[Buddha-l] Hindu Fundamentalism

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

curt schreef:

> I would suggest as an alternative Robert Lamberton's
> "Homer the Theologian" - which is concerned less with
> deconstructing the modern term "myth" than it is with
> explicating the actual tradition of allegorically interpreting
> Homer. Right from the beginning of Lamberton's book
> one realizes (if one did not already know) that there is
> nothing new about metaphorical and allegorical interpretaions
> of sacred literature - and, in particular, that any intelligent
> citizen of Classical Greece was just as incapable of literally
> "believing in" just-so stories as is any modern Buddhist.
> - Curt
>
> Richard P. Hayes wrote:
>
And how does this Lamberton guy explain the rise of philosophy and the disdain for 'doxa' as the talk of fools against 'episteme'? Thales was not a standard storyteller. I think that myths are taken very litterally, heaven, hell, sukhaavati, etc. are seen as very real places and once a Tibetan lama asked me very seriously if there were two suns where I lived. The metaphoricalisation of the Greek gods is a game same Greek intellectuals played in a certain period but not a standard understanding. Nietzsche concluded God is dead, myths have become stories and it's science which did this. And mind you, not only physics, but also archeology, sociology, philology, etc.

Erik