[Buddha-l] buddha-l Digest, Vol 103, Issue 6

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Op 15-9-2013 12:04, James A Stroble schreef:
> But the nationalism and religion question intrigues me. I am of the 
> opinion that religion gets co-opted by nationalist interests in most 
> cases, but I get the feeling Dan is of the contrary opinion. But in 
> the case of Buddhism, it seems that the assertion of Buddhism as a 
> part of a national identity is what is at stake, not Buddhism per se. 
> Maybe I am not very aware of any such trans-national Buddhist 
> identity, but it does not seem that the Sinhalese are all that 
> concerned about the Tibetan struggle, or the Burmese about the Thais. 
> This suggests to me, at least, that nationalism is the prime mover in 
> such struggles, and religion only a convenient prop. 
Hi James,
you might wanna read Emile Dürkheim abut this. He thinks religion is the 
cult of tribal solidarity.
The problem apparently arises when some priests start to proclaim that 
there is only one universal god and that submissiveness to him is the 
best way to help the tribe. Having cleaned their religion of any 
democratic tendency, they take their petty tribal or local mishaps for 
absolute universal disasters worthy of the sacrifice of all able men.
Professor Lusthaus agrees with this religious Platonism, implying that 
there exists a Muslim /eidos /that is the source of all evil, and 
besides that a person is determined by his religious /eidos/.

Erik