Transcript VKS Synoptic Prese

Buddhist understanding of
causation in comparison with
traditional Judaic-Christian
arguments for the existence of
God.
Judaic-Christian arguments for the
existence of God.
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The two main Judeo- Christian arguments for the existence of God that we
are going to look at are the Cosmological argument and the Teleological
argument.
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The Cosmological Argument
The Cosmological argument claims that by examining the fact that the universe
exists, you can work out the cause of its existence.
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) wrote in the ‘Summa Theologia’, of five ways in which
God’s existence can be demonstrated. These are:
The argument for an unmoved mover
The argument for an uncaused cause
The argument from contingency
The argument from gradation
The argument from teleology
It is the first three ways that are used in the cosmological argument.
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The argument for an unmoved
mover.
• We can observe that things in the world are in a process of motion.
• Everything that is in a process of motion is changing from a potential
state to an actual state.
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Everything in this state of motion must be put into this state by
something else, creating a chain of movers.
• This chain cannot be infinite as then there would be no first mover to
cause all of the others.
• So therefore “it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put into motion
by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.”
The argument for an uncaused
cause.
• This follows a similar pattern.
• Nothing is an efficient cause of itself.
• Efficient causes follow in order: so a first cause causes a second
which causes a third and so on.
• It is not possible for a chain of efficient causes to be infinite as if
there is no first cause, no other causes will follow.
• It is therefore “necessary to admit a first efficient cause to which
everyone gives the name of God.’’
The argument from contingency
• Everything in nature has contingent existence,
meaning that at one time in the past it did not
exist and at some time in the future it will not
exist.
• If everything at one point did not exist, there
would have been nothing in existence.
• Something must, therefore, exist which has
necessary existence.
The Teleological argument
• This is an argument for Gods existence by looking at
things in the universe and trying to show that they have
been designed for some reason or purpose.
• There are two types of Teleological argument:
• Arguments based on regularity – Thomas Aquinas
• Arguments based on purpose – William Paley
Aquinas
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Aquinas bases his argument on the fact that everything follows certain
natural laws. This is known as the regularity of succession.
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When you look at the natural world you can see that everything in it
follows natural laws.
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If things follow natural laws they tend to have some goal or purpose.
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If a thing cannot think for itself, it has no goal or purpose unless
directed by something that does think.
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Everything in the natural world that does not think for itself heads
towards a purpose because it is directed by something that does
think. This thing is God.
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Aquinas was a follower of Aristotle’s theories. He uses the Four
Causes theory in his argument, but links the final cause to God.
William Paley
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If you go for a walk and found a rock, you could conclude that it had been there
forever and not think any more about it. If, however, you found a watch you could
examine it and find it had moving parts which demonstrate that:
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The watch was for a purpose – telling the time
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The parts work together or are fit for a purpose
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The parts are ordered and put together in a certain way to make it function
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If the parts are arranged in a different way it does not work
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Therefore the watch must have had a maker that existed at some time and designed
it for the purpose that it has.
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He continues the analogy saying that:
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Suppose the watch had an imaginary function - to produce other watches
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If this was the case, your admiration for the watch maker would be increased
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Therefore the design of the watch implies “the presence of intelligence and mind.”
Buddhist understanding of
causation.
• The Buddha became enlightened when he was able to
figure out the causal chain responsible for rebirth. The
Buddhist term for this causal chain, pratityasamutpada
("Interdependent Origination"), points to the way that
various elements are linked, with one step laying the
groundwork for others in the chain. According to one
account, the Buddha started at the end, contemplating
suffering and death (which he wanted to find a way to
avoid), and worked his way backward to see what they
depended on.
The 12 Nidanas or 12 Links of
Conditioned Existence
• There are twelve Nidanas (literally "fetters," but more
broadly preconditions) in this chain, Buddhist scholars
take pains to point out multiple possible feedback loops,
reinforcing off the other elements. One common
metaphor for this process is of water rushing from
trickles to streams to rivers to oceans (getting more
volume all the time).
• For example, breaking one's leg in an accident could
affect one at multiple levels: the samskaras (number two,
since one might avoid that place or situation in the
future), name and form (number 4, since one's form had
been altered), feeling (number 7, since one would be
feeling pain), and craving (number 8, since one would
seek to avoid it in the future).
• From a religious perspective, the two most
important steps are the first (ignorance),
and the seventh (craving), since these are
the two points at which human beings can
consciously act to disrupt this causal
chain, and thus bring it to an end. Each of
the twelve Nidanas is traditionally
associated with an image, which means
that this teaching would have been
accessible to illiterate people.
1. Ignorance (avidya)
A blind old woman.
Avidya is the lack of wisdom (vidya)--it is not
just that people haven't learned some fact
that they need to know, but rather that their
habitual ways of perceiving the world are
fundamentally mistaken, and thus they are
"blinded" (by greed, desire, lust, etc.).
2. Karmic formations (samskaras)
A potter making pots.
In Indian philosophy, pots are common
images--they come into being when they are
made, get broken, and in between are useful
everyday items. These karmic formations
(particularly the deeply embedded idea of
having a "Self," the activity of body, speech
and mind, as well as more individual
tendencies and predispositions) are
important factors in forming a personality
(and like pots, they are subject to change
over time).
3. Consciousness (vijnana) A monkey
scampering across a rooftop. The monkey
is one of the traditional images for human
consciousness--just as monkeys run here
and there, human consciousness wanders
as the objects of perception (physical and
mental) change. Connecting a
consciousness (of something) with ideas of
a Self is the work of the samskaras.
4. Name and Form (nama-rupa) Two Men in a
Boat"Form" refers to the physical component of a
person's experience (the body), and "Name" to
the non-physical components (sensation, feeling,
samskaras, and consciousness). Both of these
elements exist in one personality, just as the two
separate men are both in the boat. For
Buddhists, the error is in supposing that Name
and Form are components of some unchanging,
continuous personal Self (which Buddhists deny
exists, since all components of personality are
changeable).
5. The Six Senses (shadayatana) A
house with six windows.The six
senses are sight, hearing, smell,
touch, taste, and the mind (which
perceives and processes mental
objects). As our source of sense
data, they are clearly involved with
our interactions with the world.
6. Contact (sparsha) activity of the
sense organs brings one into contact
with the objects in the world (if there
were no sense organs, or one was
deficient, this would be impossible).
7. Feeling (vedana)
A man with an arrow in his eye.
Contact gives rise to feelings of
attachment and aversion,
depending on the nature of the
contact.
8. Craving (trshna) A picnic
(eating and drinking)When one
has generated mental feelings
based on the sensations given
by the sense organs, one will
desire to obtain the pleasant
ones, and to avoid the
unpleasant ones. This then
can become reinforced into
habitual patterns of
attachment and aversion.
9. Grasping (upadana)
A monkey picking fruit.
Once one has developed desires to
obtain something (or to avoid
something), one takes concrete steps
to try to get it.
10. Becoming (bhava)
A pregnant woman (this is the
traditional explanation for the image
for this stage.)
Once one purposefully strives to
gain (or to avoid) things, this
pattern of intentional activity sets up
the operation of karma, which lays
down causes whose effects
become manifest in the present and
future lives.
11. Birth (jati)
A woman giving birth.
One's karmic activities lead to
rebirth in a state that reflects
the quality of that karma.
12. Old Age and Death (jaramarana)
A corpse being carried away
(and bodies on the ground).
Once one is born, death is
inevitable. Old age can be
avoided by dying young, but
few people are hot to do
this. Old age, illness, and
death are a shorthand
rendition of the problems that
afflict human existence, and to
which the Buddha was trying
to find an answer.
Conditioned Genesis
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This is the understanding that any phenomenon ‘exists’ only because
of the ‘existence’ of other phenomena in an incredibly complex web of
cause and effect covering time past, time present and time future.
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Everything in the universe is interconnected through the web of cause
and effect so that the whole and the parts are mutually interdependent.
The character and condition of entities at any given time are intimately
connected with the character and condition of all other entities that
superficially may appear to be unconnected or unrelated.
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Because all things are thus conditioned and transient (anicca), they
have no real independent identity (anatta) so do not truly ‘exist’,
though to ordinary minds this appears to be the case. All phenomena
are therefore fundamentally insubstantial and ‘empty’ (sunya).
Evaluation
• Whilst Philosophy of Religion and Buddhism suggest a theory of
causation, Buddhist beliefs see no need for God or an external
power.
• Does this mean that either is more correct than the other, or that one
is more believable.
• Consider how powerful the Judaic-Christian arguments for the
existence of God are in comparison with the Buddha retaining a
noble silence when questioned about the supernatural.
Now you are going to draw the ‘agitated monkey Nidana’ with your
own interpretation of it….special prize awarded.