That’s not terribly surprising, since we seem to consider our consciousness like a homonucleus sitting behind our eyes and observing. Nothing would be less surprising than the belief that this little guy, who is really us, climbs out of the machine when it gets broken.
Der Trihs, I just have to note that belief in reincarnation does not seem to be correlated to the bloodthirstiness of the religion - quite the opposite, it seems.
I’m no expert, but doesn’t Hindu culture have a history of extreme lack of compassion towards the lower castes, especially historically ? Not to mention such customs as burning unwanted wives alive ?
Another argument against reincarnation is that people who support it may be likely to allow suffering and cruelty instead of trying to eliminate it. If pain is a ways of working out negative karma from a past life then trying to eliminate it could be seen as shorting the karmic wheel.
Not people who really understand it. Helping to relieve the suffering of others is how you build positive Karma. Allowing suffering that you can prevent would be building bad Karma.
I was thinking more of Buddhism.
That’s one relatively decent religion. I’m not sure how much of the bad stuff you mention is required by Hinduism, as opposed to customs not stopped by it. Not that there don’t seem to be plenty of Hindu extremists even today.
Good. I hope I’m wrong then and that is the mainstream attitude. But I have heard that as a legitimate complaint about the karmic system as a social meme, that it may lead to a ‘hands off’ attitude towards evil and suffering.
I wouldn’t be surprised if religions that believe in Karma and reincarnation have their share of “fundies” with distorted interpretations just as Christiianity has its share of bad apples who don’t get the whole “Love thy neighbor” thing. I believe historically there was a bunch of animosity between the Hindu and Muslims in India. Buddhism seems relatively calm but I believe I heard about some violence among Buddhist sects last year as well. It seems to be mans nature.
I heard about that. Fistfights between Buddhist monks, and accusations of sexual assault.