Sophie's World

by Jostein Gaarder

‘By Buddha. It’s almost uncanny how similarly the two formulate their ideas. Buddha saw life as an unbroken succession of mental and physical processes which keep people in a continual state of change. The infant is not the same as the adult; I am not the same today as I was yesterday. There is nothing of which I can say “this is mine,” said Buddha, and nothing of which I can say “this is me.” There is thus no “I” or unalterable ego.’ ‘Yes, that was typically Hume.’ ‘In continuation of the idea of an unalterable ego, many rationalists had taken it for granted that man had an eternal soul.’ ‘Is that a false perception too?’ ‘According to Hume and Buddha, yes. Do you know what Buddha said to his followers just before he died?’ ‘No, how could I?’ ‘“Decay is inherent in all compound things. Work out your own salvation with diligence.” Hume could have said the same thing. Or Democritus, for that matter. We know at all events that Hume rejected any attempt to prove the immortality of the soul or the existence of God. That does not mean that he ruled out either one, but to prove religious faith by human reason was rationalistic claptrap, he thought. Hume was not a Christian, neither was he a confirmed atheist. He was what we call an agnostic.’