05-01-2009, 06:34 AM
Darwiniana
History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
10.30.08
Demise of religion? Fate of Indian Buddhism
Posted in religion at 6:59 pm by nemo
With reference to the previous post today, on the âdemise of religionâ, it is interesting to study the history of Buddhism in India. Check out a bit of scanned text from a rare and interesting history of the collision of Buddhism with Brahminism in ancient India, Guide to scanned text: Role Of Bhagavad Gita In Indian History.
We speak of âreligionâ, in contrast with secularism, but the dualities are misleading. Buddhism was like a relative degree of rationalist secularism as religion (as we see it much later) poised in relation to the inherited labyrinth of confusion called (perhaps falsely) Hinduism (as such, whatever it was over two millennia ago). An observer of âBuddhismâ (no ism) in the centuries after the rough Axial interval (-600 to 0) might well have had the secularistâs type of confidence, that the demise of Hinduism was at hand as the new and relatively rationalized Buddhism swept the field.
And yet, within centuries neo-brahminism made a comeback, Buddhists were driven from India, and the legacy of Hinduism was resurgent, enduring in stronger force even to this day. And likely to outlast the currently disintegrating Buddhism.
It is thus not safe to predict the future on the issue of religion. And the immediate question is if Christianity resurgent will do the same to our current (much reduced) brand of secularism?
Frankly, I doubt it, but it ought to scare those who pronounce the demise of âreligionâ (which usually means Christianity).
Part of the problem is that secularism is no longer robust. Too much reductionist scientism, and too little cultural breadth, and, in fact, amnesia as to the meaning of secularism. Secularism is not a movement for Dawkins groupies plying humanist cult consciousness. It just wonât hack it as a replacement.
More, lots, to say here, but the case of Buddhism is telling. Buddhism had all the elements to settle the question of religion for the global future of humanity, but it too became a âreligionâ, and ended up wiped out even in the land of its origin.
And the modern humanist wonât even know what he is missing.
Religion always gets reborn. How about Alfred Wallace with his table rapping, leaving Darwinists the mindbender, ghosts, and also the realization that Darwinism couldnât explain manâs deep evolutionary potential.
So maybe a future post-Darwinian cult of the Wallace-ites will once again âroll the wheel of dharmaâ.
http://darwiniana.com/2008/10/30/demise-of...ndian-buddhism/
History, Evolution, and the Darwin Debate
10.30.08
Demise of religion? Fate of Indian Buddhism
Posted in religion at 6:59 pm by nemo
With reference to the previous post today, on the âdemise of religionâ, it is interesting to study the history of Buddhism in India. Check out a bit of scanned text from a rare and interesting history of the collision of Buddhism with Brahminism in ancient India, Guide to scanned text: Role Of Bhagavad Gita In Indian History.
We speak of âreligionâ, in contrast with secularism, but the dualities are misleading. Buddhism was like a relative degree of rationalist secularism as religion (as we see it much later) poised in relation to the inherited labyrinth of confusion called (perhaps falsely) Hinduism (as such, whatever it was over two millennia ago). An observer of âBuddhismâ (no ism) in the centuries after the rough Axial interval (-600 to 0) might well have had the secularistâs type of confidence, that the demise of Hinduism was at hand as the new and relatively rationalized Buddhism swept the field.
And yet, within centuries neo-brahminism made a comeback, Buddhists were driven from India, and the legacy of Hinduism was resurgent, enduring in stronger force even to this day. And likely to outlast the currently disintegrating Buddhism.
It is thus not safe to predict the future on the issue of religion. And the immediate question is if Christianity resurgent will do the same to our current (much reduced) brand of secularism?
Frankly, I doubt it, but it ought to scare those who pronounce the demise of âreligionâ (which usually means Christianity).
Part of the problem is that secularism is no longer robust. Too much reductionist scientism, and too little cultural breadth, and, in fact, amnesia as to the meaning of secularism. Secularism is not a movement for Dawkins groupies plying humanist cult consciousness. It just wonât hack it as a replacement.
More, lots, to say here, but the case of Buddhism is telling. Buddhism had all the elements to settle the question of religion for the global future of humanity, but it too became a âreligionâ, and ended up wiped out even in the land of its origin.
And the modern humanist wonât even know what he is missing.
Religion always gets reborn. How about Alfred Wallace with his table rapping, leaving Darwinists the mindbender, ghosts, and also the realization that Darwinism couldnât explain manâs deep evolutionary potential.
So maybe a future post-Darwinian cult of the Wallace-ites will once again âroll the wheel of dharmaâ.
http://darwiniana.com/2008/10/30/demise-of...ndian-buddhism/