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Re: [ba-unrev-talk] An approach to a simpler truth.


V.S.Uren@open.ac.uk wrote:
> 
>         Re: I've long been intrigued by the notion of finding a
> rationalization
> > for doing good to others that *wasn't* based on religion. Such
> > a thing could go a long way to reduce religious prejudice, as well
> > as the worst of captialism. Equilibrium theory holds promise...
> >
>         This sounds like a notion I call "practical karma"...
>
Yes. A belief in reincarnation is a *powerful* motivation for doing
good. I look at it this way:    (01)

     It's not that I'm going to come back as a llama or an earthworm,
     or something.    (02)

     It's not even that I'm going to come back as some high-born or
     low-born person.    (03)

     It's that I'm going to come back to THIS world -- and I'm going
     to have live in the garden of eden (or cesspool) I create.    (04)

     Talk about incentive to take care of the environment...    (05)

But those are quasi-religious notions. At the very least, they 
depend on a particular belief system.    (06)

But for the secular humanists out there (of whom I counted myself one
for a very long time), what is it that makes stealing wrong?    (07)

And if "everyone knows" that stealing is wrong, why are there so
many companies in the world who are "legally stealing" in every
possible way that they can?    (08)

Why is it the companies will do what no single individual would 
ever do, and sell what no one person would be proud to call his
life's work?    (09)