[Buddha-l] Religious violence, Buddhist violence

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Op 20-1-2010 19:09, Richard P. Hayes schreef:
> On Wed, 2010-01-20 at 08:08 -0700, JKirkpatrick wrote:
> Socrates was put on trial for
> corrupting the youth and for impiety, or dishonouring the gods, and the
> way in which he did it was to encourage people to find their own answers
> to important questions and to question those who provide superficial
> answers. He taught people to think critically. He did not give them a
> ready-made critique. That is precisely what I advocate doing (and try to
> do in the classroom). In the context of the issue under question, I am
> never going to give my students a facile, ready-made critique of Aum
> Shinrikyo, but I hope I am constantly giving them the tools they need to
> reach their own conclusions by themselves, and I trust them to do it.
>    
Come on, Richard. The Japanese sect was poisoning innocent people in order to blackmail Japanese society and the Buddha spent 40 years wandering and explaining everyone who would listen how to get free from desire and worldly troubles. After explaining this to your students you ask them to find out for themselves if the Japanese Aumcult acted according to the words of the Buddha. They must find this an impossible task!

Erik

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