2005 controversy

Beginning in 2005, the Society for Neuroscience began its new Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society lecture series. The keynote address for this new series was given by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, and approximately 14,000 people attended the talk. In response to the announcement of this lecture over 600 signatures were gathered in protest of a religious leader giving a lecture at a scientific meeting.

The case for supporting the Dalai Lama's appearance has been made, with an online petition supporting the invitation of the Buddhist religious leader. The new petition has been by neuroscientist and autism researcher Matthew Belmonte (mindhacks.com).

At a recent neuroscience conference, Dalai Lama stressed the need for cooperation between science and religion. "By invoking fundamental ethical principles, I am not advocating a fusion of religious ethics and scientific inquiry,” he said at Neuroscience 2005, the Society for Neuroscience’s 35th annual meeting held between Nov. 12 and 16 in Washington, DC.

"Rather, I am speaking of what I call 'secular ethics' that embrace the key ethical principles, such as compassion, tolerance, a sense of caring, consideration of others and the responsible use of knowledge and power — principles that transcend the barriers between religious believers and nonbelievers, and followers of this religion or that religion."

"The line between science and Buddhist conceptions of reality, neuroplasticity etc. is neither here nor there - the scientific community wishes to remain objective and to not concern itself with 'metaphysical' notions. On the other hand, Buddhists (on some level) wish to maintain the legitimacy of their theories IN CONJINCTION with Budhist practices. The Dalai Lama sees connections between modern brain science and the ‘internal’ exploration that Buddhist meditation and cultivated practice can yeild." - neurodudes.com