Opus 2025-323: Plato Channels Buddha

In reading through Durant’s series The Story of Civilization I come across numerous places where I notice ideas that are common in other cultures than the one he’s discussing.  Right now I’m reading his analysis of Plato’s metaphysics and I came across this,

“The soul is the self-moving force in man, that is part of the self-moving Soul of all things.  It is pure vitality, incorporeal and immortal.  It existed before the body, and has brought with it from antecedent incarnations many memories which, when awakened by new life, are mistaken for new knowledge.  All mathematical truths, or example, are innate in this way; teaching merely arouses the recollection of things known by the soul many lives ago.  After death the soul or principle of life passes into other organisms, higher or lower according to the deserts it is earned by its previous avatars.  Perhaps the soul that has sinned goes to a purgatory or hell, and the virtuous soul goes to the Islands of the Blessed. When through various existences the soul has been purified of all wrongdoing, it is freed from reincarnation, and mounts to a paradise of everlasting happiness.” page 517

I don’t know if you are aware of what is taught in Buddhism but this seems to be very close to what they say.  You have Plato referring to reincarnation, karma and Nirvana.  I’m not an expert on Plato or Buddhism but they seem very close.

A couple of thoughts on how this could be.  How do these two people separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years come up with the same ideas?

One is simple logic.  Plato wrote in the fourth century BC, I believe Buddha was in the sixth or seventh century.  There’s plenty of time for the ideas of Buddha to have been passed along by word of mouth or organized missionaries so that Plato in Greece could have actually heard what Buddha was saying in India.

A second idea is that God himself revealed this to both persons.  This doesn’t make a lot of sense because a God who is focused enough to reveal something this detailed to a human being would be teaching them to ignore his existence.  It’s kind of like a saddle maker making a lot of great comments about the new Model T.

The third is one that is discussed by Hugh Ross.  Ross said that one reason he became a believer in the Bible was because the things that he was reading there were beyond the imagination and the conception of human beings.  I would suggest that such ideas as being espoused by Plato and Buddha or just the common ordinary ideas that a philosopher would come up with when he has time on his hands.

Durant, Will.  The Story of Civilization:  Part 2, The Life of Greece.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1939,1966.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-308: Thought Walks: It Started with the Clouds: Part 4 of 4, Pagan Science

5.  Global warming is based on pagan logic not science.

Understand, the Arctic melting would not raise sea levels.  Go back to your basic geography and remember that the Arctic is floating ice.  Do an experiment with ice cubes.  Put them in a large cup, fill it to the rim and let the ice melt.  It will not overflow unless you  bump the table.  Remember that ice floats because it expands when it freezes.  It will take the same volume melted as it displaced while floating.  Logic panics, science investigates, Christianity investigates with assurance.

The Antarctic melting would be another situation but would need to be examined with square miles and volume if it all melted at once.  Of course it would not all melt at once but what if it did.  I did a little research on the internet.  The following is based on what the internet tells me and we know it is true because it says so.  I asked, “How much ice is in the Antarctic?”  The answer it gave me was 30 million km3.  They then proceeded to tell me that would raise the ocean levels 70 meters or about 230 feet.  Impressive.  I then asked what was the surface area of the earth and was told 510 million square kilometers.  Being a skeptic, I did a little math.  I divided 510 by 70 and came up with 17.  While 17 is still a big rise it is nothing like 70.  My thinking continued.

6.  Science is ignored when it comes to global warming.  One of the considerations of a good experiment is to limit the variables so you know what you are measuring.  Consider that warm air holds more water vapor which means global warming would suspend billions of tons of water in the atmosphere.  Then you have the phenomenon of phase change.  Phase change from solid to liquid would cool the air and ocean.  Then you have sublimation.  That is where the ice goes directly directly into the atmosphere without going through the liquid stage.

Antarctica is a continent.  What does that matter?  If the ice melted you would have some of it retained in lakes.  How many?  I have no idea what the actual surface would look like.  In addition there would be water retained in whatever served as soil.  With less weight would the continent rise and change the entire equation?  

Have all these factors been figured into the theories or is it just a matter of how much money was given to the researcher?

By this time my rabbit trail of thought was beginning to talk to itself and I was nearing the end of my walk.  I think Plato would have been proud of me.  I did a survey of all my straw men and they said I did a marvelous job.

Until next time Plato needs an outlet,

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-306 Thought Walks: It Started with the Clouds: Part 2 of 4, Welcome, Straw Man

3.  From there my mind wanders again.  This time I am thinking about how intricate the universe is and how everything works together in such harmony.  I wonder how people can reject the idea of God and creation and I drift into my first Plato dialogue of the morning.

I am in a discussion and my straw man, call him Tares, asks me how I can reconcile evil in the world with a belief in a good God.  After a discussion of the place of free will and being made in the image of God we get to a place where I ask myself a question that I can’t answer.  Oh, I can give an answer but even I am not satisfied with how complete it is.  Since I need to be honest with myself and Tares, I confess that I don’t have the answer now but I sure that somewhere in eternity I will find it.  He is obviously not satisfied with that.  In disgust he says, “How can you believe something that does not answer all the questions?”  

That is a good question and I have an answer for that too.  Isn’t it wonderful how these Plato dialogues work so well?  Using a technique I learned from other teachers, I answered his question with questions of my own.

“Do you believe in science?” I ask.  Since I am the author of this discussion he falls into the trap and answers, “Oh course I do.  What does that have to do with anything?”

Everything.

What most laymen who were not paying attention in 8th grade don’t remember is the scientific method.  Even when I taught history I had nothing but praise for the scientific method.  It is based on two rocks.  One rock is the belief that the laws of the universe are consistent.  The other rock is that there is always something you don’t know.  This leads to two bits of method.  First, you start with a question, a hypothesis.  Then you proceed to try to prove or disprove your statement.  Either way you learn something.  If you find that your hypothesis stands the test of experiment and evidence then you don’t stop and say, THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED.  No, you ask what that points out that you don’t know.  You assume there is something you don’t know.  You live with the reality that there are some things you will never know.

Think about all the “settled science” over the years.  Things like you can’t travel faster than the speed of sound.  We moved from Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein to Max Plank.  We have possibly gone beyond and I probably missed steps in between.  The point is that science always assumes the field is bigger than they are.  

This is the reason I can believe in science.  That is genuine science I am talking about, not the political grant seeking that is masquerading as science today.  It is why science and Christianity go well together.  Both are based on the concept of truth and the eternal questioning.  For science it is “How?”  For Theology it is more often “Why?”  But in both cases you never reach the end of the sequence.  Modern scientists are often little more than pagan necromancers or medieval alchemists.  


To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-305 Thought Walks: It Started with the Clouds: Part 1 of 4, Channeling Plato

I had a great walk on August 30, 2022.  The discussion was lively.  The logic was impeccable.  The grasp of facts and theory and their intertwining was genuinely impressive.  I was also by myself.  I decided that I was channeling Plato.  He liked to set up straw men and destroy them with a foreknowledge of the tame responses of his audience.  I was on a roll.  I was also on a walk so posterity may never grasp the flawless presentation.  Of course I can only remember it in parts but I will try to give you a feel for it.

Be impressed.

1.  At my age I have a certain reality that strikes me every time I start my route.  Gratitude.  Gratitude for mobility.  Gratitude for the absence of pain.  Gratitude to be in the hill country of Texas and not genuinely worried about my neighborhood.  That is a lot to be thankful for.

2.  Many people are familiar with and quote a verse from the King James Bible,

(Psa 121:1 KJV)  A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

Since I am already in the hills that doesn’t work for me.  I also prefer the more modern translations that put a question mark in here.

(Psa 121:1 NAS77) A Song of Ascents. I Will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From whence shall my help come?

And then the answer flows.

(Psa 121:2 NAS77) My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

So as I start out I get wrapped up in admiration of nature, or more correctly, God’s creation.  I admire the flow of colors, the contrasts and balance.  Today there isn’t much to get excited about if you are into first impressions.  Clouds darken the sky.  It is gray and grayer.  I see no blue as I walk but I believe it is there.  Part of that is a knowledge of the world I live in.  Part is memory of yesterday or even a few minutes ago.  A big part is that I can turn my head and see spots where the blue of the universe pushes aside the clouds of perception.

My mind wanders and I am aware it is wandering.  That reminds me of something else to be grateful for, I still seem to be able to think.  I found my way home again because I am writing this.  But the wandering of the moment has to do with living by faith and optimism.  It takes me to how we are to trust in God and His providence even when things look dingy.  

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-034: The Original Recycle Idea

When we talk about reincarnation we tend to think of Buddhism and Hinduism.  Both religions teach that a person goes through a repeated cycle of death and rebirth.  Evidently the idea is not unique to India.  Consider this from Plato.

“There comes into my mind an ancient doctrine which affirms that they go from hence into the other world, and returning hither, are born again from the dead.”  Kindle Highlight 814-815

He expands on this a little later.

“For if the soul exists before birth, and in coming to life and being born can be born only from death and dying, must she not after death continue to exist, since she has to be born again?”  Kindle Highlight 952-953

Buddha was born as early as 563 B.C.  No one is sure.  The same is true of Plato except he is given a more specific date of 427.  In ancient terms that makes them almost contemporaries.  Did the idea originate with Buddha and travel to Plato?  Was it an already popular idea that both felt had value?  Did they come up with them on their own?  I am not sure.  Maybe some scholar has better knowledge. 

Some ideas are repeated by great thinkers and religious leaders.  For instance, the Golden Rule is found in many systems of belief.  Just because someone you disagree with believes something to be true or of value does not mean you must discard all that they believe.  Hitler liked vegetables.  That does not make them evil by association.

The People of the Book, Jews, Christians and Muslims reject the idea of reincarnation.  It doesn’t matter what you local new age pastor says.  It is directly opposed to the teachings of the Bible.  People of the East disagree.

Lots of ideas.  Lots of truth.  Not enough thinking.

Plato.  Phaedo.  Project Gutenberg download.

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