Graduation Year

2021

Publication Date

2018

Comments

First Place, 2017-2018 Best Gateway Essay Contest

Gateway Professor: Professor Mark Halx

Abstract

Many people believe that religions and science cannot coexist logically because science is evidence-based, whereas religion belief is supported by spiritual, personal, or subjective experiences. When a scientific theory is presented, many immediately ask for proof or hard evidence. When people speak of religious revelations, many ask what it was and how it was experienced. Hence, people make connections between science and critical thinking much more readily than they make such connections between religion and critical thinking. Critical thinking is conventionally related more to the scientific method, logic, deductive/inductive reasoning, etc. However, a sincere Buddhist, born into a Buddhist family, and who attended middle school and high school in a Buddhist monastery, would readily recognize many similarities between Buddhism and critical thinking. Many Buddhist ideas are applicable and helpful to critical thinking and vice versa. Due to the many parallels between them, a distinct relationship between Buddhism and critical thinking exists, and contrary to conventional belief, using them in combination can take one’s thinking to a much higher level.

Disciplines

English Language and Literature | Rhetoric and Composition

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