This extended CNN blog, with broadly multifaith comments on "why suffering" in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear worries, following the Japanese tsunami and eaerthquake, makes the case well for me.
Is it any worse for a fundamentalist Christian to say:
1. God is inscrutable;
2. Original sin brought on this disaster for you;
3. It's God's prerogative to damn some people to hell.
Or a hardcore Buddhist to say:
1. Karma is inscrutable;
2. Your past life that you can't even remember brought on this disaster for you;
3. It's a cyclical universe's "prerogative" to damn some people to recurring rounds of bad karma.
I know of people who are skeptics, and atheists, even, in the sense of not believing in a western monotheist divinity, that still believe in the metaphysics of karma. Well, sorry, but, karma's as offensive as the heaven-hell of western monotheism. (The Buddhist version is more offensive than the Hindu version because
it claims that not even a person or personality, but just a "life force"
is reincarnated and the "self" [nonexistent as it allegedly is] is
STILL punished in a new life.)
Beyond that, both western and eastern religion offer the same pablum when confronted with the problem of evil.
And, a "shout out" to "it's not a religion" Buddhist Sam Harris — what say you now?
And, speaking of that, I give a kudo to Chris Hitchens, the one "name" New Atheist to look at eastern religions just as toughly as those of the west.
This is a slice of my philosophical, lay scientific, musical, religious skepticism, and poetic musings. (All poems are my own.) The science and philosophy side meet in my study of cognitive philosophy; Dan Dennett was the first serious influence on me, but I've moved beyond him. The poems are somewhat related, as many are on philosophical or psychological themes. That includes existentialism and questions of selfhood, death, and more. Nature and other poems will also show up here on occasion.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Karma — as offensive as hell
Labels:
Buddhism,
karma,
monotheism,
problem of evil,
reincarnation,
religion
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1 comment:
It's amazing how many people I meet who deny belief in a god and then say 'but i believe in karma'. Really? Go explain to the starving African kids that they are only getting what they deserve... karma.
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