Atheism + Buddhism Religion 330S

8/31
- Western World is becoming more atheist recently
o Especially w/ young people
o China+Russia more religious b/c just came our of
communist regimes
o Latin America + Philippines becoming more religious
o Social security = more atheists
o Biology + Philosophy most atheist, followed by Mech E
o More prestigious university = more atheist
o 68% of atheists male
78% white
o religion used to be belief in your God
newer definition religions are confluences of
organic cultural flows (text, culture, music, etc.) to
intensify joy and confront suffering by drawing on
human and superhuman forces to make home and
cross boundaries
remove superhuman atheism definition?
Could atheism be taught in religious studies?
o Atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, skeptic, freethinker,
apathist
- Buddhism
o People meet b/c of karmic connection there is a reason
we are meeting now
We must engage and unravel the hidden connection
9/7
- Popper
o Science is empirical
o Falsification point out one thing that goes against your
logic
o Is religion outside the realm of comparison to science, or is
it possible to analyze it w/ Popper?
- Buddha Shakyamuni
o Born as prince perfect life, no difficulty
o Only son so father was really concerned about his welfare
and wanted to see him become a warrior, expand the
kingdom
o Mom died shortly after birth
o He snuck out, saw what reality was like
Saw an old person, a sick person, a death + a funeral
o Became a monk
o Wondered why life is so hard, stressful began meditating
- Found 3 Truths about Existence

o 1) everything is impermanent (Annica)

o 2) if everything is impermanent, how can we be sure we
exist tomorrow?
There is no I in reality, non-self (Anatta)
o 3) the way we respond to the first two characteristics
cause suffering (Duhkha)
suffering is a universal characteristic of reality
Our emotions go through 5 stages/factors
o 1) everything has material form
o 2) when you interact w/ material you have a feeling
o 3) instantly feel either positive, negative, or neutral
perception
o 4) goes deeper into your mind mental formation
o 5) you look from macro level and think what to do now
consciousness
o some people are more attached to certain steps
o he asked where do you locate yourself in this continuum?
At which point can you say you exist
There is nothing you can say is permanent or
constant
o When meditating you can pick an emotion youre feeling
and say there is no reason to be stuck there b/c we are
always in flux
o You must be mindful of where your mind is located
o we are collections of our karma
you must look into your mind and respond to reality
by following those principles
o last words of wisdom be your own lense, be your own
refuge
o the basis of all religions is that we were perfect and ruined
it so now we must get back to that perfection
Buddhism thinks we had perfect minds and must get
back to that
Buddhism starts w/ suffering

9/14
- Used to be that spiritual brahman determined your
consequences through rituals
o Done through sacrifice so you had to bring animals
- Buddha came and said only you an determine your own karma
o Decision of karma
o When Buddhism came along (just like other religions have)
it is coined as an upgrade from previous religions A
Discovered Meditator

Later Brahmanism expands, puts Buddhism as 1 of

its Gods
Mormonism is perfect Christianity
2 major strands of Christianity Roman Catholic, Protestant
2 Major Buddhist Strands
o Thereavada Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos
o Mahayana Tibet, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Vietnam
More of a later development
Discussion
o Why do we suffer?
Some mental diseases are just very advanced forms
of underlying behaviors that do have evolutionary
advantages
o Suffering is part of existence the atheist accepts is as it
comes
Speaker
o What is the difference between Atheism and being an
Atheist
o For most of history people were called Atheists but didnt
identify that way
o 3-13% of world self identify as Atheists
o 10-20% of world say they have no religion
o 76% of all religious unaffiliated are in East Asia
o 6 countries have non religious majorities China, North
Korea, Czech republic, Japan, Hong Kong
o Atheist as a term shows up in 1st century BC
Atheos just means one without a God, term started
to be used to describe previous people
Anaxagoras (5th BC) said Sun is a fiery mass
Denophenes (6th BC) if cows had a God it would look
like a cow
Epicurus, Lucretius (1st BC) materialists everything
made of atoms and therefore can be destroyed
If God is omnipotent, why does he make bad
things happen?
o In Ancient Greece religion was not the same
Atheists didnt acknowledge Gods, however small
they may be
Greeks had a God for everything
Calling someone Atheist meant they were uncivilized,
disrespectful
o Self identifying as Atheist didnt happen until 18th century
b/c of rise of Christianity
anyone against this (Jews, etc) was Atheist

mostly mean non-Christian, heretic

18 century
Jean Meslier dies in 1729, leaves behind testament
to being Atheist
Denis Diderot, Baron DHolbach start coining it as
rationality, science mid 18th century
Atheism is very western and so are most of the scholars
Western religion very different from eastern so even
though 52% of chinese are atheist they are still likely
to do rituals to spirits etc that we would consider
religious
Implications are
Atheist as a word is being reclaimed, only used b/c its
been used by religion for so long
Western atheists are very materialistic
Q&A
Communist scare caused people in US to be skeptical
of Atheists
Created the nuclear family of perfect Christian
family image we still see today
Early-mid 20th century
Agnostic doesnt have such a long history
There is a category of non-religious but
spiritual people who are liked by society = get
grouped w/ Atheists
Stuck between religion and Atheism

th

9/21
- Dalai Lama is the leader of Tibetan Buddhism
o He is literally a God, a divine being
o If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then
Buddhism will have to change
o also the president of Tibet
when he dies, monks meditate a lot and go search
for a new reincarnate all over the world
when they find one, they ask the family to take the
child to Tibet and if they agree the child must pass
test by a Tibetan committee
must answer questions and choose the proper
items used by the previous Lama
- Buddhism
o Buddha mostly concerned with the here and now, the
origin of the universe etc are not so important
o Three Characteristic of Existence

Annica everything is impermanent, constantly

changing, within a cycle
Dukkha all humans and animals experience
suffering and dissatisfaction
Anatta no separate, eternal unchanging self. Cant
call anything in particular me or you because
everything is in flux, everything depends on
everything else
o The mind follows these same 3 characteristics
o Five aggregates of the Self
1) Form physical materials making us up as well as
neurons, etc
includes the six sense organs eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, skin, eyes
Mind
2) Feeling instant reaction after perceiving
something
o pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral
3) Perception make sense of the object more
broadly
4) Volition where an individual decides to
commit to a certain course of action
o attachment happens here
o crave or attach yourself to the object
o THIS IS WHERE SUFFERING BEGINS
5) Consciousness integrate that experience
into everything you know
o essentially where you personality and
thus your fate exists, if you mess up the
volition step you determine your fate
o Kinds of Suffering
Two kinds internal and external
8 main ones
Birth
Aging
Illness
Death
Separation from loved ones
Encountering objects of hate
Not getting what we want
Five components of existence

9/28

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte

o Declared war on drugs, have been killing many people
o Feels people have become more atheist and thus more anti
law-and-order
o Also questions the existence of god due to atrocities hes
seen
Buddhism doe not contain beginning of the universe
o Everything is circular
Four Noble Truths
o Symptoms
To live is to suffer
o Cause/Diagnosis (tanha)
Desires and attachments to things cause suffering
o Cure/Prognosis
Suffering can be overcome
o Prescription
The Noble Eightfold Path Nirvana
Widsom- need to have a right view, objective view of
reality, need to have wholesome intentions
Ethical conduct say the right words, be ethical,
dont harm others, lead wholesome lifestyle
Mental Development live a contemplative life, dont
spend enough time turning internally
Class discussion
o The scientific community is based upon some amount of
faith too
Any prediction requires faith
o Miracles could be when the laws of nature momentarily
stop, miracle is inserted, and laws resume
o Discoveries can happen over and over
o Miracles happen once, never again
Guest speaker Shahar
o There are atheist Haggadahs b/c there were many
communist Jews in the 1930s
o Israel has one of the highest concentrations of Atheists
o Jews are strongly culturally linked
o Buddhism easy to square with science
o Meditation now gives him same feelings as hallucinogens
(shrooms, acid) used to do
Everything is falling apart at a very slow rate
After days of meditation, he saw the constant flux of
everything
Dont want that for too long, maybe we evolved to
block it out

 People can go crazy on drugs

o When things get really difficult, makes finding meaning in it
all easier