Questions that Buddhist cannot answer ;)

[drifter]

1. How did human life begin and who controls reincarnations if there is no Almighty God or Gods to answer to?
2. How did the world’s population grow from perhaps 100 million people in Buddha’s day to about 6.7 billion people in the 21st century? If all human lives were reincarnated from past lives then where did all the additional people come from without any divine power to create billions of more human spirits or souls? And if there is a divine power to answer and give an account too then (if Buddha’s teachings are accurate) why did not the Buddha give us detailed information about the true worship and service to this God or Gods?
3. If the Buddha was truly enlightened who gave him this enlightenment? If it was from an Almighty God then why did he not say so?
4. If there is no God to answer too then from where did the Buddha receive his wise and moral teachings from?
5. If the Buddha’s enlightened teachings was really true then why is there no evidence of anyone ever teaching Buddhism before the Buddha was born?
6. If Buddhism were true then why are there no historical claims of Buddhists being Christian, Jew, or American Indian such as Aztec or Mayans in previous lives? It appears that all Buddhists always believed that their previous lives were always in the societies that they were familiar with. How can Buddhists explain why they were not Aztecs, Mayans, or Australian Aborigines? If Buddhism’s teaching about reincarnation were really true then Buddhists should have been reincarnated from various nations and religions from around the entire globe!
7. Exactly when was mankind and all material things created and how did human suffering begin in the first place?
8. How can Buddhists only recall portions of their past lives if they are really the selfsame spiritual entity? And how can one really learn from past mistakes in his previous lives if he cannot recall them? What is the sense of being punished for actions we cannot even remember?

 

[drifter]

there is no end to suffering, no permanent enlightenment, no perfect contentment. this is a trick played by religions to wave an ever-out-of-reach carrot to its subscribers. suffering is part of being alive. as a matter of fact, nature selects AGAINST contentment, because an animal at peace is a vulnerable animal, vulnerable to mishaps, predation, exploitation. being content with non-contentment, minimizing suffering, being realistic about the fact that you are almost certainly going to die and retain no consciousness or awareness whatsoever.

evolutionary psychology has made convincing arguments that moral behavior, right speech and the like, are actually strategies selected for over time, and that altruism just makes sense from a strategic viewpoint in most situations. you don't need abstract principles written down by ancient seers to figure out that treating people kindly will model the manner in which you want to be treated, or that giving until you're dead isn't wise.

why believe in buddhism? it eats its own tail. if it is truly the gateless gate, then stop being attached to the gate

 

[zeebjii]

Reincarnation, i feel strongly is the achilles heel of the buddhist religion. Next is the buddhist concept of karma. So many questions but no ready answers. The most used answer is 'this particular concept is too complex for the human mind to grasp'.

Other that that, i should say it's a perfectly sensible religion.

 

[Ash007]

Interesting points you raised. Let me see if I can answer some.

1)Reincarnation is tied to the concept of Karma I think. No one controls it, its basically, if you did bad things before, you get it this time etc.

2)There are dinosaurs, other creatures, there are more then 100 billion insects, I think Buddhist would use that as an argument. Don't forget, you can be reincarnated as anything according to Buddhism. I once hear that the Buddha actually said, if you found a "true" religion, follow it, instead of Buddhism, not sure ho accurate it is, and too lazy to google.

3) Enlightenment is suppose the state where you "escape" the never ending wheel of life and death. Depending on which version you are looking at, it does not imply superhuman strength. Its suppose to mean you have "nothing", holds "nothing", it is not something that you can describe. No one can tell you or give it to you. You have to "be" in it to know.

4) Read 4 above.

5) There might be, but its lost through the ages. I think the point was, there are many " enlightened" person through the ages. Its just its not been recorded or lost. By the same definition, people like Gandi, Newton, Aristotle maybe considered "enlightened" because they seek the "truth" be it Science, Philosophy etc.

6)Good movie on this "The man from earth". Perhaps Jesus was a disciple of the Buddha?

[video=youtube;lVMhEAI3pvg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVMhEAI3pvg[/video]

7) You talking about the concept of origin? The Buddhist answer is that it came into being because it did. As for human suffering, its just one of the core "truths" that life, being alive, living would entail suffering.

Watch Stephen Hawking's documentary on this. In fact, I think its closer to the Buddhist understanding. We come from nothing and goes to nothing. Even the concept of "matter" was because of negative "holes" according to Hawkings.
http://youtu.be/7L7VTdzuY7Y

8) Not really sure I believe this. I never recall anything from my "past" live. I think its closer to the concept of Karma.

By the way, no more Christian bashing?

1. How did human life begin and who controls reincarnations if there is no Almighty God or Gods to answer to?
2. How did the world’s population grow from perhaps 100 million people in Buddha’s day to about 6.7 billion people in the 21st century? If all human lives were reincarnated from past lives then where did all the additional people come from without any divine power to create billions of more human spirits or souls? And if there is a divine power to answer and give an account too then (if Buddha’s teachings are accurate) why did not the Buddha give us detailed information about the true worship and service to this God or Gods?
3. If the Buddha was truly enlightened who gave him this enlightenment? If it was from an Almighty God then why did he not say so?
4. If there is no God to answer too then from where did the Buddha receive his wise and moral teachings from?
5. If the Buddha’s enlightened teachings was really true then why is there no evidence of anyone ever teaching Buddhism before the Buddha was born?
6. If Buddhism were true then why are there no historical claims of Buddhists being Christian, Jew, or American Indian such as Aztec or Mayans in previous lives? It appears that all Buddhists always believed that their previous lives were always in the societies that they were familiar with. How can Buddhists explain why they were not Aztecs, Mayans, or Australian Aborigines? If Buddhism’s teaching about reincarnation were really true then Buddhists should have been reincarnated from various nations and religions from around the entire globe!
7. Exactly when was mankind and all material things created and how did human suffering begin in the first place?
8. How can Buddhists only recall portions of their past lives if they are really the selfsame spiritual entity? And how can one really learn from past mistakes in his previous lives if he cannot recall them? What is the sense of being punished for actions we cannot even remember?

 

[always1600]

All the debates, arguments, questions....why this, why not that, wrong and wrongs, fake and fakes details and theories........to get them? Not here and not from anyone but yourself. It's a good start to your journey if u want the truth. We're all journeyman. Magical things happen along the way or miracles u want to proclaim but only yourself to experience n keep. We will and can share what we know to our best knowledge with limit, we r still on the road.

 

[drifter]

Reincarnation, i feel strongly is the achilles heel of the buddhist religion. Next is the buddhist concept of karma. So many questions but no ready answers. The most used answer is 'this particular concept is too complex for the human mind to grasp'.

Other that that, i should say it's a perfectly sensible religion.

100% agree with u . If dont have the concept of reincarnation and karma I might be a Buddist too

 

[drifter]

Interesting points you raised. Let me see if I can answer some.

1)Reincarnation is tied to the concept of Karma I think. No one controls it, its basically, if you did bad things before, you get it this time etc.

2)There are dinosaurs, other creatures, there are more then 100 billion insects, I think Buddhist would use that as an argument. Don't forget, you can be reincarnated as anything according to Buddhism. I once hear that the Buddha actually said, if you found a "true" religion, follow it, instead of Buddhism, not sure ho accurate it is, and too lazy to google.

3) Enlightenment is suppose the state where you "escape" the never ending wheel of life and death. Depending on which version you are looking at, it does not imply superhuman strength. Its suppose to mean you have "nothing", holds "nothing", it is not something that you can describe. No one can tell you or give it to you. You have to "be" in it to know.

4) Read 4 above.

5) There might be, but its lost through the ages. I think the point was, there are many " enlightened" person through the ages. Its just its not been recorded or lost. By the same definition, people like Gandi, Newton, Aristotle maybe considered "enlightened" because they seek the "truth" be it Science, Philosophy etc.

6)Good movie on this "The man from earth". Perhaps Jesus was a disciple of the Buddha?

[video=youtube;lVMhEAI3pvg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVMhEAI3pvg[/video]

7) You talking about the concept of origin? The Buddhist answer is that it came into being because it did. As for human suffering, its just one of the core "truths" that life, being alive, living would entail suffering.

Watch Stephen Hawking's documentary on this. In fact, I think its closer to the Buddhist understanding. We come from nothing and goes to nothing. Even the concept of "matter" was because of negative "holes" according to Hawkings.
http://youtu.be/7L7VTdzuY7Y

8) Not really sure I believe this. I never recall anything from my "past" live. I think its closer to the concept of Karma.

By the way, no more Christian bashing?

1) karma is fake cause some ppl who do bad things are still enjoying their life until when they are on the death death bed . Some Buddists then argue that their karma will be carry on after they die . Bro , good things happens to bad guys and bad things happen to good guys too .. Life is random and full of upz and down ..they can use it as an excuse that it is karma . some even argue that karma will spread to their children if your own karma don't scare u .. so karma is just a dirty scare tricks to put ppl in line just like the rest of other religion ... Rewards and punishment

2) yes , Buddhist believes that some who do bad will be reincarnated to be insect or animals but don't forget that some animals or insects are carnivorous ..meaning they kill .. So if a tiger kills a cow for food will the tiger get his karma too ?

3) never ending of life and death ? how can it be if here's no inrecarnation ? because reincarnation is fake .

4) read the above

5) I'm glad u use the word " might " .. Which means there's no confirm answer .

6) thanks for the video .. All religions are not original .. They copy from one another

7) life is beautiful and not suffering that's one thing I don't like about Buddhisum cause they are giving u negative thoughts about life ..

8) I seldom whack Christians nowadays cause they are being put in line by brother tornado . They seems to dissappear and rarely write nonsense now .but if they become active and post rubbish here ..it's time for me to step in

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

Reincarnation, i feel strongly is the achilles heel of the buddhist religion. Next is the buddhist concept of karma. So many questions but no ready answers. The most used answer is 'this particular concept is too complex for the human mind to grasp'.

Other that that, i should say it's a perfectly sensible religion.

Reincarnation has been proven countless times liao lor, bro...............Buddha have said the number of universes and living beings are countless (scientists now saying the same thing) so why not population increase on Earth ?

i remember reading an article by a group of Swedish scientists saying reincarnation is absolutely necessary for the universe to exist............i can't recall the details, read it years ago..................


Karma is cause and effect.............what's so difficult to understand..............



as for the origination of all things or ''first cause'' also known as Creator..............think about this.............can you subtract from and add to zero indefinitely ? you can, right ?

that's why Buddha said universe has no beginning and no end......................


all physical things made of atoms, when you go lower to subatomic level...............scientists said there's no physical reality.............everything is made of energy..............scientists said energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to another.................thus, universe has no beginning and no end.

 

[drifter]

Reincarnation has been proven countless times liao lor, bro...............Buddha have said the number of universes and living beings are countless (scientists now saying the same thing) so why not population increase on Earth ?

i remember reading an article by a group of Swedish scientists saying reincarnation is absolutely necessary for the universe to exist............i can't recall the details, read it years ago..................


Karma is cause and effect.............what's so difficult to understand..............



as for the origination of all things or ''first cause'' also known as Creator..............think about this.............can you subtract from and add to zero indefinitely ? you can, right ?

that's why Buddha said universe has no beginning and no end......................


all physical things made of atoms, when you go lower to subatomic level...............scientists said there's no physical reality.............everything is made of energy..............scientists said energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to another.................thus, universe has no beginning and no end.

Reincarnation have not been proven ...even scientist said that some ppl thought they are being reincarnated is actually their brain playing tricks on them . Karma is real ? So buddha said dont kill at the same time buddha also say if u do bad u will be reincarnated to be a animal or insect so if u are reincarnated to a carnivorous animals in order to survive you have to kill another animal . So killing is right or wrong since man can be reincarnated to become animals or insects .

 

[drifter]

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/10/reasons_to_doub.html

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

Buddhism is not a religion, it's try to tell people there's no such thing as religions and no such thing as Buddhism..............that there's no independent existence of anything.................


it provides answer to questions that other man-made religions can't answer..............


to get the answers, go to sgforums.com and go to the Buddhism folder there, there are many people there that are very learned in Buddhism and articles they posted will blow your mind !


Buddhism is the only ''faith'' that science has always supported when science keep proving other religions to be wrong.

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/10/reasons_to_doub.html

when people don't believe reincarnation, it's becoz they are too attached to physical appearances and that they believe in a permanent soul or self...............Buddhism has proven in the ''No-Self Concept'' that there's no such thing as an identity or personality................everyone is basically ''a stream of thoughts''


and since ''people'' are basically mindstreams and that the physical reality proven to be an illusion................what people call ''reincarnation'' is like everytime you buy a computer and you put in the software..................the computer is the ''physical' and the software the ''identity''

 

[M8SSL0TS]

buddhist all bo yong one lah.

 

[drifter]

when people don't believe reincarnation, it's becoz they are too attached to physical appearances and that they believe in a permanent soul or self...............Buddhism has proven in the ''No-Self Concept'' that there's no such thing as an identity or personality................everyone is basically ''a stream of thoughts''


and since ''people'' are basically mindstreams and that the physical reality proven to be an illusion................what people call ''reincarnation'' is like everytime you buy a computer and you put in the software..................the computer is the ''physical' and the software the ''identity''

"when people don't believe reincarnation, it's becoz they are too attached to physical appearances and that they believe in a permanent soul or self.."

So can I said those who believe in reincarnation is because they are delusional and believe whatever thing they wanted to believe because its their religion and faith ?

"Buddhism has proven in the ''No-Self Concept'' that there's no such thing as an identity or personality................everyone is basically ''a stream of thoughts''
"

What kind of prove ?

"what people call ''reincarnation'' is like everytime you buy a computer and you put in the software..................the computer is the ''physical' and the software the ''identity''


How can u compare a human which is a living thing to a computer ? Totally irrelevant . It's like comparing durian with mee pok dry .

 

[drifter]

Buddhism is not a religion, it's try to tell people there's no such thing as religions and no such thing as Buddhism..............that there's no independent existence of anything.................


it provides answer to questions that other man-made religions can't answer..............


to get the answers, go to sgforums.com and go to the Buddhism folder there, there are many people there that are very learned in Buddhism and articles they posted will blow your mind !


Buddhism is the only ''faith'' that science has always supported when science keep proving other religions to be wrong.

Wikipedia once defined religion as: "a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, traditions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought."

Buddhism could be considered a religion because its various forms share a system of thought that is considered to be the highest truth. It involves moral codes, practices, values, traditions and rituals.

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

Wikipedia once defined religion as: "a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, traditions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought."

Buddhism could be considered a religion because its various forms share a system of thought that is considered to be the highest truth. It involves moral codes, practices, values, traditions and rituals.

religion means got God mah............Buddhism is trying to tell you what is the ultimate reality for humans...........this ''truth'' cannot be described as an independent existing set of teachings...............


for example...........if all of creation is a white sphere...............then you can't say that it's white or not white.............you also can't say it's a sphere or not a sphere................

white comes about only if there are other colourss and likewise for shapes...................they're only human labels...........


the Buddha said there's no independent existence of anything and that everything exist in relation to each other....................this has been proven at the subatomic level.........

 

[drifter]

religion means got God mah............Buddhism is trying to tell you what is the ultimate reality for humans...........this ''truth'' cannot be described as an independent existing set of teachings...............


for example...........if all of creation is a white sphere...............then you can't say that it's white or not white.............you also can't say it's a sphere or not a sphere................

white comes about only if there are other colourss and likewise for shapes...................they're only human labels...........


the Buddha said there's no independent existence of anything and that everything exist in relation to each other....................this has been proven at the subatomic level.........

If Buddists do think buddha is god .. So why are they kneeling infront of a stone and pray or chants ?
White colour means white .. Black means black gray means gray what's so difficult what it ? Why must think so deep for simple things .. Life is very simple , human love to make it complicated especially religious ppl . Do we got to shopping centre and buy clothes the salesman ask you what colour of shirt you like .. Do you tell them I want white shirt but I can't say its white ? Like that the salesman can't help u right ?

"the Buddha said there's no independent existence of anything and that everything exist in relation to each other....................this has been proven at the subatomic level..."

We don't need buddha teaching to tell us that right ? Or must we be Buddhist to understand that theory ? Thats why some Buddha teaching is just common sense . If I give u common sense answer would you treat me as Buddha too ?

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

If Buddists do think buddha is god .. So why are they kneeling infront of a stone and pray or chants ?
White colour means white .. Black means black gray means gray what's so difficult what it ? Why must think so deep for simple things .. Life is very simple , human love to make it complicated especially religious ppl . Do we got to shopping centre and buy clothes the salesman ask you what colour of shirt you like .. Do you tell them I want white shirt but I can't say its white ? Like that the salesman can't help u right ?

"the Buddha said there's no independent existence of anything and that everything exist in relation to each other....................this has been proven at the subatomic level..."

We don't need buddha teaching to tell us that right ? Or must we be Buddhist to understand that theory ? Thats why some Buddha teaching is just common sense . If I give u common sense answer would you treat me as Buddha too ?

even Buddhists may not understand what i have posted..............those people that understand ''emptiness' will understand what i posted.

Buddhism is hard to understand and harder to explain becoz people find it difficult to see that the words and phrases used to explain Buddhism are actually not ''real''

maybe you can go read what i just posted on the ''no self concept'' thread, explaining how the ''self'' is a by-product of your thoughts, in fact a ''person'' is actually just a stream of thoughts..............nothing more.

 

[drifter]

even Buddhists may not understand what i have posted..............those people that understand ''emptiness' will understand what i posted.

Buddhism is hard to understand and harder to explain becoz people find it difficult to see that the words and phrases used to explain Buddhism are actually not ''real''

maybe you can go read what i just posted on the ''no self concept'' thread, explaining how the ''self'' is a by-product of your thoughts, in fact a ''person'' is actually just a stream of thoughts..............nothing more.

Ok Thankyou I will go and read your thread later .

 

[zeebjii]

Interesting points you raised. Let me see if I can answer some.

1)Reincarnation is tied to the concept of Karma I think. No one controls it, its basically, if you did bad things before, you get it this time etc.

Too vague.

I ask you a simple question:

I see a $1000 dollar note on the floor. It's dropped carelessly by a poor worker . This $1000 is his monthly salary to feed his family. He is the sole breadwinner.

If i take the money and spend every cent, is it is bad karma that he dropped the money? And will i get bad karma for taking his money?

But if i have been "programmed" to take the money to 'punish' him? Will i be inflicted with bad karma for taking the money? But then ive been 'programmed'. Shouldn't i be left to spend the money without guil, meaning im karma-neutral?

If i've been 'programmed' to take the money, then what incentive is there for me to be a good person and not take the money?

If i exercise my free will and not take the money, will i be rewarded with good karma? If if i am already programmed to take the money then where is my free will?

I may sound confusing because it is. There is simply no logic for this buddhist version of karma.

See, it over-complicates things. This guy is careless and lost his money. I found it. We are strangers. If im honest then good for him. I return him the money and we will never meet again. What the fuck has karma got to do with it?