>> if its unfair to judge in regard to heaven or hell, its equally unfair to judge in regard to future incarnated lives.
Didn't you hear? Nobody is judging you.
Something is judging everyone in Buddhism and its not yourself.
To acknowledge that impurities exist, that bad actions have consequences is to acknowledge that there is something, whether a person or a law of existence or whatever, that makes that determination. Naturally, that can't be oneself for oneself is impure and thus incapable of making that determination.
You do it to yourself. There is big difference between me warning you that if you smoke you will get sick and my judging that because you smoked I should inject you with viral infections and cancer cells for an eternity of suffering.
Whatever. In your example, if there is something called karma which does the equivalent of giving you cancer as a result of doing something bad like smoking, that something is delivering a punishment for the bad behavior.
There is also a huge difference between burning in hell forever because you did X and having a chance to correct your mistakes and get out of the hole you dug for yourself.
And some Christians believe in purgatory, which is a temporary punishment. Others find scriptural support for spiritual death, meaning that unsaved souls will be destroyed and not suffer eternally:
"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Matthew 10:28
Note that the soul and body are both described as being destroyed.
Many Christians consider that hell is simply eternal seperation from God and that people make this choice themselves. As you have done. Thus you've chosen to separate yourself from God and to go to hell instead, whatever it is that seperation from God means ultimately. I think a literal lake of fire is a primitive depiction ultimately based on observation of volcanoes in the Mediterranean region.
Based on this alone, if conservatives really believed fairness and personal responsibility rather than the welfare state in the sky, they'd all switch to Buddhism ;)
Even if conservatives were to become Buddhists, they'd still believe in judgment - differentiating between good and evil - and reward and punishment. Only the details of how the judgment is made would be different.
If you were a real Buddhist, you'd believe in multiple levels of hell as they - real Buddhists - do. Though they don't believe people stay there forever.
The fact is you're not a Buddhist. I think you simply don't like the idea of a God or judgment, and consider yourself the ultimate judge of everything including yourself. I think you'd only believe in God if you could be God. Ultimately you're an egotist like most liberals. |
