Stunning self-honesty and candor from an American Buddhist. "Ethics" is Advertising. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Trigger warning (that is going to be endless fun to write): Christians may not like parts of this all that much, but I think the observations are just.
Via hbdchick
2 comments:
Excellent article. Certainly didn't say anything about Christianity I didn't already know, but it was very evenhanded, and very insightful, I thought, about religion as social signaling. I was reminded of this bit from History in English Words by Owen Barfield:
"Certain moral qualities gain respect for themselves; the respect brings with it material benefits; weaker brethren affect the moral qualities in order to acquire the material benefits; hypocrisy is detected; all morality is treated as hypocrisy. The trite little cycle spins like a whirligig round and round the social history of the world..."
His remarks on the American class system that "everybody knows but no one talks about" remind me of Class by Paul Fussell, where I reviewed here: <a href="http://home.comcast.net/~earlwajenberg/onlinestorage/e-Class.html>link</a>.
Just read the first 20% or so, but oh yes...I think he has a good hammer, and a pretty good aim at the heads of several nails. It's going to take time to get through it -- it's chewy.
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