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Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

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The whole world is the kingdom of Visa

The whole world is the kingdom of Visa

You must realize that the whole world is the kingdom of Visa as stated by Mastercard. Because I said so, that’s why. Any injustice will be punished by Customer Service and you need not worry about it. Your view of the debt limit is revenge but our CEO’s view of interest rates are to transform the blah blah blah blah blah…

Sorry, I lost steam. Here, let me start again:

The more definitively someone tells you they know what God is, the more desperate they are to nab your cash.

Fair? Unfair? True? Untrue?

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Date: May 25, 2007

Author: Jim

Categories: fun, money, religion

Tags:

(370 votes, average: 3.02 out of 5)

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  The Animist

  in May 26th, 2007 @ 09:45

  HAHAHA Thanks for uplifting! Nice parody too, if Dattaswami sees this he’ll blow!

  BTW he’ll=hell with an ‘

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  Iroquois Honky

  in May 26th, 2007 @ 12:20

  There is no request for donations on Dattaswami’s website, not even a t-shirt for sale, so it does not appear to be very commercial in nature.

  I am puzzled by who Anil Antony might be and what reasons he/she might have for posting here so extensively. You can note the British spellings and say right away this is either a Brit or an Indian and not an American traveler who has happened on a Hindu teacher. Could it be a traveler with sporatic internet access who wishes to store accumulated teachings in a safe place or as a backup? A free blogspot.com or wordpress.com account would be much safer.

  There is a Buddhist tradition of “acquiring merit” (see Kipling’s Kim) to escape the wheel of rebirth–perhaps these posts are good deeds to acquire merit. There is also a Bonist tradition of hiding religious teachings and revelations to be found later when the world is ready. Could this be a virtual religious cache?

  It’s somehow not surprising that the only thing that Americans know to do with this is to jeer at something that’s outside their understanding and cultural experience. I seem to be the only one who’s exhibited any curiosity.
  IH

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  Jim

  in May 26th, 2007 @ 21:15

  Sorry. You’re so right. I should cheer when somebody posts over a score of cut-and-pasted pieces of poorly-thought-out circular reasoning. It’s the culturally sensitive thing to do. Now I know.

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  Iroquois Honky

  in May 27th, 2007 @ 11:20

  Oh, no Jim, I didn’t mean it like that. I share your annoyance and would agree with your characterization of the diatribes as circular reasoning. By the time I got as far as “Because I said so, that’s why,” I was falling off my chair laughing. Not everyone can be a Plato or a Rumi, sitting at the Lotus Feet of Socrates or Shems. You just can’t get good enlightenment these days.

  Antony has found himself a philosopher who argues strictly from within the Hindu tradition, in spite of trying to characterize him as a reincarnation of Jesus, Mohammed, Shiva AND Vishnu (the preserver AND destroyer?). His arguments are nothing more than nit-picky little Hindu dogma points. Nonetheless they seem to have resonated with more than a few of your readers, who have responded with a frenzy of posting.

  The pasting thing might be rude by our standards, but have you ever tried to get internet access in the third world? Generally it means traveling to the capital by unreliable and uncomfortable transportation, finding an inexpensive place to stay overnight–again because of the transportation vagaries for the return trip, then spending one or two days salary on just one hour of internet access. But oh, how inconvenient for us in the west to have to come across these writings posted together.

  I don’t object to your questioning and probing, Jim. What I object to is lack of civility. It seems some of the posters are just looking for blood on the water–they want to “get” someone, anyone, for any reason or for no reason. Can’t we leave that to Jerry Springer and Newt Gingrich?

  IH

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  MadMike

  in May 27th, 2007 @ 11:40

  “The more definitively someone tells you they know what God is, the more desperate they are to nab your cash.”

  Oh , absolutely. In fact, isn’t that entirely reasonable to them ? More than reasonable in fact, essential. I mean … if you really felt you knew the truth and believed in anything that much, wouldn’t you do anything to spread the truth. Especially taking money from people who seem to believe you, but probably don’t really believe as well as you do. Which no-one can, because personal belief (with a healthy pinch of faith) will always seem deeper to you than anything that anyone communicates to you.

  And of course, the very concept of God suggests that God would be ultimately unknowable. Very briefly, if we can know God definitely, then belief and faith itself is empty (you’d simple know God, rather than believing,) and therefore most religion falls apart. So interestingly enough, if someone claims to know God definitely, they probably are after your money, as they are denying their own religion with the same breath. In fact your statement is especially clear on this point – ANYONE claiming not just to know God, but to know “what” God is, is claiming God can be comprehended by a human mind. Which (even if you don’t believe in God) is more than a little absurd.

  Anyway, Enough of that, I have to be off to worship at my shrine to Adam Smith now … he’s one of the prophets of Capital … the true God. Visa is just an new age cult.

  I definitely know what my God i$

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  IH

  in May 31st, 2007 @ 22:05

  It looks to me like the DattaSwami philosophy goes out of its way to say it DOESN’T know what God is. For instance, if you scroll down a few chapters, you will find one called “God does not exists in any imaginable item except Human Incarnation.” The body of this essay and several others uses the phrase “unimaginable nature” several times to describe God.

  “God does not exists” ..I would say Antony’s first language is not English–third person singular can be very troublesome. I’ve noticed several examples like this–it’s not just a typo.

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