Buddhism: Practical Applications for Our Times?

TG Baker wrote a bit about Buddhism and did it have practical applications for our time, even as atheists in this article.  He starts with this thought:


'If atheism is the rejection of belief in gods then Buddhism is an atheistic system!  Buddha himself was an agnostic who said in Deer Park, "I can not say whether there is a god, no god or not a not-god. But I can tell you how to obtain enlightenment"  '


Read the rest of the article and see what you think.

A Neglected Atheism: A View from Sam Harris By TGBaker at 12/03/2011

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/12/neglected-atheism-view-from-sam-harris.html#more

TG was an interesting and well read person.  There were some topics I wish we could have discussed before his death.  This would have been one of them.  I don't necessarily agree with everything that TG ever said but I liked that he sparked a reasoned discussion of issues.

My thoughts

"There is much more to be discovered about the nature of the human mind. In particular, there is much more for us to understand about how the mind can transform itself from a mere reservoir of greed, hatred, and delusion into an instrument of wisdom and compassion. Students of the Buddha are very well placed to further our understanding on this front, but the religion of Buddhism currently stands in their way."  [quote from article]

I have gotten a lot from reading the words of Buddha although I would by no means call myself a Buddhist.  Buddha speaks to me of this world and what we can do to live better in this lifetime.  What we can do to calm our minds and open our hearts.  I think those are good things.  

As pointed out by TG, Buddhism the religion is not Buddhism the concepts about the mind.  If there are truths to be found about the human condition in ancient words, and I believe there are, then let them be a part of our new and modern world.  I have noticed upon reading the words written several thousand years ago whether Eastern or Western, Biblical or Buddhist, Sumerian or Greek is that we are really the same then as we are now as far as emotions, thoughts, notions and ways of viewing the world.  

The modern world is fantastic but there is no reason we can't learn from the ancient world about who and what we are emotionally and psychologically.  We are still a the same humans we were then.  Hopefully, we are becoming a little more mature as a group as the centuries pass.

TG Baker: Gone but not forgotten

TG Baker died.  I so enjoyed his internet articles and comments.  I learned so much in such a short period of time and I realized that I have so much left to learn and so much left to do.

John Loftus, over at Debunking Christianity, has posted TG's articles on his website.  Here's the link:

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/search/label/%22TGBaker%22

TG had a blog for a short time.

http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/

Not a lot of articles but each one chock full of information.

Truly a wonderful mind and a nice guy.  I know I miss his presence on the internet.

Good bye, TG Baker.

Your words and actions live on.

Notable Quotable

TGBaker has been posting some interesting information at Debunking Christianity.  I copied this comment and I also put in 2 links to two articles.  Although I have read a lot of information on the history of the Bible and Christianity and much of the information he is giving isn't really new to me, his style of writing is straight forward and He manages to say what he wants to say with a minimal amount of words.  He also defines some of the words right there in the text since some of the words used in theology and biblical scholarship are kind of confusing.

What I am saying is that TG has given me a fresh and concise way to process the vast amounts of information available on the topic of Christianity and the Bible.  I appreciate this.


I think we have enough evidence to determine a historical figure was the initial cause of the movement that became Christianity. One might go so far as to say that John the Baptist really started it but was prematurely stopped by a beheading.  Much more becomes hypothetical. Many of us from a historical critical perspective think that Jesus and John taught the immanent end of the world  and the coming of God's Kingdom. The historical scholars that have aligned with the Jesus movement tend to think even that was an addition by the early followers. 

To answer your former question Paul states really very little historical about Jesus. I think that we see that rumor of Jesus had an effect upon the Jewish community that lived outside of Jerusalem from Northern Palestine, to Southern Syria, Northern Syria, Greece/Asia Minor and finally to Rome. These stories in turn held the interest of the non-Jewish Hellenistic population( Gentiles). There were a  lot of similar stories in the mystery religions but it was the story of Jesus that gave those type of stories an earthly and historical dimension.  That was about all Paul used.  So in a large sense yes it matters that it was a historical character because it explains  how the reinterpretation of a normal earthly event integrated into a mystery religion motif. It also explains how Judaism filtered into this type of myth. This as some view it changed the Hellenistic idea of cyclical time into linear time which has been a major influence in Western thought and reasoning

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-jesus-christ.html

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/06/q-and-synoptics-or-why-i-left.html