[Buddha-l] The Universe Story

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Op 16-04-12 16:10, Richard Hayes schreef:
> The Universe Story begins with the Big Bang and ends with the destruction of the earth's environment and most human societies by unregulated transnational corporations run by greedy capitalists who have forgotten that we are all made from the same materials that originally came from the Sun, which in turn came along as an inevitable consequence of the Big Bang. It's a whopping good story. It will be interesting to see what the students make of it. (I'll warn them, of course, that they are being brainwashed.) I am hoping it makes them just a little uncomfortable. As Swami Vivekananda observed (in last week's reading), if people want a religion that makes them feel comfortable, they want somethie ng that leaves them as they are rather than something that helps them be what they could be.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not against ambition, but the universe is to big 
for a story. Besides, this invokes awkward questions like 'where did the 
BB come from?'
Being a philosopher I'm very sensitive for this kind of metaphysical 
problems. If my memory does not fail me, the Buddha had similar 
reservations. I never could relate to this kind of curiosity about the 
origin of something you've no clue as to what it really is.
The universe is just to much to know anything about.

erik