Many high-profile public intellectuals -- including "New Atheists"
like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher
Hitchens -- have argued that religion and science are deeply
antagonistic, representing two world views that are utterly
incompatible. David Barash, a renowned biologist with forty years
of experience, largely agrees with them, but with one very big
exception: Buddhism. In this fascinating book, David Barash
highlights the intriguing common ground between scientific and
religious thought, illuminating the many parallels between biology
and Buddhism, allowing readers to see both in a new way. Indeed, he
shows that there are numerous places where Buddhist and biological
perspectives coincide and reinforce each other. For instance, the
cornerstone ecological concept -- the interconnectedness and
interdependence of all natural things -- is remarkably similar to
the fundamental insight of Buddhism. Indeed, a major Buddhist text,
the Avatamsaka Sutra, which consists of ten insights into the
"interpenetration" between beings and their environment, could well
have been written by a trained ecologist, just as current insights
in evolutionary biology, genetics and development might have been
authored by the Buddha himself. Barash underscores other notable
similarities, including a shared distrust of simple
cause-and-effect analysis, an appreciation of the "rightness" of
nature, along with an acknowledgment of the suffering that results
when natural processes are tampered with. Buddhist Biology shows
how the concept of "non-self," so confusing to many Westerners, is
fully consistent with modern biology, as is the Buddhist
perspective of "impermanence." Barash both demystifies and
celebrates the biology of Buddhism and vice versa, showing in a
concluding tour-de-force how modern Buddhism --shorn of its
hocus-pocus and abracadabra -- not only justifies but actually
mandates both socially and environmentally "engaged" thought and
practice. Buddhist Biology is a work of unique intellectual
synthesis that sheds astonishing light on biology as well as on
Buddhism, highlighting the remarkable ways these two perspectives
come together, like powerful searchlights that offer complementary
and stunning perspectives on the world and our place in it.
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