Vedic definition of atheism

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna Ajita Krishna Prabhu, _/\o_

 

> Thank you for your long and informative text! I liked it very much.

> I'll comment on some of it.

 

thanks for your appreciation.

 

> >Asura is imho more about attitude - an enemy of dharma, devas,

> >Bhagavan.

>

> But I think that Prabhupada also used for word for more innocent

> people also. They were small demons but still demons.

 

Prabhupada sometimes used various definitions, often different from

the dictionary meanings. I guess this was due to his being non-native

English speaker trying to present terms from a very different and

non-secular culture. Thus we have "fruitive work/results" for karma,

"religion, religiosity" from dharma, etc. Since he equated 'religion'

with dharma, while in the West since Reformation it is usually seen as

a hobby (although etymologically, from Latin re-ligio, it is analogous

to yoga), he sounded quite heavy to Western ears.

 

There is a problem with both too broad and too narrow definitions.

Therefore I really try to understand the context.

 

> Yes, I read that text some years ago. I can see you have added some

> new things. It's very good, and I can see that you have used quite a

> lot from William Lane Craig, is'nt it? There is one or two things

> which I think can be adjusted, for example the things about

> offensive and defensive atheism. I don't think there's any reason to

> conclude that defensive atheism have redefined the definition of

> atheism. But I will get back to that in future postings.

 

There may be about 40% of his material. I've used his article since I

liked it and added things from the Vaisnava point of view.

 

> I like your strategi for arguing against different types of

> atheists. I will not comment on it now, but I'm sure it could be

> interesting in the near future to discuss how we can practically

> apply this or other strategies.

 

Sure. That was an input to expand on.

 

> I have been debating intensely on the net for more than 6 years. But

> now I feel I have reached a place were I can't really learn more

> from debating the close minded atheists and hardcore demons. My goal

> is now to give what I have learned to devotees, and to discuss with

> devotees who also have experience in the matter. I want to write a

> book on defeating atheism and now I'm conducting a small study group

> about logic, arguments, atheism, science and that sort of stuff.

> Maybe in the future I could give seminars. I have many plans.

 

You should probably team up with Jahnu P., my old friend from Korsnas.

He has a huge backlog of exchanges with atheists. We could throw in

some more input from this conference and thus produce a book, a

course, etc. Wiki has the power of synergy. There is no such material

in ISKCON so far. We can also get some input from Christian apology

which has an old tradition.

 

We can use this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

as a resource of systematized and coherent atheist claims.

 

> Yes, I was thinking that especially if one has doubts and challenges

> Prabhupada and his teachings after studying them, then one is an

> atheist.

 

Everyone should examine the philosophy before surrendering to it.

That's encouraged in the Vedic tradition. The mood, however, should be

of seva and prasna (BG 4.34), not challenging.

 

Imho, the irrelevant crosslinked comments should be removed.

 

Your servant, bh. Jan

 

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