[Buddha-l] Re: Anyone up for another year?

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Just a quick message of good wishes and high hopes for 2006.

And, since I'm here, a couple of picayune notes on Harris and this 
conversation around his theses.

First, I love that Harris is out there, but I have to say he's also 
"out there," as in way out there. From the bits of his that I've read, 
he ends up sounding ironically irrational in his condemnation of the 
irrationalities of religion. This is a shame, since his central 
argument makes sense (at least to me). But then, his central argument 
is, as Curt pointed out, something at least as old as Durkheim. I would 
add all the great fathers of the human sciences and make a list of it: 
Marx, Weber, Freud, Durkheim. Others might be added. (Nietzsche, 
Feuerbach, Hume, etc.)

Secondly, Richard is, I think, right to point out that humans need no 
creeds to rationalize violence. (It really should be "irrationalize 
violence," don't you think?) But I'd add that both Judaism and Islam do 
have creeds, albeit simple ones. In Judaism there is the Shema ("Shema, 
Israel! Adonai Elohenu Adonai ehad!" "Hear, Israel! The Lord our God, 
the Lord is one!"). In Islam the very first of the Five Pillars, the 
repetition of which ritually makes one a Muslim, is the Shahada 
("Ashadu an la ilaha ill'Allahu. Muhammadar rasulu'llah." (I testify 
that there is no God but God. [I testify that] Muhammad is the 
Messenger of God.") [Please note: Romanizations and translations vary a 
good deal for both Hebrew and Arabic; those above are more or less 
standard, but not privileged.]

I should add that my view that these are creeds is also not privileged. 
These are pretty basic compared to the product of the Council of Nicea; 
perhaps they don't qualify at all. And, if they do qualify, then 
perhaps Buddhist formulations such as the Going for Refuge count as 
well. Really, though, creeds are not the problem; people are the 
problem. It's just like with guns and bullets: the former harm no one 
without the latter.

Thanking goodness I'm just a dummy,

Franz Metcalf