The Buddha-Jesus-Dawkins Files: How Eastern Spirituality, Western Religion, and Modern Atheism Is Good for Your Soul

Part One: Is the "no-self" a no-go or a no-brainer? (Eastern spirituality)

Honestly, I don’t know what my problem is with titles and sub-titles. Not only can’t I make my articles shorter, even the titles are too long! I really liked, “The Buddha-Jesus-Dawkins Files”. It has a certain intrigue to it. I have previously written about all three, but I’m increasingly seeing how each contribute, and may even be necessary, for cultivating a meaningful, liberating, resilient and practical spirituality.

The problem with that title is that it’s not very descriptive, hence the sub-title: “How Eastern Spirituality, Western Religion, and Modern Atheism Is Good for Your Soul”. It’s my view that if one truly grasps the deepest meanings of Eastern spirituality, Western religion, and modern atheism, that it could liberate our lived human experience and significantly bolster our existential health. We all want that, right? Too many of us are wrapped around the axle of life’s perpetual stressors. Our capacity to cope with the givens of human existence is waning.

Since we are on the subject of the title, it has shortcomings. It’s unfair to pin Western religion and even the Christian religion, on Jesus. Jesus was a 1st century Middle Eastern Jewish man. The fact that the Christian religion claims his name and became the dominant religion of the Western world is not the fault of Jesus.

Likewise, equating Eastern spirituality with the Buddha (Buddhism) is grossly oversimplifying the spiritual traditions of the East, which include Hinduism, Islam, Taoism and Confucianism. Similarly, baptizing Richard Dawkins as the figurehead of atheism is overlooking people such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Feuerbach, Denis Diderot and others. One reason I chose Dawkins is because he is also commonly associated with science as an evolutionary biologist.

So, excuse the title. I chose Jesus, Buddha and Dawkins as figures often associated with Western religion/Christianity, Eastern spirituality, and modern atheism. I have written on these topics before, and here are a few of particular note you might be interested in reading:

Eastern spirituality

• Philosophers Series - Buddha

• Hindu philosophy as a useful deconstruction framework

• What if Buddha was your deconstruction counselor?

• Can you be Christian and Buddhist?

• Cracking Consciousness: Western Science Meets Eastern Spirituality, and the Theory of Everything

Modern Atheism

• What Christians Can Learn from Atheists

• Not Religious and Not Atheist

• A New Theology

• Philosophers series - Spinoza

• The Bond Between Christianity and Atheism

Western Religion

• Three-Part Series: The Evolution of Religion

• Does Religion Prove Science?

• Is Religion a Rational Way to Seek Truth?

• The 5 Cold Hard Truths of Leaving Religion

• Which Bible Should You Read?

• Religion's Patriarchy Problem

• Undoing Religious Pathology

I also published a five-part series of articles, titled: The Case for Unifying Science and Religion, which explores several themes related to religion, atheism and science.

In this three-part series I am choosing three big ideas associated with Western religion, Eastern spirituality, and modern atheism, and offering them as tools for constructing a meaningful and liberating spirituality. I have split them up this way:

Part One: Is the “no-self” a no-go or a no-brainer? (Eastern spirituality)

Part Two: The Non-Religious Case for Religion (Western religion)

Part Three: The Spirituality of Unlearning (Modern atheism)