Chelvendra Sathieaanandha
Strange? Dalai Lama urges Christians not to convert to Buddhism - Not strange to me. And somewhat in contrast to something I looked at in a previous post of mine about the Dalai Lama.
I like the Dalia Lama’s view; however his point about the same teachings and values is argued against by many including the many interviewees in Lee Strobel’s “A Case For Faith,” which is a text that I’d like to write about in a future post. It’s a quite a biased text, but then how can a text called “A Case For Faith” not be biased? Nonetheless, the Dalai Lama’s view is similar to my own, but it can be argued with when looked at with regards to specific scripture instead of the bigger picture of religion in general, or particular religion – which is evident in Lee Strobel’s book.
I found this link from a forum which had the heading “Is it right for a parent to impose their religious beliefs on their child?” which I in-turn found because people were getting to my blog (which someone had linked to) from that forum. One person was arguing that parents inevitably impose their beliefs onto their children since most kids end up following the same religion as their parents. Another person - who linked to a post of mine - argued that regardless of that, there comes a time when a child becomes older and decides to think for themselves and hence create their own beliefs. I don’t know – as much as I know many people who have their own views as they get older (and some who opposed their parents’ views as a child) there are as many (if not more) that I know who simply follow what their parents believed was right – because, it is “right.” I don’t think that it’s necessarily a bad thing until the fact that someone is “right” makes another “wrong.” Nonetheless, parents will impose their beliefs since they will usually think that their view is the best (i.e. it works for them so why not for their child?), whether its narrow-minded (religious or not) or open-minded (religious or not) – so it’s just a matter of having faith in the human nature to raise questions about the meaning of life (instead of the human nature of residing in the bliss of ignorant certainty). One can only hope and try and questions.
Another interesting wikipedia page that talks about “notable converts to Christianity,” that I found on the forum.
So true – From Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley (1958):
“The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective.”
Speaking of religion, faith, beliefs and all that, a friend of mine recommended me this book early last year. Her enthusiasm regarding the book made me read it immediately, and I found it a damn good read. It’s fiction. It’s written really well, and it presents ideas in a very straightforward way. In summary it’ set some hundreds of years ago where travel is difficult, and many strange far off lands do still exist. Many things happen in parallel: a young girl who has grown up around wild animals is found and she is raised by the Church without any mention of God. The reason behind this, is for some religious leaders to determine (or prove) that the knowledge of God is innate. The book ultimately becomes a debate between a local Christian leader and an Atheist “king” of sorts. The king gets washed up on an island ruled by Christians – and island where people of other beliefs manage to survive but are subject to curfews and other laws. Both men are under immense pressure as they debate, since as an atheist, the king is to be tortured and killed by a powerful Christian official as an example of a man who has turned his back on God, while the local leader does not want to see an intelligent, principle-centered man die. The debate and conversation is similar to what was suggested in a peice I trackbacked to in a previous blog post, however these men are passionate about their own views but also passionate about reason and logic in relation to some sort of ultimate truth. It’s a very good read, and I recommend it.
