[Buddha-l] Prominent Neobuddhist proposes religion based blacklisting for government jobs

[S.A. Feite]

On Jul 29, 2009, at 6:15 PM, Curt Steinmetz wrote:

> For those who haven't heard Sam Harris turns out to be a bigot and
> apparently doesn't care who knows about it. He has written an opinion
> piece for the New York Times in opposition to Francis Collins'
> nomination to be the head of the NIH. Harris states that despite the
> fact that "Dr. Collins credentials are impeccable" nevertheless,
> Collins' religious beliefs should "be of concern".

Well thank god Buddhism is not a religion. Scary stuff. It's people  
like Harris who are working on an imperative from HHDL to create a non- 
sectarian, scientifically based Abhidharma, which can support a  
experiential practice, with a scientific basis, and apropos for a  
rational, modern society.

He's right to worry about a country with a separation of church and  
state and members of the black dharmas (Christianity, Islam)  
constantly trying to edge their tribal mythos into our educational and  
governmental systems.

I notice you conveniently left out the most shocking part of the NYT  
opinion-piece, the slides he used in a 2008 lecture at U. Cal-Berkeley:

"What follows are a series of slides, presented in order, from a  
lecture on science and belief that Dr. Collins gave at the University  
of California, Berkeley, in 2008:

Slide 1: “Almighty God, who is not limited in space or time, created a  
universe 13.7 billion years ago with its parameters precisely tuned to  
allow the development of complexity over long periods of time.”

Slide 2: “God’s plan included the mechanism of evolution to create the  
marvelous diversity of living things on our planet. Most especially,  
that creative plan included human beings.”

Slide 3: “After evolution had prepared a sufficiently advanced  
‘house’ (the human brain), God gifted humanity with the knowledge of  
good and evil (the moral law), with free will, and with an immortal  
soul.”

Slide 4: “We humans used our free will to break the moral law, leading  
to our estrangement from God. For Christians, Jesus is the solution to  
that estrangement.”

Slide 5: “If the moral law is just a side effect of evolution, then  
there is no such thing as good or evil. It’s all an illusion. We’ve  
been hoodwinked. Are any of us, especially the strong atheists, really  
prepared to live our lives within that worldview?”

Why should Dr. Collins’s beliefs be of concern?"



Steve Feite