Agreed. Religious instiutions are no different, nor are institutuions of
science, democracy, the market, the media...even the undertakers and the
anarchists are self-perpetuating.
So long as none of argues from a position of [perceived] superiority.
>Karma is an interesting term. 'Getting one's comeuppance' is equally as
>apt, though more folky perhaps, and certainly less formalized or
>institutionalized. Anyway, it's a reaction to the daily dose of social
>chaos anybody sees.
I'm not sure in what way you believe Karma is institutionalized. As I
understand it, Karma is the most personal of energy fields--even your
lovers, parents, children and closest associates cannot know your Karma.
Certianly no other person can tell you what actions are "Good Karma"
for you...I think we need to be carful not to confuse this with the
Western concept of Sin or <Vice and Virtue> which evaluates behavior
against an external normative scale.
Am I being too mystical here? ;-)
>Is it nice to assuage our dealings with this chaos by allowing some
>extra-natural essence some small amount of prevarication?
I accept the point. If you don't feel the need for the concept, don't
use it. I myself seldom think in terms of Karma. On the other hand,
there is no reason to denigrate woodworking tools just becuase you
don't happen to be a carpenter...if you understand my metaphor.
>All gods are criminals...
Define "criminal" in such a way that it does not include all intentional
entities
and does not rely on an external system of normative evaluation.
Reed
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Reed Konsler konsler@ascat.harvard.edu
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