Buddhism and Modern Science
It may be embarrassing for scientists to be religious while at the same time coherent with the principles of their profession. Faith rests upon what cannot be understood or explained - credo, quia absurdum est -, while science demands empirical evidence and logical reasoning. This might not be the case, however, when the “religion” in question is Buddhism. Unlike other religions, even an atheist can be a Buddhist. The core of the Buddhist teaching resembles much more a philosophy than a religion. If most people know Buddhism today as a religion, this is due to the fact that after centuries of Buddhist practice, a religion was indeed built upon the original doctrines of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. An examination, however, of the earliest texts of the Buddhist tradition - although written centuries after the death of the Buddha - can offer a glimpse of what Buddhism looked like back then. These teachings reveal that Buddhism was much more a naturalistic than a me...
