The problem with both science and religion

Today, science seems to be our new religion which is still anthropocentric as much as it would like to deny it in the hopes of surpassing religion. 

Like religion, science is forced to look at the universe through all too human senses and, especially important, the human mind (manas) which includes man’s thoughts, intellect, and imagination.  The universe, in other words, can only be interpreted in terms of the human instrument because there is no way to get outside or beyond this instrument at least for science.

In both science and religion, as we know it today, there is hidden anthropomorphism — where the hand of man set foot!  It’s more obvious in man’s religions.  To be sure, the God of the Bible is very much human.  He has a face which he sets against evil.  He stretches out his hand.  He has eyes and feet.  He also has emotions.  He is jealous, or moved to pity.  He is grieved.  He changes his mind.  He gets angry.  This is a man-made God.  It has human attributes which stems from the human imagination.

The problem with both science and religion is this, they are not fundamental enough.  Both are still too human.  Neither aim high enough.  They only show us something derived from something else being thus dependent upon it.  A real, attainable absolute is missing which contains man but transcends him, also.

If we assume that Siddhartha’s awakening surpassed everything human including our modern ideas of science (also technology) so that what he awakened to was not caught up in the human world then, in order to become enlightened, we are forced to search beyond the human mind (manas) which is, exactly, what Buddhism teaches which includes Zen.

All the descriptions of Buddhism’s transcendent absolute defy our grasp through our human intelligence and understanding.  In other words, ordinary, everyday human thought, which includes science, cannot grasp what Siddhartha awakened to.  Still, there is a growing antagonism between man's needs and wants which science tries to meet and true religion which reveals, so to speak, the Isle of Spirit (ātmandvīpa) that lies beyond man's woes but is still attainable by man thus ending his suffering.  

Comments

[Dave b]

I forgot Amidism is also exempt from my criticism, (except in the minds of those who import vegetarianism from other forms of Buddhism) due to salvation being by the sole practice of reciting the nembutsu.

[dave b]

The problem with pussy asian religions is they are anti-human with their hatred of nutritition via vegan propaganda and hatred of man's inner being with their no soul doctrines and their hatred of individuality with their we're all one BS. Only perhaps extinct Hinayana (not Theravada) escapes this criticism.