Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. He is the author of "Buddhism Without Beliefs" and most recently has written "After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age". In this entry to the Buddhist Geeks series on ethics, Stephen joins host Vincent Horn to consider what it means to secularize Buddhist ethics. They discuss the process of removing early Buddhist ethics from its early Indian metaphysics, and between the ethical practice laid out by early Buddhism and more Western versions of ethics. They finish by discussing the metaphysical faith of secularism, in particular the role that rationalism & individualism play in this translation project.

Episode Links:

• StephenBatchelor.org http://www.stephenbatchelor.org/
• "After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age" by Stephen Batchelor http://www.amazon.com/After-Buddhism-Rethinking-Dharma-Secular/dp/030020518X
• "Syntheism: Creating God in the Internet Age" by Alexander Bard & Jan Söderqvist http://syntheism.org/wp-content/syntheism_book/Syntheism.html
• "Cyber Philosophy and the Void" http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2014/03/bg-315-cyber-philosophy-void/
• "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari-ebook/dp/B00ICN066A?ie=UTF8&me=&ref_=mt_kindle

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