[Buddha-l] Modern Advaita sages

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2006-01-10 at 16:24 -0500, curt wrote:

> Vivekananda must have been one of those congenital fools that Paul
> Bloom speaks of - you know, the ones who will believe absolutely
> anything without evidence.

The odds are very much in favor of that being the case. After all, only
10% of the population lacks the gullibility gene, that one that makes it
possible for them to believe things without evidence. (Not even Bloom
suggests that the other 90% of people can believe absolutely anything
without evidence. The evidence suggests that people people without
evidence only those things that please them.)

My reading of Vivekananda leads me to form the working hypothesis that
Vivekananda was not much given to belief. I think he was very fond of
letting the imagination soar, as am I. But having a vivid imagination is
not at all the same as being gullible, so long one is mindful of the
fact that one is imagining.

> Kind of makes you think doesn't it? 

Not really. I'm what Jung called a feeling type, not a thinking type. I
recently retook the Myers-Briggs test. When I read the results, it said
that there were certain professions it would be best for me to avoid. At
the top of the list was "professor of philosophy." Oh well. Fortunately,
at the top of the list of professions I would find fulfilling was
"moderator of buddha-l." I didn't believe any of this, of course. There
was no evidence.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico