All people think dogmatically. The only difference is what the ontological commitments and methaphysical foundations are. Take out God and people will fit politics, sports teams, tools, whatever in there. Its inescapable.
All people think dogmatically. The only difference is what the ontological commitments and methaphysical foundations are. Take out God and people will fit politics, sports teams, tools, whatever in there. Its inescapable.
All people think dogmatically, but religion does not prevent people from acting dogmatically in politics, sports, etc. It just doesn't. It never did.
Under normal circumstances I'd consider this a nit and decline to pick it, but the number of evangelists out there arguing the equivalent of "cure your alcohol addiction with crystal meth!" is too damn high.
Allow me to introduce you to Buddhism
Elaborate. Buddhism is going to have the same epistemological issues as anything, since its a human consciousness issue.
> since its a human consciousness issue
I'd encourage you to check it out for yourself. It's certainly possible to be a dogmatic Buddhist, but one of the foundational beliefs of Buddhism is that the type of dogmatic attachment you're describing is avoidable. It's not easy, but that's why you meditate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da
Which one?
Zen
The Western Zen? In my experience it is downgraded from being a religion to being a system of practice which relieves it of the broader Mahayana cosmology. But I would suggest the dogma is less obvious but still there, often just somewhere else, such as in its own limitations, or in a philosophical container at a higher level such as scientism.
All Zen is about releasing those attachments. Granted it's pretty hard, because if you succeed, you're enlightened.
East, West, Religion, Practice… From a Zen perspective, you're just troubling your mind with binaries and conflict.
Ah and there is the dogma -- the otherness of the enlightened.
The binaries still functionally exist. I see a lot of value in reflective practices. At the same time it seems unlikely to me that the point of existing is to not trouble your mind.
There's a saying in Zen: if you meet the buddha on the road, kill him. The point being, the very exaltation of enlightenment is an impediment.
If Buddhism can be said to have a goal, it is to reduce suffering (including your own), so troubling your own mind is indeed something it can help with. The point of existence would be something interesting to meditate on. If you discover it, let us all know!
This dancing between positions is all very defensible and if the path is currently working for you, more power to you.
Dogma, like the binaries, still functionally exists, whatever the narrative. If you can’t admit that, that might also be something interesting to meditate on.
Say you have eliminated all suffering. How many versions of that world exist? How many of them are true, beautiful, and good? See how, in order to evaluate the success or failure of Buddhism, we have to move beyond “eliminate suffering” to a higher value standard?
Dogmatism is a spectrum and for too many people it's on the animal side of the scale.