Lama to Speak Anyway

More than 900 scientists have signed a petition to prevent the Dalai Lama from presenting a lecture today in Washington.

The exiled leader of Tibet is scheduled to speak about the neurological effects of meditation at a three-day conference presented by the Mind and Life Institute. His talk will draw on his extensive participation in research on intense meditation, such as that practiced by Buddhist monks.

Some researchers suggest that meditation can contribute to physical and mental well-being and lead to a heightening of traits such as compassion and altruism.

Many scientists who signed the petition said that inviting a religious leader to speak at a scientific assembly sends a damaging message about the role of faith in science.

Link.

These scientists don't want any religious message brought to their conference? Are they afraid or just annoyed? A little of both? It's apparently their position that religion has absolutely nothing to tell science. They may want to leave the nineteenth century's philosophy of science and start looking to more recent thinkers. Michael Polanyi might be a good place to start, or maybe the Phenomenologists.

Earlier post about same story.

Carl Spackler on the Dalai Lama:

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.