Sunday, February 7, 2010

Chapter 35: On Religion


where we learn what Karma is.

Why am I such a bad tempter? I think my main problem is that I overestimate human logic. I know that humans are partly driven by their Strange Subconscious Thingy, but I assume that their mind is able to understand the logic of egoism. However, most of them follow some other logic, a logic that makes altruism appear rational. If I don't understand this logic, I can't argue against it.

So I asked the old librarian whether he can explain me why so many humans consider altruism logical. I already had observed that some humans think that some supernatural power will reward them if they help each other. Turns out there are several rival concepts of supernatural rewards for being gentle. I'll try to resume the most important ones:



 
Earthly Reward
The simplest variant: Some humans believe that giving to other people is rewarded in this life by some metaphysical superviser, aka God. While it's kind of obvious that this is not how the world works, you would be surprised how many people think that is how the world should work. When humans suffer, they often ask "what did I do to deserve this", an attitude that assumes that luck and suffering happen for a reason, that they are rewards and punishment for former actions. 
Strangely, humans who have luck seldom wonder how they deserve it.




Earthly Karma
Same as the earthly reward coming from some metaphysical superviser - only without the superviser.




 
Heavenly Reward
Similar to the "Earthly Reward" theory, but the reward is delayed to the afterlife. The metaphysical superviser notes the good deeds and sins in a big book, and determines the reward or punishment after the death.
Depending on the religion, the reward consists on flying around and playing harp, on sitting in Abrahams lap, in having sex with 72 virgins, or whatever. Christianism initially promised an "Hevenly wedding feast", but as it is not clear who is married to whom, it has gradually been replaced by the flying-around-and-playing-harp variant, which is in my opinion much less appealing than the wedding feast, let alone the 72 virgins.

Note that this is maybe the closest to how things really work - but with some differences. Good deeds and sins are indeed listed in big books - but not by Heaven but by Hell, and not to reward or punish humans but tempters - see my last post. As mentioned in said post, it's not good deeds and sins that count for who goes to Heaven and who to Hell, but attitude. Deeds and sins are only symptoms.
 

Posthumous Karma
Same as "Heavenly Reward", but without the supervisor. Very popular in asian countries. The reward is often a pleasant reincarnation, for example not as a cockroach.



Calvinism
The same as "heavenly reward" where the superviser rewards good deeds in the afterlife, but without the good deeds. Calvinists believe that God chooses due to some obscure agenda who receives gifts in the afterlife and who doesn't, and that good deeds or sins don't have anything to do with it.



 
Advanced Calvinism
Like Calvinism, but the Almighty's chosen ones receive earthly gifts in addition to the heavenly ones. Earthly wealth is interpreted as sign for god's love. Amusingly, this somewhat inverts the "Heavenly Rewards" paradigm, as those who take from others get richer, which is interpretated as sign of God's grace, thus they are rewarded in the afterlife. That's why this system brings much more souls home to hell than anyone else. Infernal Marketing considers the popularity of Advanced Calvinism in the United States as one of its greatest successes. 

Those are the main variants of what humans consider "rewards by heaven". Maybe I forgot some - I'm new to the subject.

2 comments:

  1. Très intéressant !
    Même si je ne suis pas totalement d'accord sur l'explication du Karma.
    Le Karma ne se paye pas forcement dans la prochaine vie. Il est vrai que certaines croyances Bouddhistes et Hindouistes pensent de cette manière. Mais dans certaines branches du Bouddhisme ou en psychologie humaniste on considère que le Karma se paye plutôt dans cette vie car il est lié au phénomène de Cause et d'Effet.
    J'ai envie de dire : heureusement pour ceux, comme moi, qui ne croient pas à la réincarnation.

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  2. Commentaire intéressant. C'est ce que j'avais appellé "Naïve Karma" - j'ai renommé cela en "Earthly Karma", et "Karma" en "Posthumous Karma".

    Je ne vous remercierai pas, Emilia (vu mon expérience avec l'Inquisition) - mais si vous croyez en karma, considérez que vous venez d'en gagner.

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