Buddhism, Science and Biblical Theism — Part 1: Emptiness

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

This begins a series of posts on my observations about Buddhism, science, spirituality and biblical theism. This one focuses on the core Buddhist doctrine of emptiness.

One can only read so much into the number of Amazon reviews for a book. But Fritjof Capra’s The Dao of Physics with 508 reviews and his Belonging to the Universe, with 21 reviews is an indication of the direction taken by those interested in the connections between science, spirituality and religion. The Dao is about the agreement between science and Eastern mysticism and philosophy, while Belonging, co-authored by a Benedictine monk, focuses more on science and Christianity.

Since I come from the Western tradition, and specifically the orthodox Christian viewpoint, my interest is more on the relation of science to what I call biblical theism. I feel sometimes that I am working my way up a stream with the current flowing ever faster against me. But, to use a fly fishing analogy, the bite is just beyond the bend, so I will push against the tide.

I know very little about Eastern mysticism, philosophy and religion, but am trying to get up to speed fast. As I have commented to fellow Medium writer, Graham Pemberton, my explorations so far have revealed a much greater degree of consonance between East and West than I previously…