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b i o c e nt r i s m
Western Religions’ Answers to Basic Questions How did God arise? Unknown. Is God eternal? Yes. Basic science inquiries (For example, what came before the Big Bang?) Not spiritually relevant; God created everything. What is the nature of consciousness? Never discussed; unknown. Is life experienced after one’s body dies? Yes.
Eastern Religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) All is fundamentally One. The true nature of reality is existence, consciousness, and bliss. Appearance of individual separate forms is illusory, called maya or samsara. The One is eternal, perfect, and operates effortlessly. One of its aspects is an all-knowing and omnipotent God, accepted or central to most but not all branches of Hinduism and Buddhism. Time is illusory. Life is eternal; most sects believe this operates through reincarnation; but others (for example, Advaita Veda¯ nta) maintain that no birth and death actually occur. The goal of life is to perceive cosmic truth by losing the false sense of illusion and separateness, through direct ecstatic experience, variously called nirvana, enlightenment, or Realization.
Eastern Religions’ Answers to Basic Questions What was the Big Bang? Irrelevant. Time doesn’t exist; the universe is eternal.