[AS37]

> Buddhism and Christianity make it sound like you have to be perfectly clean and disciplined to be “enlightened”, causing feeling of guilt and failure when you stray from the behavioral/moral prescription.

I don't really get why this is. I'm not saying it's wrong. But it's only a couple pages into the Bible that you find Noah getting drunk and blacking out naked (Genesis 9). And this is someone who is trusted to hear the voice of God, know the future, and save humanity. Seems to be a pretty low bar for being 'good enough' for God.

[crabmusket]

Christianity in practise does not strictly correspond to "what's in the Bible", and I say that as a Christian. Maybe sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. And that's before we even talk about how to interpret something like Genesis 9.

I'd say that mainstream and powerful Christianities do have the effect the parent commenter noticed, especially in America. And to me, it's quite plain that that is a perversion of the message of grace that is central to the Gospel.

[alexvoda]

Lack of coherence is a major benefit for a sacred text. It allows the cult clerics to be flexible, to pick and choose what they like, what is socially acceptable at the time.

A rigid sacred text that claim things are one way or that something must be done someway will inevitably fail when reality shows that things are some other way or that the results of some other action are better.

[mistermann]

Sounds a lot like "Democracy, our most sacred institution". Defend it blindly, with your "good faith" "critical thinking".

[alexvoda]

I do not see what point you are making. Care to reformulate?

[mistermann]

Cultural norms are often described (and perceived) as being ~sacred (beyond reproach, discussion, etc).

After the events of January 6 at the capital (the "literal" coup attempt), "Democracy, our most sacred institution" quickly coalesced as a common sound bite across the mainstream media complex.

As religious people are reluctant to question the axioms of their religion (as a consequence of psychological conditioning, at least in part), I propose the same general phenomenon (and causes) exists with respect to "facts" and power structures within culture.

To be even more clear: I believe that "democracy", the flavors that are currently practised in this era, are highly illusory...and, I also believe that most people have ~"cognitive viruses" within their mind that activate when any criticism of democracy arises, plausible artifacts of which can be seen in massive quantities across social media conversations. /r/politcis is famous for this sort of thing, but on certain topics it is not difficult at all to find the same thing on HN.

[shrimpx]

This is kind of a tangent, but driving the J6 conversation toward “sacred democracy” is a red herring that focuses away from the real issue, which is jockeying for power by playing dirty and bending the rules to create unexpected outcomes.

For example McConnell inventing a rule from thin air that you can’t fill a scotus seat in an election year. Then cynically breaking his own “rule.” Or Trump insisting Mike Pence “can send the votes back to the states.” Or submitting “alternate” electors who would break the pledge to match their votes to the majority vote. Or install a DOJ puppet AG who would seize voting machines.

This has nothing to do with whether America should be a democracy or not. It’s all about whether we should normalize a toxic culture of scummy power jockeying.

[mping]

You have the order reversed. In Buddhism, you learn to let go of attachments, and because of that you let go of smoking, alcohol, etc. It's not the other way around.