Re: [Pen-l] Religious atheism [was: Charter schools

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Carl Dassbach wrote:
> 
> a "solution" - based on the Four
> Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path - to the "problem" of samsara - the
> endless cycle of death, birth and rebirth -  posited by Hinduism.  In its
> original form, it has absolutely nothing to do with deities or pantheons.
> It rejects all these because these are forms of attachment and attachment
> causes suffering.

Here you have the parallel of Buddhism to atheism in one of its major
forms: Epicurus, Lucretius, and many after them view the belief in
immortality as a curse, and atheism frees from that curse by revealing
that after death there is nothing: we won't know we are dead. Belief in
immortality both trivializes human life in contrast to eternity AND
curses us with fears of what might come after death. Buddhism like
atheism removes these fears and gives mortal life a purpose. (They
differ of course in how purpose/purposes are generated.

Carrol

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