the matter your body is composed of existed before you were born and will continue to exist after your death. sorry

I'm talking about consciousness / self-awareness / being.

The fact that our consciousness transitioned from nothingness to existence is the sole fact we have in the matter, so the preponderance of the evidence can only point to Buddhism or Christianity, and as I said, scientific evidence favors Christianity over Buddhism.

No, I'm not religious... but I prefer Buddhism to Christianity any day of the week!

Of course - this is Videosift.

In my mind the idea of coming into existence strongly supports... the notion of a return to nothingness.

Dust to dust, and all that.

The numbers don't add up for reincarnation. I think people have done studies. Pesky math.

No, I'm not religious... but I prefer Buddhism to Christianity any day of the week!

>> ^Skeeve:
From the attacks of 9/11 (which have been used as a justification for Iraq) to the sectarian violence ravaging Iraq right now, god/religion is the main killer there too.

I just wanted to point out that it's really misguided to say that religion caused all these conflicts which happened to have religion tacked on to them. The Crusades, for example, were less about religion than they were about halting the advance of a growing empire. Religion is the excuse and the propaganda tool for mobilizing one group of people against another, usually for political reasons or in competition over resources. We'd have plenty of wars still without religion, and the scapegoating is pointless.

>> ^rottenseed:
And as for eastern religions Hinduism, Buddhism, etc; all that spiritual stuff, is BS in my book.

You clearly haven't researched them at all. Some aspects of Hinduism and Buddhism aren't spiritual but pragmatic. Then there's Taoist philosophy which is agnostic when it comes to belief in a soul or an afterlife, but it teaches that ultimately it doesn't matter. I see modern astrophysics and quantum physics making new hypotheses that mirror Eastern philosophical tenets, such as cosmic inflation theory's infinite/eternal field of bubble universes being similar to the Tao. Eastern philosophies can't be lumped in with Western religions, and aren't adequately described as "spiritual stuff."

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
I applaud any person willing to swim against the tide of mindless "Oooh! Oooh! Me too!"-ism that goes on here in the sift. Well done Mr. BurdT. While I'm not a fan of profanity or inflammatory language, I certainly support those who spike the wheels of atheist groupthink.
This discussion essentially follows the traditional fallacious nature of most atheist vs. God debates. The atheist premise is that if God existed, he would prevent human suffering. Or - phrased a different way - God must not exist otherwise he would not allow people to suffer. Or - a different way - "Hahaha your 'loving' Christian God is really a cruel sadist because he allows & creates suffering."
This is the fundamental flaw in the atheist position. The existence of suffering does not mean that God created the suffering or that he enjoys it. It displays a fundamental lack of understanding about the very basic nature of what God is, and what he wants.

There's a fundamental flaw in the religious position: They have no proof.

And how come it's ok for Christians to claim that other religions are wrong (even different sects of their own) yet when an atheist makes that claim about ALL religions, he or she needs to back off and be understanding? Really you don't want atheists to back off religions, you just want them to back off of yours, because they make your religion look as stupid as it is. Yes I said "stupid", I'm not trying to hold anything back or be diplomatic because, well, your crummy religions are messing up the fucking world. There I said it.

And as for eastern religions Hinduism, Buddhism, etc; all that spiritual stuff, is BS in my book. In my eyes though, those religions are less of a threat to us as a society. Maybe because they don't affect us on the west. Maybe because spiritual practice is more part of a personal journey and the folklore aspect of those religions are understood as metaphors and parables to aid in the guidance of one's own healthy living.

Muslims and Jews though...they need to wake up and smell the dog shit that they're helping the Christians smear all over the world. There is no one true god, no messiah and thus no reason to fight. They're all wrong.

Wow...
So sad to see that we're just as screwed up as Christians are.

Maybe Buddhism is the way to go...

>> ^chilaxe:
...Or maybe technological progress will suddenly stop tomorrow and there will be nothing left for science to figure out?

It's a nice thought anyway.

I don't see medical science impacting religion's popularity. It's social technology that will steal religion's thunder, because religion was one of a few ways to integrate into a community before, and it's becoming increasingly obsolete. People that enter into a religion because of its logical foundations are an extreme minority, unless you're talking about philosophical religions like Buddhism and Taoism.

Not only does Buddhism offer a sound and practical approach to understanding the human mind and its functions, but compared to Western theories such as those of Freud, you could say that it has also stood the test of time, offering as it has for thousands of years methods for alleviating mental distress, whereas one could not say that Freudian concepts are as useful today, as they appeared to be when first established.

I'll take 20 minutes of meditation a day over any old Freudian psychoanalysis, thank you. Psychology is the business of any dedicated Buddhist.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Buddhism, Psychology, Suffering' to 'Buddhism, Suffering' - edited by nibiyabi

I'll answer it myself too, but I would like your perspectives.

"What if you're wrong" is a loaded question, because it is obviously clear what will happen if we're wrong, depending on what we're wrong about. If we are wrong about the Christian god, then we will go to hell, same with the Muslim god. I'm not entirely sure what would happen if we were wrong about Buddhism, but it would probably not be good.

You can respond with "Well, what if you are wrong in your particular religion?" I mean, a Muslim would not be on safe ground if he was wrong about the Christian god, because he would have followed a false prophet == straight to hell.

The question is not really worth any thing, because it's all speculation. A religious person could easier answer it better than an atheist, because it assumes that if the atheist is wrong, then one of the religions are right - the question is easily answerable by a person from the religion that is assumed right.

So I presume a good answer could be "So what?"

Agree with those above. It's not religion that makes people stupid and ignorant. If religion was removed, they still would be and we'd simply have another scapegoat. Besides that are religions and religious or spiritual people who are a benefit to society. Few to none of them are monotheistic however and some (such as Buddhism,) do not include the worship of a deity.

Now to comment on the video.

1: How can Ben Stein be so intelligent yet so absolutely clueless? To other bits about that subject. Evolution doesn't require 'belief.' Either does any other scientific principal or theory with such unsurmountable evidense.. such as gravity. People denying such theories is about as stupid as denying that the earth circles the sun. (Though there are plenty who believe the opposite because their holy book says so.)

2: It makes me laugh my ass off to see people who think we are in the end times. Really it does. Every time I meet someone who thinks were approaching the end I tell them. 'You really should read up on a little phase of western cultured called the Dark Ages. Because trust me they had it WAY worse then you can imagine. You think were coming to the end today because of war, plagues, etc. If you were able to experience life in the Dark Ages you would never even think such thing again. Because your life as the a utopia compared to what those people experienced.' Really, such thoughts are laughable.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'NOVA, tibet, buddhism, temple, restoration, paintings' to 'NOVA, tibet, buddhism, temple, restoration, paintings, mustang, lo manthang, nepal' - edited by my15minutes

*1 the people that committed the act were part of an extremist muslim group, basically a cult. they would not have done this act if they weren't in this group and reasoned in that way. thus being motivated by it, yes.

*2 yes, "he is currently pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at UCLA, using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research"

*3 an illogical belief like believing something supernatural which any intelligent person would easily see why such a thing should be dismissed (such as fairies at the end of my garden). nothing like eating a vegetarian pizza, i could just tell someone was peeved at a reasonable person because i suspect they have vested interests in the beliefs being dismissed.

check out this short talk by sam harris, the best thing by him i think :
http://www.videosift.com/video/Sam-Harris-lectures-on-the-dangers-of-both-religious-fundamentalism-and-religious-moderation

also, i'd add that john searle and alan watts are bad recommendations for views on such subjects. john searle is like a small child in comparison to derek parfit's knowledge of the brain and self. also i'd recommend susan greenfield instead of alan watts (he just talks half truths loosely based on buddhism).

1. My dad was a bullrider
2. My mom was a homecoming queen
3. I spent most of my childhood on a farm
4. As a child, I had a Shetland Pony named "Kong"
5. I started driving when I was twelve
6. My high school graduating class had 33 people in it
7. I'm pretty handy with a gun
8. I shot my first deer with my first shot through the heart
9. I used to be a very good pool player
10. My first car was a '67 Chevy Impala
11. I've performed in three plays
12. I wrote, directed, and edited a 30-minute movie called “Sotto Voce” about teen pregnancy
13. I've written three novels (never published)
14. I'm a college drop-out
15. I'm a Lamda Chi Alpha
16. I once had a spike haircut with a pink and purple stripe on the side
17. I over-dosed and nearly died once
18. I've tripped on LSD over 250 times
19. I once bought a quarter pound of weed to resell and deal
20. I never sold any of it and smoked it all myself
21. I taught myself how to type (70 wpm)
22. I'm a trivia buff and love NTN
23. I study Buddhism and the I Ching
24. I was once an alter boy in the Catholic church
25. In grade school my teachers were Irish Nuns

i watched the whole thing, why no examination of Buddhism?
Also now i have to research Horus and the apparent laundry list of similarities to Jesus.

one thought - Bill's position regarding god is:
I don't know. But i choose to disbelieve and proselytize that disbelief to others.

How is that position morally or intellectually superior to:

I don't know. But i choose to believe and proselytize that belief to others.

Bill just "knows" he's Right? I think he planned the whole thing so he could smoke dope in Amsterdam.

I was curious when I started watching this whether Bill would have anything to say about Rumi and Sufi. Except for a 1-second clip of sped-up whirling dervishes, there's not even a whiff.

I think Bill might even approve of it, since he clearly states at the beginning that he understands people's need to have a religion, and that's it's only privilege of the privileged to choose not to have a religion. He's obviously aware of Sufi. Wonder why he didn't mention it.

Or Buddhism, for that matter, which is similar to Sufi in a lot of ways that Bill singled out as important.