Join the Brights - And Make a Difference

The Brights Site

I urge everyone who is concerned about degradation of organized religion and fanatical fundamentalism tarnishing the image of religious traditions to join. The demographic is mainly atheistic, so we need more people of a philosophical bent that are from our tradition on board. I have been advocating a rational approach to philosophy and theology for several years now on the internet. Not everyone agrees with me, especially the hard core fundamentalists among us who still cling to the notion that NASA faked the moon landings and that evolution is just a 'theory' and that the earth is the center of the universe and that the sun, moon, planets and stars revolve around the earth daily.

I personally think for any tradition to remain vital, it must keep up with the times. There is no point in being like ostriches with our heads in the sand (I was going to say somewhere else, but you get the idea). Interfaith dialog only gets us so far. There has to be dialog and channels of open communication with the scientific community. Philosophy is not just for the temples, churche, synagogues and mosques. It is the basis of all fields of knowledge. In fact, we would have no advancement in our knowledge if it were left up to religious institutions that love to hang onto their immense power over people's live and the cash flow it brings them to support their luxurious lifestyle. If you think some of the Vaishnava and other Indian gurus past and present are rich, try visiting the Vatican sometime and see really extreme opulence and splendor.

Did you mean this site: http://www.the-brights.net/? The other link above was krishnacaitanya.com.

I'm kind of in the middle of the science-religion dichotomy. I certainly don't believe in the fantastical mythologies that blatantly contradict science, I believe in evolution and see it as the mechanism chosen by the Divine to create and manage life. Yet I do believe that science is not able to detect the mysteries of the spirit and God, spiritual dimensions of existence, and other mystical phenomena--yet. So I think I tend to anger those on both sides of the divide.

I'm sure they are bright at Sri Krishna Chaitanya Shastra Mandir, too.

What is going on here, mina-ji?

Whoops! Tapati guessed correctly. I changed the link. It was just a matter of cutting and pasting. I had the Caitanya Sastra Mandir link on my clipboard because I was updating the link for it on the yogapitha.org site.

Anyways....

The 'dichotomy' is mainly a figment of the collective imagination. Knowledge is knowledge and that is all there is to it. Some people like to keep certain knowledge to themselves or enshroud it in mystery for ulterior motives. The parents do not teach their five year old child about invesments and mortgage payments, because first of all those things are beyond the child's comprehension and second of all, the child would have no use for that type of knowledge at such a young age. Better to teach the child how to tell time and the letters of the alphabet and how to write his/her own name.

Yes, science and theology have their own sets of problems and play by different rules, however the philosophy behind them relies upon reason and logic. There is that which is logical and reasonable yet eccentric and that which is entirely preposterous, with everything in between. Consider it a trick of maya, that people do a better job of deluding themselves sometimes than even the local con artist. The main thing is that people learn how to figure things out. That is much better than them simply trusting the next person just because that person can comprehend something that they are unable to fathom.