[Buddha-l] Oops--Article is from NY Times

[sjziobro at cs.com]

 Richard,

 


 Isn't the word for "sin" in Greek "hamartia," which means to miss the mark or err?  Aristotle uses the term to describe tragedy, and in that connection it is related to hubris.

Stan

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu>
To: Buddhist discussion forum <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 11:56 pm
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Oops--Article is from NY Times


On Aug 27, 2010, at 21:10, "JKirkpatrick" <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:



> Really-- so where does paapa (usually pronounced as paap) in

> Hindi come from? 



It comes from Sanskrit pāpa, cognate with Greek pema, which means harm or 

injury. It has nothing at all in common with the word "sin" or the Greek & 

Hebrew words translated thereby. The focus of the notion of sin is failure to 

obey God, but there is nothing at all I pāpa implying failure to obey God. An 

atheist can have remorse about having harmed another person, but a sincere 

atheist can't have a notion of having failed in the eyes of God. An atheist (and 

Buddhists are necessarily atheists) can have a sense of pāpa but not a sense of 

sin. That makes an important distinction sélon moi. 



Harmfully but sinlessly yours,

Richard

_______________________________________________

buddha-l mailing list

buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com

http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l