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Profile of a Real-Life Jedi Academy
dkleinsc writes "The NYTimes ran a profile of the New York Jedi Club, an organization dedicated to teaching the ways of the Force. Jedi Grandmaster Flynn Michael, a sound engineer and (by his own proclamation) an 'over-the-top geek,' connected the ideas of the Jedi with dance, martial arts, sword-fighting and Tibetan Buddhism to form the curriculum."
That's because they know the religion isn't serious. It's a game. There may be one or two crazy people who believe the force is real, but really real-world Jedi is just a combination of LARPing and themed costume events.
If one of those one or two crazy people came out as actually believing the force is real and they could achieve telekinetic powers with enough training, you can be sure their fellow Jedi would swiftly try to talk them out of it. Then mock them. Then kick them out the club as a dangerous embarassment.
The difference here is that the vast majority of those people are aware that the characters and workings of that world are fictional.
I don't really see a problem with someone being inspired by fiction, be it Naruto or Charles Dickens or Jesus for that matter, just as long as they don't try to impose it on others and seek privileged status.
yeah, and look what happened to him. Got his blaster whipped out of his hands, tortured and cryogenically frozen.
Interestingly to me, Quakers (who call one another "Friend") do sometimes use the term as a kind of passive aggression as you do here.
The short answer is that I can and do deny that reincarnation is fundamental to Buddhism. Fundamental to Buddhism is that by right thinking and right practices we can be freed from our illusions about the world, and when we become free we see that there is no afterlife and no reincarnation, and can therefore be free of suffering. I think you are confusing certain versions of Buddhism with the teachings of the Buddha. The exact same with Christianity: You can be a fundamentalist as, sadly, so many Americans seem to be, and absorb the whole mythos and optionally the post-Roman accretions or the Protestant obsessions with complicated sin and justification. Or you can believe that Jesus was a great prophet and that his teachings can be the basis of an ethical belief system that helps people to live well - which fits the world picture of a lot of Episcopalians, Unitarians and Quakers.
As (as I note above) a Quaker and a Zen Buddhist, I think your thinking is in exactly the silo that led to that observation "The Arhats are like a dirty lavatory". You think that the accidental is fundamental.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
How is that different from any religion?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The title should read: "Profile of a Real-Life Make-Believe Jedi Academy".
Compare this to the make-believe real-life Jedi Academy portrayed in the prequel movies. Getting the order of the adjectives right makes a big difference.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Because in that fictinoal universe, the religion is not illogical, superstitious, or ill-founded. It actually works.
If Christians could turn water into wine for real, I'd be a Christian.
And drunk!
Do not mock philosophy. It provides a framework for understanding how the human mind works and establishes the roots behind our social, political, and economic norms.
Simple things such as what constitutes human rights or morality are much more complex than you'd imagine (e.g. consider Michael J. Perry's view: Are human rights ineliminably religious, or is there a secular version of human rights that uphold our existence with the same amount of dignity and sanctity?). The answers to such questions play a role in a lot of things (e.g. the UN Charter of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention, creation and interpretation of laws etc).
And speaking of laws, what about justice? If it fairness, or is it deterrence, or both? Where does one draw the line? Where do ethics come in? Can you legislate ethics? Why, or why not? For instance, try reading John Rawl's Theory of Justice one of these days, and you will not look at law the same way ever again.
Most people who've studied philosophy (that I know of) are doing quite well, having gone on to work in law, anthropology, sociology, or even economics (e.g. Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel memorial prize in economics for bringing a moral and ethical worldview to an otherwise transactional dominion). Having taken graduate classes in philosophy, I can guarantee you that philosophy requires good reading and writing comprehension, logical and analytical skills, and an ability for independent thought. In contrast, I am not exactly sure what skills being a "Jedi" knight from a fictional movie grant you.