Conversations About Buddha, Jesus, And Mohammed

Mirsad reflects on his recent campaign to become President of Bosnia and his current building of a new political party, regarding the violent history of religious conflicts in that country. Bill and Mark discuss with him the possibility of encouraging integrity, trust, and tolerance across religious differences--with reference to Buddhism (involving non-political "emptiness") and Protestantism (with the humanist emphasis on a personal reading of scripture), as well as the Bosnian ethnic factions of Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Islam.

Luke and Peter Pizzato, sons of Mark, join with him, Bill, and Mirsad to discuss the three global religions in relation to moral philosophy, death metal music, meditation goals, and spiritual experiences. What do youth today imagine as an ideal spiritual world? Should parents give their offspring a firm religious background or encourage an open-minded mixing of traditional values through spiritual seeking and personal choices?

Kent Brintnall, professor of Religious Studies at UNC-Charlotte, joins Bill, Mirsad, and Mark to discuss how religions interpret sexuality and shape gender identities. Is God or the Buddha figured as male to model spiritual transcendence--through a traditional fear of female (or transgendered) physical and communal powers? Do recent changes in patriarchal systems actually return to early developments initiated by Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammed?

How do the religious communities and teachings that started with Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed relate to the current use of mechanical devices and social media? Does technology help us to realize spiritual connections or distract us with virtual realities? Are we creating a computer "god" for religions of the future?

Special guest Mike Corwin, an existentialist, physicist, and astronomer, tells about his belief in becoming, rather than being, about individual responsibility without God, and about the mysteries of the universe, from quantum entanglement to "negative energy." The discussion with Mirsad, Mark, and Bill compares these philosophical ideals and scientific wonders with religious doctrines of communal submission, divine judgment, and karmic reincarnation.

How do religious and secular ethics relate to moral intuitions and animal instincts? Bill, Mark, and Mirsad discuss the trajectories of human goodness or evil, reward or punishment, with the rival ethical systems of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and existential atheism--or their potential interplay today.

Mirsad, Bill, and Mark are joined by Jon Marks, Professor of Anthropology at UNC-Charlotte, to explore what is at stake in various creation stories, from science and the global religions--with a Museum of the Bible opening in Washington, DC, in November 2017, based on Evangelical Christian "creationism" (the belief in a literal truth to the 6-day creation story in Genesis), with Catholics reconciling biblical poetics and science, with Muslims believing in the Quran's creation story, and with Buddhists focusing on the process of re-creation across many life cycles, not a creator god, yet with non-scientific measurements of time in sacred texts.

Why do some priests, ministers, imams, monks, and gurus take advantage of the people who admire them, who believe they are wise teachers and good leaders? Do religious groups put even more pressure than other political systems on leaders who are idolized as perfect and then fall to temptations? Or are such wealth and sex scandals totally the fault of the bad guru, as a multiple betrayal of people's trust--physically, economically, and spiritually? Should the bad guru be forgiven and trusted again, if he gets caught, but confesses and claims then to be a better person? (For more information on various episodes of this podcast series, go to: cabjmblog.wordpress.com)

With special guest, Nathan Redick, a fundamentalist Evangelical Christian, Mirsad, Mark, and Bill discuss traditions of authority for interpreting sacred texts in the three world religions, plus possible points of similarity or conflict in their own readings of the Bible, Quran, and Buddhist sutras. For more information go to: cabjmblog.wordpress.com

With their guest, Professor James Tabor of UNC-Charlotte, a specialist on the historical Jesus, we compare the people at the origins of Christianity, including St. Paul, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and Mary Magdalene, with the founders of Buddhism and Islam--regarding bodies, stories, and beliefs. What are researchers discovering about the "divine" figures in these religions and their historical (re)incarnation or resurrection?

Is our world a simulation created by superior beings? How have simulations of the real and supernatural increased through new technologies--in relation to the traditions that started with Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed? Is computer modeling a new form of prophecy and Artificial Intelligence a potential for transcendent consciousness?

Religious and national identities have helped people to build trust, cooperation, morality, and generosity--but have also led to conflicts between groups, many times in history. How have the religions that started with Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha worked within or against national (or ethnic) identifications, especially in England, Bosnia, China, and the U.S.? In our increasingly networked, global cultures, can we transcend national conflicts by accepting the truth and goodness in various religious (and secular) ideals, despite the strength and violence of certain fundamentalist sects?

In his 2014 book, Sapiens, Yuval Harari offers a meta-history of humankind that traces the evolution of "religion" from animism, polytheism, and monotheism (such as Islam and Christianity), or natural-law beliefs (such as Buddhism), to current consumer capitalism, science, and technology. Rachel Nuwer's recently posted, bbc.com article, "How Western Civilisation Could Collapse," summarizes various predictions about the impending end of global capitalism--if it continues to be unsustainable, ecologically and economically. Is our species doomed or can wisdom from traditional religions save us?

What are the self-contradictions in sacred texts and traditions as historical documents and divine teachings, deriving from the lives of Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed? Are such paradoxes threatening to religious orthodoxies and righteous ideals--or valuable in opening the mind toward greater truths and tolerance of others' views?

As A.I. evolves, through machine learning and creativity, will it gain human consciousness and a godlike power over us? Will computers become sentient beings and evoke our respect, or various emotions from us, like another soul? Will they offer us immortality or replace us with theirs? Bill, Mark, and Mirsad are joined by J D Elliott.

Along with moral rules (the Eightfold Path, Ten Commandments, or Shariah Law), what do the world's major religions offer as guiding principles for meaning and purpose in one's life? Bill, Mark, and Mirsad discuss their personal sense of such principles in the three traditions. How do they impact our society today--with the benefits of spiritual growth, ritual purification, and charitable compassion, but the dangers of elitism, superstition, and fanaticism?

Mirsad, Bill, and Mark discuss how free will and fate relate to neuroscience, computer science, and religion. What is the self (or soul) that chooses? Is it conscious or subconscious? Does God or Allah know and control our fate, according to Christianity and Islam? If there is ultimately no god or self, according to Buddhism, then does karma produce our fate? Can we still have a choice in how to act, to be good or bad, if Allah, God, or karma is all-powerful? How does that relate also to predictive computer modeling and "emergent properties" in complex adaptive systems?

How are suffering and sacrifice related in the three major religions? Did the founders of those religions (and Abraham in Judaism) become models for sacrificial pain, and yet transcendent rewards, with regard to historical martyrs, current suicide-bombers, or those who respect life, both human and animal?

Mirsad, Bill, and Mark discuss how Buddhism corresponds more to modern physics than to evolutionary biology--and how that compares with Christianity and Islam, in their fundamentalist and liberal directions.

What ideas and images of the afterlife do we have, and of the soul continuing after death, through Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam--and our experiences of transcendence in this life? Bill Chu, Mark Pizzato, and Mirsad Hadzikadic with special guests: Elizabeth Von Briesen and Gizem Bacaksizlar.