Matt: I sometimes put on one of the teachers in my school of Buddhism to explain various texts and whatnot, and I got hit with something upside the head to day.

Ajahn Brahm was a former oxford-trained physicist who left a career in physics to become a monk. His story is intriguing by itself, but it adds weight to the description I heard today. The best way to describe his importance would be akin to a Cardinal of Australia.

He referred to the Abrahamic religions as materialist religions. It appears that Buddhism uses a slightly different definition for materialism than what I'm used to, but for sure, he was clear that any religion that believes in a single creation event is by definition materialist.

I mean I get it, Hinduism and Buddhism both have components of eternalism (just not of the self in one case.)

This reminds me quite a bit about how Nietzsche criticized Christianity as being nihilistic.

I would think a Big Bang from nothing is supernatural, with no trace of materialism. We have to live in a material reality

Ajahn Brahm was a former oxford-trained physicist who left a career in physics to become a monk. His story is intriguing by itself, but it adds weight to the description I heard today. The best way to describe his importance would be akin to a Cardinal of Australia.

He referred to the Abrahamic religions as materialist religions. It appears that Buddhism uses a slightly different definition for materialism than what I'm used to, but for sure, he was clear that any religion that believes in a single creation event is by definition materialist.

I mean I get it, Hinduism and Buddhism both have components of eternalism (just not of the self in one case.)

This reminds me quite a bit about how Nietzsche criticized Christianity as being nihilistic.