David Brooks: Science and Buddhism are converging [View All]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13brooks.html?em&ex=1210996800&en=4771d395b62ede84&ei=5087%0A


I really despise Brooks.

Its hard for me to express how much I despise David Brooks because more than any other person he has given intellectual cover for the war in Iraq. By being somewhat sceptical but 'keeping an open mind' he never challenged the premises for the war in Iraq and for the last several years would simply say 'give them 6 more months'.

There fore I was rather surprised to read this article which strongly parallels my own feeling with this conclusion:

Scientists have more respect for elevated spiritual states. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that transcendent experiences can actually be identified and measured in the brain (people experience a decrease in activity in the parietal lobe, which orients us in space). The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real.

This new wave of research will not seep into the public realm in the form of militant atheism. Instead it will lead to what you might call neural Buddhism.

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In their arguments with Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate. The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. It’s going to come from scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism.

In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other. That’s bound to lead to new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation. Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day. I’m not qualified to take sides, believe me. I’m just trying to anticipate which way the debate is headed. We’re in the middle of a scientific revolution. It’s going to have big cultural effects.