Buddhism and the Origin of Life
BUDDHISM AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
Buddhism is a religious and social philosophy which was founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the 5th century bc.He was the son of a noble from the northern part of India who became obsessed with finding the answer to the question of human suffering. He left his family, wife, son and a life of privileged comforts to go live in the forest in an effort to find the answer to the question that so tormented him. He lived in the forest for six years practicing extreme asceticism (The practice of self punishment and torture) and starvation. He almost died due to the extreme conditions he was putting himself through. This was when he concluded the answer to his question could not be found in this manner. It was after this that he found the answer while sitting under a fig tree. He started calling himself “The Enlightened One” and went around teaching people what he called the “Middle Way”. His teachings are what are today the basis of Buddhism.
Buddhism states that every man in the universe is his own lord, controls his own destiny and is not controlled by any other man or any supernatural God. This means that it fundamentally disagrees with the idea of Supernatural involvement in the process of creation as it does not recognize the presence of any one deity .Thus it disagrees with the Christian, Jewish and Moslem point of view.
Although the Buddhism philosophy disagrees with the theory of Intelligent Design (creation by a supernatural deity), it does not contradict the theory of Evolution thus many Buddhists agree with it. However, questions about the origin of life and the size of the universe are under The 14 Unanswerable Questions which the Buddha described as counterproductive in the search to self-liberation. As a result, many Buddhists do not think about these kinds of questions as meaningful to the Buddhist goal of relieving oneself and others from suffering.
When a potential follower asked the Buddha for an answer to the problem of
Buddhism is a religious and social philosophy which was founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the 5th century bc.He was the son of a noble from the northern part of India who became obsessed with finding the answer to the question of human suffering. He left his family, wife, son and a life of privileged comforts to go live in the forest in an effort to find the answer to the question that so tormented him. He lived in the forest for six years practicing extreme asceticism (The practice of self punishment and torture) and starvation. He almost died due to the extreme conditions he was putting himself through. This was when he concluded the answer to his question could not be found in this manner. It was after this that he found the answer while sitting under a fig tree. He started calling himself “The Enlightened One” and went around teaching people what he called the “Middle Way”. His teachings are what are today the basis of Buddhism.
Buddhism states that every man in the universe is his own lord, controls his own destiny and is not controlled by any other man or any supernatural God. This means that it fundamentally disagrees with the idea of Supernatural involvement in the process of creation as it does not recognize the presence of any one deity .Thus it disagrees with the Christian, Jewish and Moslem point of view.
Although the Buddhism philosophy disagrees with the theory of Intelligent Design (creation by a supernatural deity), it does not contradict the theory of Evolution thus many Buddhists agree with it. However, questions about the origin of life and the size of the universe are under The 14 Unanswerable Questions which the Buddha described as counterproductive in the search to self-liberation. As a result, many Buddhists do not think about these kinds of questions as meaningful to the Buddhist goal of relieving oneself and others from suffering.
When a potential follower asked the Buddha for an answer to the problem of