An Unacknowledged Belief
~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~
When someone says they don’t believe in a religious teaching they usually sound (and see themselves) as reasonable and rational. The implication is that they don’t believe in this thing because they have chosen to live their lives based on scientific principles. Only facts and objective proof are good enough for them. They are nobody’s fools.
Commonly overlooked, however, is that in most cases not believing in one thing is dependent on an unacknowledged belief in something else. And that other thing may be as unsupported by evidence as the belief being denied.
Here is a quote from one of my favourite writers, B. Alan Wallace:
‘… since scientists have not explained what catalyzed the Big Bang, how life began, the origins of consciousness in the universe, or the source of awareness in a fetus, it is wrong for them to assume that purely physical causes underlie these phenomena. Nevertheless, many scientists routinely assume that there must be physical explanations for everything in nature; in doing so, they conflate metaphysical speculation with scientific knowledge.
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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.
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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.
