Difficult Questions from Thursday, March 28th's Quiz / a few from Thompson's introduction

Question 1

There ____ a CEO self, according to Wright.

Accepted Answer

is not

Question 2

Advanced meditators who have "lost a sense of essence fairly broadly" are described by Wright as ____________.

Accepted Answer

happy and benevolent

Question 3

Gilbert Harman, after studying "fundamental attribution error," wrote that there is ______ empirical basis for _____

Accepted Answer

no, the existence of character traits

Question 4

What does Wright call the particular moral challenge that centrally motivated the writing of the book? Overcoming _____.

Accepted Answer

the psychology of tribalism

Question 5

Who originally wrote, "I am a citizen of the world"?

Accepted Answer

Epictetus, a Greek guy

Question 6

Thompson says that his feelings toward Buddhism are not hostile.

Accepted Answer

True

Question 7

Religions consist of ________ (choose the one wrong ingredient — the one not mentioned in the reading).

Accepted Answer

brainwashing

Question 8

According to one Mahayana viewpoint, only ______ (reductio ad absurdum) arguments rather than positive reasoning _____.

Accepted Answer

negative, should be used to establish claims about inherent emptiness

Question 9

Wright mentions that meditation can help you be more tolerant of people who _____________.

Accepted Answer

fumble with credit cards

Question 10

Nirvana is said to break a chain of ___ supposed causal links.

Accepted Answer

12

Question 11

According to Wright, any universe will necessarily be one in which metaphysical truth and moral truth are aligned.

Accepted Answer

False

Question 12

Which word appears on p. 248?

Accepted Answer

intracranial

Question 13

"Many Buddhist teachings... could be lumped under the rubric of 'awareness of ________'", where "_____" means ______.

Accepted Answer

conditioning, conditioning, causes

Question 14

In what 'c' word does the author say he believes? It's something that he says is a better 'framework' than B. modernism.

Accepted Answer

cosmopolitanism

Question 15

Wright says that ___ scientific theories has/have been proven to be true.

Accepted Answer

no

Question 16

Thompson is fond of the concept of being "spiritual but not religious."

Accepted Answer

False

Question 17

What word is featured more times on pp. 251-252?

Accepted Answer

objective

Question 18

The truths that Wright lists in the appendix of his book are rightly considered Buddhist doctrines.

Accepted Answer

False

Question 19

Evan Thompson _______ the view that Buddhism is not really a religion.

Accepted Answer

is skeptical of, if not in total disagreement with,

Question 20

What band is referenced in the first four pages of the reading?

Accepted Answer

Foreigner

Question 21

Thompson says that "the new atheists" regard science as being ____ 'religious' than science actually is.

Accepted Answer

less

Question 22

"__________ 'literally changes your brain'." What does Thompson say?

Accepted Answer

Anything you do

Question 23

"I see no way for myself to be a Buddhist," Thompson writes, "without _________."

Accepted Answer

acting in bad faith

Question 24

What word does Wright use instead of 'sutra'?

Accepted Answer

discourse

Question 25

What is the author's answer to whether science and religion are compatible?

Accepted Answer

It depends

Question 26

Buddhist modernism, according to Thompson, ______ as if it were Buddhism's original and essential core.

Accepted Answer

presents itself

Question 27

At his retreat in Barre, Mass., Thompson ___ that what was happening essentially matched the rhetoric of "learning _.

Accepted Answer

does not say, to see things as they are, says, to see things as they are, does not say, to see things other than they are

Question 28

What is Wright's one-sentence answer to why Buddhism is true?

Accepted Answer

We are animals created by natural selection.

Question 29

Which religion(s) claim that, at birth, people inherit a kind of moral confusion?

Accepted Answer

Christianity and Buddhism

Question 30

Which one is *not* a member of what Wright calls "this three-part alignment"?

Accepted Answer

nirvana

Question 31

Which did the author *not* explicitly state that he has encountered at Buddhist meditation centers?

Accepted Answer

enlightenment

Question 32

Evan Thompson has met the Dalai Lama.

Accepted Answer

True

Question 33

What 'c' word does Thompson use to describe many of the beliefs that constitute Buddhist modernism?

Accepted Answer

confused

Question 34

How nuts does Wright want to be driven by people who support military interventions?

Accepted Answer

kind of nuts

Question 35

Where did the author attend college? It was a college that waitlisted your instructor, and I'm not still bitter about it

Accepted Answer

Amherst

Question 36

William James defined 'religion' as "belief that there is _________, and that our supreme good lies in ___________ there

Accepted Answer

an unseen order, harmoniously adjusting ourselves

Question 37

What is the worst definition of 'tanha'?

Accepted Answer

iniquity

Question 38

Why I Am Not a Buddhist author Evan Thompson regards Buddhism as unworthy of being a participant in modern societies.

Accepted Answer

False

Question 39

Which group of Buddhists are more preoccupied with 'not-self', and what is the word for it?

Accepted Answer

Theravada, anatta

Question 40

Strangely, Wright says, Buddhism tends to accentuate certain feelings, rather than suppressing all of them. He cites __.

Accepted Answer

the sensation of beauty as an example

Question 41

"Why is there so much _ commitment," Thompson asks in the intro, "to establishing that meditation is beneficial when _?"

Accepted Answer

antecedent, many people report experiencing negative effects

Question 42

To what does 'dharma' refer? Select the best answer. (Read all four before answering.)

Accepted Answer

both of the other answers

Question 43

"Maybe... the only way for complex consciousness to arise on this planet was for it to be _______ in the process."

Accepted Answer

warped

Question 44

What is the "dominant strand" of Buddhism called?

Accepted Answer

Buddhist modernism

Question 45

Buddhism deserves credit, Wright says, for so _ diagnosing what he calls humankind's problem. (Choose the wrong answer.)

Accepted Answer

subversively

Question 46

Robert Wright was raised as what kind of Christian?

Accepted Answer

Southern Baptist

Question 47

What does Robert Wright describe doing on p. 249, in the midst of rethinking the meaning of his inner critical voice?

Accepted Answer

weeping

Difficult Questions from Thursday, March 28th's Quiz / a few from Thompson's introduction

Questions 47

Difficult Questions from Thursday, March 28th's Quiz / a few from Thompson's introduction

Questions 47