West vs East

Faith vs self knowledge

The Western religions assert that there is an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful being - God - that exists outside space, time and the cosmos. This being has always existed and will always exist. He is infinitely perfect. He is incapable of error. He can commit no evil. He is the maximum expression of any conceivable possibility of excellence. He is entirely self-sufficient and flawless. He needs nothing. He is not dependent on anything. He stands outside the universe. The universe is his creation, but he is not part of it. It is not of the same substance as God. He could end the universe at any time of his choosing, but he himself would not thereby come to an end.

God and the universe are, in this view, distinct and separate. God, not the universe, is the supreme mystery. The universe is completely explicable in terms of God, but completely inexplicable if we understand nothing of the thinking, modus operandi and plan of God. He is beyond any scientific or philosophical analysis as to his substance, origins and evolution. He just IS. He is the ultimate "brute fact" of existence. We just have to accept that existence at its most fundamental level is eternal perfection in the shape of a flawless being of infinite knowledge, power and capacity called God.

...But he also realized that Eastern pantheism offered no escape from the death of man. Only a return to the Christian world view could save the West from the death of man. He stated:

Society can have no stability on this Eastern world-view or its present Western counterpart. It just does not work. And so one finds a gravitation toward some form of authoritarian government, an individual tyrant or group of tyrants who takes the reins of power and rule. And the freedoms, the sorts of freedoms we have enjoyed in the West, are lost. We are, then, brought back to our starting point. The inhumanities and the growing loss of freedoms in the West are the result of a world-view which has no place for "people." Modern humanistic materialism is an impersonal system. The East is no different. Both begin and end with impersonality. [Reference 40].

From Here

Just thought I'd share it since I found this part of eastern vs western spirituality interesting. I do agree. In my experience the more spirituality of the people of the east take, the less individual freedom they believe in, and the more they believe in "ego death" and in the superiority of the collective. Suprisingly, as irreligious they are, secular humanists also tend to gravitate to the same types of ideas, just a different slant. The schools do indoctrinate kids well. I do believe the idea of property rights and individual, God-given rights could only have started in the West at some point.

reply to post by 547000


Thats great! Thank you!