Skip to main content Skip to search

Cosmic design from a Buddhist perspective

Cosmic design from a Buddhist perspective
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Format: Journal Article
Publication Date: 2001-12
Publisher: New York Academy of Sciences
Place of Publication: New York
Pages: 206-214
Sources ID: 126490
Visibility: Public (group default)
Abstract: (Show)

The Buddhist view of the origin of the universe is discussed. One of the basic tenets of Buddhism is the concept of interdependence which says that all things exist only in relationship to others, and that nothing can have an independent and autonomous existence. The world is a vast flow of events that are linked together and participate in one another. Thus there can be no First Cause, and no creation ex nihilo of the universe, as in the Big Bang theory. Since the universe has neither beginning nor end, the only universe compatible with Buddhism is a cyclic one. According to Buddhism, the exquisitely precise fine-tuning of the universe for the emergence of life and consciousness as expressed in the "anthropic principle" is not due to a Creative Principle, but to the interdependence of matter with flows of consciousness, the two having co-existed for all times.

Subjects: