Geshe Rabten told us to subject the texts we studied to rational scrutiny and critique, but he also insisted that the authors of those texts were fully enlightened beings. It dawned on me that we were not expected to use logic and debate to establish whether or not the doctrine of rebirth was true. We were only using them to prove, as best we could, what the founders of the tradition had already established to be true.
—Stephen Batchelor in Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist
“What,” I asked, “within the very depths of us, moves us to religion? It is because life presents itself as an unresolved question. Existence strikes us as a mystery, as a riddle. This experience reverberates through us, issuing in the sounds, 'Why?' and 'What?' The various religions of the world are systematic formulations of the answers to these questions.”
—Stephen Batchelor in Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist
—Stephen Batchelor in Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist
“What,” I asked, “within the very depths of us, moves us to religion? It is because life presents itself as an unresolved question. Existence strikes us as a mystery, as a riddle. This experience reverberates through us, issuing in the sounds, 'Why?' and 'What?' The various religions of the world are systematic formulations of the answers to these questions.”
—Stephen Batchelor in Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist
