posted February 18, 2005 08:36 AM            

quote:

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In this interview he is asked about Buddhism and he says he
thinks it probably more compatible with science than are other
religions.

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May be. Buddhism does not need to postulate a god. A leading
Buddhist like the Dalai Lama encourages scientific exploration
of all phenomena and he is himself quite knowledgeable about
many scientific fields of exploration.

Best regards,

Erik

posted February 18, 2005 09:13 AM            

I haven't read this - just a few reviews.

I'd be interested in a wider scope ie the ability or not to make a leap of faith
in general and not just appropos of spirituality.

If such a gene exists is it on the decrease or increase?

Does it manifest itself in degrees such that a strong form may lead to fundamentalism?

Or is the theory just plain hogwash?

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David Roberts

posted February 18, 2005 05:41 PM            

Here is another fine book on the biology of belief:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-descri ption/0970813716/ref=dp_proddesc_0/103-1479056-6412624?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155

This link describes the book in some detail.

quote:

---

If each generation learns its core beliefs before it is able to
evaluate them, then as a culture, ancestors who would be
considered primitive by current standards created our oldest
beliefs. Our ancestors’ beliefs notwithstanding, reality is
what it is irrespective of our collective imagination. Our
minds contain beliefs that combine to form a useful model or
representation of reality, but this is not reality. It is this
fact that makes us look in bewilderment at the actions of others
whose beliefs form a model of reality foreign to our own.
Although we are inclined to think that our personal view of
reality is objective because it is generally consistent with
that of our immediate community, what our minds actually contain
is a consensus reality model that reflects the perception biases
of our culture as well as our own.

---

Best regards,

Erik

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posted February 18, 2005 06:51 PM            

Here is a link to an interesting book on Buddhism and science:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0231123353/ ref=pd_sim_b_6/103-1479056-6412624?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

Other interesting titles are mentioned in the link also.

Best regards,

Erik

PS: Here is another interesting title: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195159942/qid=1108820344/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-1479056-6412624?v=glance&s=books

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