Earlier I admitted that, although I'm generally, albeit moderately, interested in Buddhism, I can only really appreciate books on the topic from Western authors. Since then, my snobbism has raised to new heights (or sunk to new lows), as nowadays I can only digest the rare Buddhist books from Western scientists. I think the reason is that with something both so subjective and abstract, even very smart people can get carried away by wishful thinking, confirmation bias, or just insufficient training in critical thinking. A scientist is trained to avoid logical fallacies, to think in probabilities rather than certainties, and to distrust even beautiful theories until they are confirmed by data. They are not infallible, but at least more immune to self-deception...
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