[Buddha-l] Batchelor

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Op 17-05-10 22:44, Richard Hayes schreef:
>
> Sarah Palin was in my town yesterday. She wore a skin-tight black leather outfit and designer eyeglasses and had her hair tied back in a fashionable pony tail (or perhaps it was a horse's ass). She urged the crowd to support tough immigration policies and to give generously to pro-life anti-government candidates who advocate abolishing all regulations restricting the ownership of guns. I'm guessing that since she is totally opposed to governments passing laws, she can't want governments to regulate immigration by passing laws, which means we'll all be needing our guns to form vigilante posses to chase all those Mexicans away before we go protecting life by shooting abortionists. (Erik, are you sure you don't need Sarah over there in Holland? Does Geert need a new wife?)
>
>    
I'm prepared to start a new political movement for an exchange between 
Holland and the U.S.: Sara and the Teaparty Movement against Geert and 
the coffeeshops. Geert seems to become increasingly populair in English 
speaking countries. You already have Ayan Hirsi Ali, she used to be very 
close to Geert. He'll probably insist to take his hairdresser with him.

I understand that Batchelor is the kind of guy who you let take care of 
your pets and plants while you're on holliday, but he can be wrong. 
There's nothing wrong with being wrong, it gives you the opportunity to 
rearrange your ideas. It can be very refreshing. Hume also was wrong 
sometimes and he never excluded the possibility. It's useless to 
participate in a discussion if you cannot be wrong. A complete waste of 
time. I'm more curious about Batchelor's arguments than his convictions.

The problem as I see it is not the existence of God, Christians have no 
reason to discuss it and non-believers also don't. A religion is not an 
epistemology or an ontology. There used to be a time when people were 
burnt at stakes for denying God's existence, but nowadays there's even a 
protestant preacher who denies God's existence. What counts is how you 
live and my experience as a chairperson of an interreligious 
organisation has tought me that peaceloving and caring persons (or 
warmongers for that matter) understand each other very well without 
discussing God, reincarnation, karma or any other metaphysical question. 
(I'm defending a pragmatist position, this must sound familiar to at 
least some of the denizens.)

Cannot you give Sarah as a bonus for the counrty that wins the World 
Soccer Championship?

erik