{"id":64407,"date":"2023-03-17T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=64407"},"modified":"2023-03-11T15:07:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-11T20:07:20","slug":"how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/","title":{"rendered":"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Christianity isn\u2019t the only religion facing problems from today\u2019s secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism<\/a>.\u00a0 But they are different problems.<\/p>\n

Secularist scholars themselves tend to think in Christian terms.\u00a0 They assume that all religions are alike, but they aren\u2019t.\u00a0 They measure rates of worship attendance, finding that fewer and fewer people go to church.\u00a0 Well, Hinduism and Buddhism don\u2019t really have anything like corporate worship as Christians do.\u00a0 They have temples where individuals and priests can meditate and perform rituals for their deities, but attendance is not obligatory and there is no group gathering.<\/p>\n

\n

Western social scientists measure the percentage of people who believe in God.\u00a0 Well, Eastern religions don\u2019t have the same conception of a transcendent God as Christians (and Jews and Muslims) do.\u00a0 Hinduism believes in lots of gods tied to natural forces and to specific sacred tangible images.\u00a0 Of course they believe in their gods.\u00a0 They can see them!<\/p>\n

Western secularist scholars assess the prevalence of religious belief.\u00a0 Doctrines are foundational for Christians.\u00a0 But not so much for the average Hindu or Buddhist<\/a>.\u00a0 Yes, Hinduism and Buddhism have extensive intellectual and theological traditions and hold to specific teachings, such as reincarnation and the illusory nature of the world.\u00a0 But ordinary adherents leave the details to their priests, monks, and holy men.\u00a0 What they focus on is meditation and venerating their sacred images at home.<\/p>\n

But secularization and, specifically, technology are posing challenges of their own, but these are not the same technological challenges we have been discussing this week that apply to Christianity.<\/p>\n

Anthropologist Holly Walters has written an article for The Conversation<\/em> entitled Robots are performing Hindu rituals \u2013 some devotees fear they\u2019ll replace worshippers<\/a>.\u00a0 Hindus already believe in what she calls \u201cdivine object persons<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 That is to say, idols.<\/p>\n

For us Christians, an \u201cidol\u201d means a false god.\u00a0 But Hindus themselves refer to the images of their multiple deities as \u201cidols<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 They aren\u2019t the actual gods, they say, but are manifestations of the gods, worthy of not just veneration but service.\u00a0 Observant Hindus wash their idols, bring them food, and perform rituals to the idol to placate the god and to receive favors.<\/p>\n

These rituals, as I understand them, are thought to work ex opere operato<\/a>; that is, by the work performed, apart from any faith on the part of the person who performs them.\u00a0 So some Hindus, using modern technology, have automated<\/em> some of these rituals.\u00a0 Some even employ robots<\/em> to perform them.\u00a0 Walters writes,<\/p>\n

In 2017, a technology firm in India<\/a>\u00a0introduced a robotic arm to perform \u201caarti,\u201d a ritual in which a devotee offers an oil lamp to the deity to symbolize the removal of darkness. This particular robot was unveiled at the Ganpati festival, a yearly gathering of millions of people in which an icon of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, is taken out in a procession and immersed in the Mula-Mutha river in Pune in central India.<\/p>\n

Ever since, that robotic aarti arm has inspired several prototypes, a\u00a0few of which<\/a>\u00a0continue to regularly perform the ritual\u00a0across India today<\/a>, along with a variety of other religious robots\u00a0throughout East Asia<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0South Asia<\/a>. Robotic rituals even now include\u00a0an animatronic temple elephant<\/a>\u00a0in Kerala on India\u2019s southern coast.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This has created controversy, but of a different kind.\u00a0 Our discussion of ChatGPT sermons this week hinged on their being inferior<\/em> to sermons given by actual human pastors.\u00a0 This is not only because machine-generated sermons are not as substantive as those given by an actual pastor, but more deeply, because God has chosen to bestow his gifts to human beings by means of other human beings working through their office and callings.\u00a0 This is the doctrine of vocation.<\/p>\n

But Hindus worry that the robots in all of their artificial intelligence and the efficience of automation will perform the rituals more perfectly<\/em> than human beings can.\u00a0 Walters, who has studied the phenomenon, cites \u201cthe uneasiness Hindus and Buddhists express about ritual-performing automatons replacing people and whether those automatons actually might make\u00a0better devotees<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some devotees believe the more perfect performance of the rituals through automation will herald a bright future.\u00a0 \u201cIn other cases,\u201d she writes, \u201cthere are concerns that the proliferation of robots might lead to greater numbers of people leaving religious practice as temples begin to rely more on automation than on practitioners to care for their deities.\u201d\u00a0 This already seems to be happening.<\/p>\n

The innovation of animatronic idols\u2013images programmed to move and speak\u2013is also concerning to traditionalists, who \u201cquestion the concurrent use of robotic deities to embody and personify the divine<\/a>, since these icons are programmed by people and therefore reflect the religious views of their engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the articles Walters links to refer to these same issues as they also affect Buddhism, whose popular expression also employs idols and rituals, some of which have been automated.\u00a0 But Buddhists are also frustrated because the secularists are trying to co-opt the religion as \u201cneuroscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Curtis White has written an article for Religion Dispatches<\/em> entitled Don\u2019t Worry, Be Happy: How Amazon, Google & Neuroscience Threaten American Buddhism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contemporary American Buddhism has a problem, although, thankfully, unlike Christianity it has little to do with the politics of the nation state. Buddhism\u2019s problem is with our state-within-the-state, corporate capitalism\u2014especially high-tech companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google. The situation is basically this: Buddhism has been removed from its traditional ethical and spiritual context, grounded in the hard sciences, mainly neuroscience, and then made useful to a predatory techno-capitalist economy.<\/p>\n

Like something out of the Book of Revelation, Buddhism looks ever more like a three-headed beast: corporate profit-seeking, secular resentment, and science delusion, an American version of what the Buddha called the Three Poisons\u2014greed, anger, and delusion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

White inveighs against all of the secularized talk about \u201cmindfulness\u201d and \u201cmeditation,\u201d especially their monetization in the apps, programs, and workshops that make up the \u201chappiness industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
And how the Science Buddha has grown, thanks in large part to the support of Google\u2019s Search Inside Yourself Institute; neuroscience\u2019s discovery of what the psychologist Rick Hanson calls \u201cneurodharma\u201d; and the multitude of businesses who\u2019ve adopted Amazon\u2019s WorkingWell strategy to use yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to enhance the corporate brand and improve productivity.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This, he says, is a violation of Buddhism, which teaches that \u201cthe cause of suffering is delusion\u201d:<\/div>\n
\n

It\u2019s deluded to think that we\u2019re better off without the experience of the transcendental, whether it\u2019s offered to us through religion, the natural world, or the arts. It\u2019s deluded to think that science can show us the neuro pathways that will take us to happiness\u2019s door. It\u2019s deluded to think that mindfulness is about workplace stress reduction, especially when it was the workplace that caused the stress in the first place<\/i>.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re left with isn\u2019t the Buddha but a Buddha \u201csimulacrum,\u201d in Jean Baudrillard\u2019s term; a thing without an origin. Buddhism becomes just another aspect of \u201cworkforce preparation\u201d puzzled together by neuroscientists. Eventually, we forget that it ever even had its own meaning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 \u201cHindu High Priest (Iyer) conducting puja at the Nataraja shrine\u201d by Denish C. via Flickr,\u00a0Creative Commons 2.0<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christianity isn’t the only religion facing problems from today’s secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":65682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,44],"tags":[345,1020,13182,1984,4355,9111],"class_list":["post-64407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religions","category-technology","tag-buddhism","tag-hinduism","tag-mindfulness","tag-secularism","tag-technology","tag-technology-and-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christianity isn't the only religion facing problems from today's secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christianity isn't the only religion facing problems from today's secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-17T10:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-11T20:07:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2023\/03\/8549504567_598443f90c_w.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"286\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/\",\"name\":\"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-17T10:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-11T20:07:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Christianity isn't the only religion facing problems from today's secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism","description":"Christianity isn't the only religion facing problems from today's secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism","og_description":"Christianity isn't the only religion facing problems from today's secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2023-03-17T10:00:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-11T20:07:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":286,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2023\/03\/8549504567_598443f90c_w.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/","name":"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-03-17T10:00:27+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-11T20:07:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"Christianity isn't the only religion facing problems from today's secularist mindset.\u00a0 So are Hinduism and\u00a0 Buddhism.\u00a0 But they are different problems.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/03\/how-non-christian-religions-are-dealing-with-secularism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Non-Christian Religions Are Dealing with Secularism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}