Tag Archives: Buddhism

May 18, 2012, 10:29 am

Buddhist Biology and Vice Versa

The jewel in the lotus and vice versa (Wikipedia)

The connection (or lack thereof) between science and religion has been debated as long as science and religion have existed. Some scientists accept the late Stephen Jay Gould’s suggestion that the two are “NOMA”—Non-Overlapping Magesteria—because science and religion occupy distinct realms, the former concerned with what is, the latter with what should be. Others (including myself) reject NOMA, pointing out that religion often makes claims about the real world that not only overlap with those of science, but are frequently contradicted by the latter.

There is, however, an intriguing exception: Buddhism. Perhaps this is because Buddhism is as much philosophy as religion, or maybe because Buddhism is somehow more “valid” than, say, the…

April 28, 2012, 10:05 am

A Double Dose of Dysfunctionality

By David Barash

One perspective on "the creation" (from Wikipedia)

I must confess that I don’t regularly read the excellent blog “why evolution is true” maintained by fellow evolutionist and atheist Jerry Coyne, mostly because he writes so much, and I read so slowly. Jerry somehow manages to generate a gazillion words per day, every day, and I’m the kind of stubbornly slow-mo reader who must carefully pronounce every polysyllabic name in a 19^th century Russian novel. With so much wonderful material out there on the Web (not to mention all those great Russian novels!), we slow-pokes have to pick and choose carefully.

And so, I was grateful when a friend and colleague (who, with astounding assiduity, actually reads my blog as well as Jerry Coyne’s) just told me that some time ago, Dr. Coyne had preceded me in…