Israel's war of extermination in Gaza has radicalized me. It has made me openly contemptuous of anything connected with the old Canaanite storm god, Jahweh. (Or El, if you prefer.) This bumped my You Tube algorithm towards the "Cold Reason" channel. Typically they beat up on Christianity, probably because it is an easy and obvious target. I would rather see them go after other religions, for a change. And they finally did: They savaged Buddhism recently.
Buddhism usually gets a lot of good press, but does it really deserve it? Perhaps it gets off too easily, just because it is a non-Abrahamic religion and because the European and American audience wants to rebel against the religion of its parents.
Buddhism likes to promise tranquillity, coming from the extinction of desire and pulling away from the world. But we will all be peaceful enough when we are dead, so why brag up Quiescence while we are still alive?
In contrast to Buddha's 'Desire causes Suffering,' consider the philosophy of "Copper", an untrained sheepdog puppy. Sean the Sheepman made a video of Copper getting her first chance to run after a herd of sheep. I think you will agree that she feels Desire. But it doesn't seem to cause Suffering. So who you gonna believe: the Buddha or your lying eyes? I agreed with Cold Reason's critique of Buddhism, but I thought Copper's video was more persuasive.
Long-suffering readers have probably seen this coming: another advertisement for the 'cynical' philosophy of life. (Cynical in Greek meant dog-like.)
When I see Copper running across the field, it seems quite OK if you flush all the philosophy/religion/history books down the nearest toilet. Who needs them? Why desire them at all?
Comments
Religion is a hard one to discuss. The belief I used to have has come apart. What is the truth? Has the whole world been corrupted, coerced and betrayed? Yes. Yes it has. Religion has played a HUGE part in that as it can persuade, conflict and terrorize. I looked at definitions of all six words. They fit perfectly.