Some Issues

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sun, 21 Sep 1997, Ram Chandran wrote:

>         Religion begins where Science ends.  Scientific facts can be logically
> tested and either can be rejected or accepted.  There are no logical way
> of testing religious viewpoints and we can neither accept nor reject
> them.

Science is the rational study of empirical phenomena.  So you are correct
that Religion is not scientific as it is based on faith not observation.
But it can certainly be logical even if it is not scientific.  In the case
of this list we have history, tradition, a living lineage of teachers and
a set of beliefs which we can use to make meaningful logical statements.

>          Hindu Dharma carefully defines the limitations of human behavior with
> respect to judging others:    " . . . And another  rule  of  Dharma  is
> to  refrain from criticizing or  condemning the  Dharma  of  another man
> less developed than yourself.  He is  not looking through your eyes.  He
> may be living nearer to his spiritual ideal than your are to yours --
> how dare you judge him? Are you so  near  perfect  that  you  set your
> standard up as absolute?"  (Yogi Ramacharaka in the book on Advance
> Course in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism.)

I find it interesting that Dharmaraj in Hinduism is Mrtyuraja or death.
Just as the danda of death is unavoidable for any inhabitant of Earth the
danda of Dharma is inescapable.  I don't know who this Yogi Ramcharaka is
or where he got his information from, but Dharma certainly involves
setting standards of conduct and belief and judging those who fail to live
up to them.  Take a look at one of the dharmashastras sometime.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
I got engaged! See the pictures ==> http://www.braincells.com/jaldhar/sagpan