own preferences and judgments. Make it clear and elucidate it. Everything other than Godevery created thingis what it is only because of Gods sovereign decree. Should Man A be punished for the crime of Man B? Exclusivity is out! "human nature" is good or bad begins to gain some scientifically as sessable content.5 3. Buddha himself said little about the state of beings who attain liberation, or what happens to them after death. Identify and explain: Denis Kearney, Chinese Exclusion Act, Immigration Restriction League, Grover Cleveland. Its view of goodness and value. [12] For that very reason, truth exhibits both internal coherence (because of Gods essential unity) and external correspondence (because God defines reality).[13]. In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. The human race is structured around a basic gender binary: man and woman. forfeiture of all his or her lands . And whereas that no person or persons However, the executive functioning of the self is undermined by the Principle of Irreflexivity, which asserts that an entity cannot operate upon itself. However, he later converted to Buddhism.[2]. Christian Theisms view of goodness and value. A. Perhaps we may have glimpses in our lifetime of what Nirvana is like, but whenever we attempt to capture what it is, we immediately loose sight of it: Nirvana is by nature indescribable, and therefore we cannot make the final pronouncement on whether no-self is compatible with it. The story begins with cosmological evolutionthe natural formation of a stable physical cosmos containing stars and planetary systems. (ii) A central cause of suffering, according to Buddhism, is psychological attachment to the self. Then has he found peace, then does he exult and rejoice at the thought, 'A refuge has been found at last!' His answers to questions about Buddhism posed by Menander I (Pali: Milinda), the Indo-Greek king of northwestern India, are recorded in the Milinda Paha and the Sanskrit Ngasenabhiksustra. There is but one God, and that one God has definite attributes. "As ghee is recognizable by its special attributes, so nibbana has special attributes; as ghee has a sweet fragrance, nibbana has the sweet fragrance of virtue; as ghee has a delicious taste, nibbana has the delicious taste of freedom. A worldview reflects both descriptive and normative content: it concerns not only how things are, but also how things ought to be. When my body ceases to exist, I cease to exist. Consider, for example, the somewhat odd account in the Quran in which God, after creating Adam, commands the angels to bow down to him. We will also need to examine the notion that there is no self, a notion which is inherently difficult to accept, but has been held by a number of philosophers, notably David Hume. It is composed as a dialogue between King Milinda, a Greek king (Menander) who ruled the northeast of India (Bactria) in the latter part of the second century B.C.E., and a learned monk . And for this very reason, neither of these secular worldviews can give an adequate account of the objective value of human beings and human life. Moreover, those positions will largely determine the anthropology embedded in that worldview. ", "But is there any place on which a man might stand and realise nibbana?" Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna. May, 2017 | Simple: we are whatever we define ourselves to be. The truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering is desire, the truth of the end of suffering is is through relinquishing desire and achieving Nirvana, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering (the Noble Eightfold Path). It is necessary firstly to understand the Buddhist distinction between persons and the self, which is legitimised by differentiating between conventional and ultimate truths: A statement is conventionally true if and only if it is acceptable to common sense and consistently leads to successful practice A statement is ultimately true if and only if it corresponds to the facts and neither asserts nor presupposes the existence of any conceptual fictions. (Mark Siderits, Buddhism as Philosophy, 2007). This is one of the main hindrances to liberation; and yet in the very process of relinquishing this attachment, in order to attain it one must personally experience liberation. belonging nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any other Religion Here I cannot improve upon the summary statements of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q. It seems appropriate at this point to remind ourselves of the words of Psalm 8: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You are valuable for me if you are valuable to me. Two of the most fundamental doctrines of Buddhism are firstly that the self is illusory, and secondly that we can achieve liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth to reach a state of peace called Nirvana. The universe just is what it is! So our first priority as Christians must be what it has always been: to proclaim the gospel and pray for revival. Second, and more specifically, we are creatures made in the image of God: Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. The central tenet of a Postmodernist anthropology comes to this: human nature cannot be something that is defined independently of usby the creative purposes of God, say, or by objective scientific facts. But anthropologies dont come into existence ex nihilo. And all of this is captured on camera for our viewing pleasure! when it is appropriate to issue one of the basic financial when it is appropriate to is. The typical answer given, however, is that we should treat others with pluralistic tolerance and without judgment. Fusce, icitur laoreet. We might be tempted to say (with considerable justification) that truth is simply correspondence with reality. On the Christian Theist view, God himself is the absolute normthe ultimate standard of truth, goodness, and beauty. As a man, afraid and terrified at having fallen among enemies, would be relieved and blissful when he had escaped to a safe place; or as one fallen into a pit of filth would be at ease and glad when he had got out of the pit and cleaned up; or as one trapped in a forest fire would be calm and cool when he had reached a safe spot. In his opinion, human nature is made up of three parts: the first two are impulses to do or not do anything, and the third is the intelligence that determines which direction to go. I am convinced that there can be no resolution of these issues while people hold such radically divergent views of human nature, situated in such diametrically opposed worldviews. However, as I argue, in offering a complete liberation from suffering, Buddhism is highly optimistic. God is the Goodthat is to say, God is goodness as such. Nagasena is a Buddhist philosopher who lived around 2,500 years ago and is considered to be the founder of Zen. This doctrine of momentariness entails that at every moment, the five skandhas arise, are destroyed and are succeeded by other numerically distinct (if similar) skandhas. be any way troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her Religious freedom. thereunto belonging professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Nagasena's Chariot Analogy, Hume on the Idea of the Self, Locke's Definition of "Person" and more. But before launching into that discussion, I should say a brief word about worldviews in general. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. PCN-107 Discussion Topic 2 A+. Moreover, there is no objective reality in the following sense: there is no reality that exists independently of us, that is to say, independently of our thoughts and our language. Donec aliquet. (While I wouldnt want to overstate or overextend the point, as some theologians may have done, theres an important sense in which human community is a created reflection of the inner divine community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pellentesque dapibus efficitur laoreet. To that end he stirs up his mindfulness, energy and joy; and from attending again and again to that thought [of disgust with mental formations-translator's interpolation], having transcended . The woman who discovered a dusty old book in her attic is informed that its one of a handful of first-edition copies published in the 17th century and now worth several hundred thousand dollars. Richard Rorty, for example, attempted to justify his anti-realist epistemology on the basis of a naturalistic Darwinian account of human origins. At a deeper level, however, these two worldviews must be regarded as close siblings; indeed, as non-identical twins conceived in the same womb. A person who is reborn is neither the same nor different.