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God would be an atheist...
A rational look at religion, morality, politics and daily life |
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HOME / This Week About GWBAA WEEKLY COLUMNS Previous Print column Why subscribe? Schedule Terms & Rates Subscribe Online column Subscribe BASICS Definitions Atheism Faith God Religion etc Analysis The meaning of life Morality etc NEXT STEPS Buy Discuss Join Read REVIEWS CONTACT Link to this site All Rights Reserved World Copyright © Martin Foreman PREVIOUSLY... Within the parameters of culture we create our own God, and like love, we each experience God differently. And we do so because God does not creates us in his own image; we create him in ours. Make me a god... People kill to protect their faith. They kill to force others to accept it. They kill with a clear conscience because their imaginary God tells them it is acceptable, even desirable, that others die so the “true” faith can prosper. Kill God, save lives Let us be generous and accept the Family Research Institute’s definition. American society should support the ideal family of one husband and one wife living with their children, free of grandparents but holding fast to the option of divorce when times get rough. Nice theory, pity about the facts Chapter three tells us how Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit. She then persuades Adam to do the same. Suddenly they both realise they’re naked. Any other young couple would consider this a significant step forward in their relationship, but Adam and Eve aren’t that bright. The confused Christian creation myth Because I wasn’t ready for sexual abstinence, total vegetarianism and being nice to everyone 24-7, I kept postponing the moment when I would sit down and learn by heart the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path. A would-be Augustine, I suggested to the God-who-didn’t-exist to make me Buddhist, just not yet. Make me Buddhist... "Surely no theist would choose to stay on this polluted, violent planet when offered eternity in paradise? Foolish me. It takes little effort to find articles on the web where believers tie themselves into tight intellectual knots in the vain effort to prove that delaying entry into God’s kingdom is something that God Himself would approve of." I want to live forever (not) |
Column 97: The Buddhist idyll Peace and quiet in Luang Prabang By © Martin Foreman Word Count: 800 words Publication date: February 25, 2007 Print publications wishing to syndicate the column should click here. Individual subscribers wishing to receive columns by e-mail should click here. Six-thirty in the morning. Shivering slightly in the cold, a long line of thin, orange-clad Buddhist monks and novices, some as young as eight, stretches along the sidewalks of Sakkhalin Road in Luang Prabang, a small town in the north of the south-east Asian country of Laos. Kneeling, heads bowed, the locals respectfully place food in the monks’ outstretched bowls. Among them few foreigners make offerings or photograph this centuries-old ritual. By seven, the ceremony is over. The orange robes have returned to their temples, the men and women of the town to their homes and the tourists to the few cafes and restaurants that cater to this morning trade. Last week a friend and I spent four days in the city. We strolled down streets lined with two-storey houses, some teak in the traditional Lao style, others built by the French during their brief period of colonization a hundred years ago. To the left was the mighty Mekong River, which flows from Tibet to the South China Sea. Around us were forest covered mountains hiding natural and man-made treasures. Trucks and large buses are banned from this World Heritage Town, protected by UNESCO. Although there has been some renovation, many of the temples have an appealingly dilapidated air. In temples, 15 and 16 year old novices politely approached and engaged us in conversation, their English surprisingly fluent. Despite their monastic lifestyle, getting up at 4 am to chant to the Buddha, abstaining from food after midday, most are not here to become monks, but to get the education that state schools cannot yet provide. Luang Prabang is perhaps the most laid back town I have visited. Violence appears unknown. The last murder was over forty years ago and most serious crime appears to be the occasional theft of a motorcycle. For over a century visitors to Laos have commented on the peaceful nature of its people and the soporific effect the country has on foreigners who live there. The idyllic picture frays at the edges. Four decades ago, the American War in neighboring Vietnam spilled over into Laos and the country was heavily bombed by US troops seeking to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In the upheavals Laos’ last king was deposed and the Pathet Lao, a local variation of communism, took over. Opponents were killed or thrust into rehabilitation camps. The Hmong, a large ethnic minority, sided with the losing Americans and fled to refugee camps in Thailand. A few years ago a bus from Luang Prabang to the town of Vang Vieng was attacked by “bandits” – reportedly Hmong guerrillas – and ten people were killed. But in Luang Prabang such violence appears remote. People walk slowly and talk quietly. Nightlife consists of a few bars and one nightclub which shuts its doors at midnight, half an hour later than the legal closing time. My friend and I spent a couple of hours there, surrounded by over a hundred locals in their late teens and early twenties drinking steadily and dancing exuberantly. Single- and multi-sexed couples and groups danced together as friends not potential bedmates. At the end of the evening, the overwhelming emotion is joy, unlike Western nightclubs where alcohol consumption frequently leads to aggression and violence. By half past twelve, the club is deserted and the town is quiet until dawn. People are poor but apparently happy. Our twenty-two year old guide, who worked six evenings a week for fifty dollars a month was a cheerful figure, driven by the ambition to make money, but not consumed by it. It was tempting to think that we had found an earthly version of Paradise and to wonder what made it so. The fact that Luang Prabang is small – fewer than 30,000 people – undoubtedly helps. Small communities have lower crime rates. Laos itself has only six million people spread over thousands of small villages. I suspect that one key to the city’s lifestyle is Buddhism, with its ethos of acceptance rather than confrontation. It is uncertain whether the Lao people were aggressive before they became Buddhist or whether Buddhism was suited to their naturally quiet temperament. But whether the Buddhist egg preceded the Lao chicken or vice versa, the contrast with the monotheistic world is startling. Wherever God / Allah / Yahweh prevails, centuries of blood and death follow. Christians, Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Jews frequently resort to violence to defend and impose their values, religious and secular, on others. Meanwhile, Buddhists, who do not believe in a God, assert that we are each responsible only for our own lives. Violence reveals weakness not strength – a viewpoint that many atheists would agree with. Laos may have few of the material resources of the United States, but at its heart it appears a much more civilized country.
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