Atheists vs Theists: Does Buddha Offer a Middle Way?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/03/19/Stephen_Batchelor_Confession_of_a_Buddhist_Atheist

Stephen Batchelor, author of Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, introduces Buddhism to the modern atheism vs. theism debate. Batchelor notes that the Buddha's teachings did not dictate a belief in God, arguing that "what Buddhism offers is, I think, an atheism in a value-neutral sense... Namely, as the word literally means, not-theism."

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Stephen Batchelor talks about Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.

According to Batchelor, the outlook of the Buddha was far removed from the religiosity that has come to define much of Buddhism as we know it today. He argues that the Buddha was a man more focused on life in this world than the afterlife. - Book Passage

Stephen Batchelor is an author and Buddhist scholar whose works include Living with the Devil, Meditation for Life, and Buddhism without Beliefs.

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[eminorse7en]

“Don’t believe me, don’t believe anybody, don’t accept anything based on tradition. Don’t believe anything based on the fact that your community believes this or your country believes this or the people that you are around believe this.” - Buddha

[A86]

@EllyMcCormack - "invoking verbosity"

Mentioning the existence of scientific topics you were not aware existed is not Proof By Intimidation. So not only do you not know what "Ad Hominem" means you also don't know what "Proof By Intimidation" (known in Mathematics as "hand-waiving") means either. No excessively mathematical calculations or mind-bogglingly obscure or complex facts out of context have been presented here.

[cineasta71]

There is a middle gound if you are compassinate, if you sincerely wish and try to stop suffering within you and people around. Those people who say i cannot be done because there is no god in buddhism are basing their idology on what has been bestowed upon them by their own faith. If you love, if you are compassionate, you are automatically divine therefore you are god.

[TheTekken911]

Mother fucker

[snowfield667]

@dboff12345 Buddhists don't believe in the supernatural, they believe in spirtual elements, which are different from Christian beliefs. There's no "the loved ones meet God and the bad go to hell with Satan" and all that. The Buddhist method is that you go along the path where you have ended your suffering and let go to be enlightened. You as a human being make the choice not someone in the sky.

[Uberlaser]

Nice video.

I don't think Buddhism can be seen as possible middle ground, as it rejects the notion of a God (no good for theists) and incorporates certain supernatural elements like Past Life/Karma and Rebirth (which an Atheist/Skeptic would reject).

With this said, in my opinion Buddhism's philosophy and psychological elements do have a lot to offer people (Atheists especially).

[FreeeeS]

since there is not god and we only deal with people it is actually anti bigoted mofoes

[Maarten8867]

@BlatzBeer

Another problem would be that if we are trying to escape from samsara, and we don't believe in rebirth, killing oneself would achieve the same result. Also samsara would not really exist without rebirth.

[Maarten8867]

@BlatzBeer

I was referring to theravada Buddhism, which when practiced without a belief in rebirth leads to all sorts of moral problems.

For example: someone who is born in unfortunate circumstances will be motivated to work to improve his life, because he believes in karma and that he was born in his current situation because of past life actions.

This person without a belief in rebirth will believe himself unlucky, leading to a deterministic attitude.

[BlatzBeer]

@Maarten8867 Interesting proposition. Could you expand on that a bit? One problem with making any blanket statements about Buddhism is that in practice it's much more "rangy" than other religions/philosophies. For example, Mahayana Buddhists often don't even study the same canon and Buddha that I do. Their practices/philosophy/beliefs can differ radically from mine. I suspect my Buddhism has elements of both materialism and idealism, but I'm not well-read in either.