| my religion |
[Aug. 19th, 2005|02:49 pm] |
The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.
They reason that since everything that exists has had a creator, then the universe itself must have been created by God. Thomas Paine concluded a speech shortly after the French Revolution with: "God is the power of first cause, nature is the law, and matter is the subject acted upon
-Deism
Sila: Virtue, good conduct, morality. This is based on two fundamental principles: The principle of reciprocity: This is the "Golden Rule" in Christianity -- to do onto others as you would wish them do onto you. It is found in all major religions. The principle of equality: that all living entities are equal
Samadhi: Concentration, meditation, mental development. Developing one's mind is the path to wisdom which in turn leads to personal freedom. Mental development also strengthens and controls our mind; this helps us maintain good conduct.
Prajna: Discernment, insight, wisdom, enlightenment. This is the real heart of Buddhism. Wisdom will emerge if your mind is pure and calm.
Dukkha: The reality and universality of suffering. Suffering has many causes: loss, sickness, pain, failure, the impermanence of pleasure.
Samudaya: The cause of suffering is a desire to have and control things. It can take many forms: craving of sensual pleasures; the desire for fame; the desire to avoid unpleasant sensations, like fear, anger or jealousy.
Nirodha: Suffering ceases with the final liberation of Nirvana (a.k.a. Nibbana). The mind experiences complete freedom, liberation and non-attachment. It lets go of any desire or craving.
Do not kill. This is sometimes translated as "not harming" or an absence of violence.
Do not steal. This is generally interpreted as including the avoidance of fraud and economic exploitation.
Do not lie. This is sometimes interpreted as including name calling, gossip, etc.
Do not misuse sex. For monks and nuns, this means any departure from complete celibacy. For the laity, adultery is forbidden, along with any sexual harassment or exploitation, including that within marriage. The Buddha did not discuss consensual premarital sex within a committed relationship; Buddhist traditions differ on this.
Do not consume alcohol or other drugs. The main concern here is that intoxicants cloud the mind. Some have included as a drug other methods of divorcing ourselves from reality -- e.g. movies, television, the Internet.
-Buddhism
empirical Agnostics." They believe that God may exist, but that little or nothing can be known about him/her/it/them.
Still another category are "Agnostic Humanists." These individuals are undecided about the existence of God. Further, they do not really consider the question to be particularly important. They have derived their moral and behavioral codes from secular considerations. Their ethical behavior would not be altered if a deity were proven to exist.
An agnostic usually holds the question of the existence of God open, pending the arrival of more evidence. They are willing to change their belief if some solid evidence or logical proof is found in the future. However, some have taken the position that there is no logical way in which the existence or the non-existence of a deity can be proven.
-agnostic
Theistic evolution: (39% support). 1 The universe is over 10 billion years old; the earth's crust developed almost 4 billion years ago. God caused the first living cell to appear. Humans evolved out of lower forms of life under the direct guidance of God. God steered evolution, at least to some degree, as a mechanism to guide the development of new species. Naturalistic evolution: (10% support). 1 Same beliefs as for theistic evolution, except that God is assumed to have played no part in the processes. Evolution was driven by purely natural forces. Old earth creation science: (Under 7% public support) 1 They believe that each "day" in Genesis may have been much longer than 24 hours; others believe that there were very long gaps between one or more of the "days." The number of supporters for this belief system is unknown. The Gallup Poll on which we base the support of other beliefs did not give old earth creation science as an option.
Evolution is "an unpredictable and natural process of temporal descent with genetic modification that is affected by natural selection, chance, historical contingencies and changing environments."
Natural selection is the primary mechanism driving evolutionary change. It is caused by variations which exist within a species due to differences in the genetic makeup of its individual members. This causes some individuals to be more likely to thrive in a given environment, and to produce offspring like themselves.
Punctuated equilibrium is the concept that evolution did not happen at a steady rate. Rather, the historical record shows long periods of relative stability, such as the present time, when few new species evolved. These periods were broken by short periods of rapid change.
-evolution
Yi: righteousness
Xin: honesty and trustworthiness
Jen: benevolence, humaneness towards others; the highest Confucian virtue
Chung: loyalty to the state, etc.
-CONFUCIANISM
Opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes; specifically: refusal to bear arms on moral or religious grounds
-Pacifism |
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