I don't know that those words necessarily make the argument that you're trying to make. Perhaps you could flesh this out a bit more to explain the mechanics of it. Additionally, I don't appreciate the connotation. You're effectively telling me that I'm suffering from gross delusion. Do you really feel equipped to make that call? I'm not having a go at you I just think it's interesting because you're clearly intelligent enough to understand the context and consequences of what you're suggesting.pink_trike wrote:Or perhaps the religious impulse and the recurrent question "why?" are respectively, ego-defending aversive and grasping reactions to an unconscious sense of the boundlessness of the Whole, and Siddhārtha Gautama's teachings were the antidote to these reactions.MMK23 wrote: In accordance with that I would say that my understanding of the religious impulse is that which compels one to explore the numenous and perhaps motivates the recurrent question "why?".
I don't think of the question "why" as ego-defending. I've always felt that the question "why" has been more prone to ego deconstruction rather than edification. I was conditioned to be upper middle class, protestant, heterosexual, indulgent, Australian, conservative, rationalist, modernist, humanist, capitalist. I'm none of these things and the only reason is the wonderful question "why"? I'm interested that you've come to a view of inquiry as being ego-defending as that seems quite atypical of my experience and that of most everyone I know! I'd love to hear more as it sounds fascinating.
MMK23