Tom

Actually Pope in India they had an extremely advanced vocabulary for physiological analysis at the time. They didn’t have as clinical an understanding as we do now but they certainly could but psychological concepts and emotions into words.

There is a little truth to Karma in that yes you’ll face some social repercussions and benefits for doing stupid and kind things, you’ll face better prospects if you’re to some extent more careful and thoughtful in your choices and planning ahead and that having a kinder mindset (though not walk-all-over-you kind) will give you a better chance at…[Read more]

Yeah Simon…if that is the case then you don’t have to say that Bhuddism is useful. You can say that “meditation” is useful. And even then meditation wasn’t invented by Bhuddists but are carried out by Hindus, Jains and people of other religions. The same goes with mindfulness. I am…in fact…completely at a loss to guess what could be taken…[Read more]

Reg…nice Sunday school this week by the way!

Simon could you please tell us, even in outline, what that core is? How you’ve determined what the core is (what your source is or your rationale in determining it) and why you think it’s rational (please include the supernatural part of its core and explain how that is rational because reincarnation is as fundamental to Buddhism as anything else…[Read more]

Simon there is no such thing as “practising a religion properly”. Even a religion that pretends to base themselves on an authoritative holy book has to make decisions on which contradictory indications to follow, how to fill in the many blanks, which impractical rules to ignore and how best to maintain their power over the flock (which means…[Read more]

I would say that yes…of all the stupid shit to believe in Bhuddism in general (like in the very light westernised version of it) is not as stupid as other stupid bullshit. That isn’t to say it isn’t stupid. Bhuddism is stupid. Ranging from its outright misogyny (women are unambiguously less both within the clergy, within the community and within…[Read more]

Okay Simon I’ll give it a read over the holidays. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done with it. You might consider reading the entire book as well so we can properly discuss it.

Okay Simon I’ll give it a read over the holidays. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done with it. You might consider reading the entire book as well so we can properly discuss it.

Everything I’ve read about pre-farming humanity has told me the absolute opposite about large scale violence. Humanities greatest threat was hunger, animals and the environment…not one another. I will either read the book or not, I don’t want to skim. Is it worth reading?

Simon the rate at which people murder one another is dependent on how stable and prosperous a country is, not on how kind they are. Qatar is a prosperous and highly safe society but it is not REMOTELY a kind one. The chart is also conveniently from the ending of the middle ages onward and does not include the several millennia of the development…[Read more]

I am familiar with Pinker’s theory and I think it is rubbish. Human kindness, if plotted on a chart, is utterly ALL over the place and has absolutely NO linear progression. Come on Simon multiple genocides (including the holocaust), and reigns of terror happened in the last century. As the West has grown kinder in some quarters other parts of the…[Read more]