China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate

[strathmeyer]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2194682.ece

And in other news, The Times doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'atheist'.

Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders.

[geni]

Why? Are you trying to argue that china's leaders are not athiests?

[strathmeyer]

Well, can you make sense of that sentence?

[geni]

Well, can you make sense of that sentence?

Certianly. The times is reporting the effect of the law if you take reincarnation as real. If you don't accept that then the law mearly states that the tibetan relgious authorities are not free to declair people to be reincarnations of former relgious leaders.

[Wolfman]

This is just another manifestation of what appears to outsiders as a bizarre synthesis of atheism and religion in China.

When the Communists first took over, their goal was the eradication of religions and superstition. All religion was banned, teaching of religious beliefs was illegal, religious leaders were imprisoned/killed, etc. But that didn't work.

The Communists then tried a different approach. They made religions legal, and even wrote a guarantee of "religious freedom" into the Chinese constitution. However, there's a bit of a catch to that "religious freedom"...it applies only to an "officially recognized religion". Any religion that is not officially recognized is legally defined as a cult, and is illegal.

The Communist Party set up a Bureau of Religious Affairs, who are in charge of all the "official" religious groups in China. This means that the highest authority in any religion in China is a Communist Party Official -- and at least up until this time, every one of those leaders have been avowed atheists.

This creates a number of complications in China. Take Christians. You can have an "official" church, but that means having an atheist as your ultimate leader; a position which many Christians find untenable. So they start their own churches, with "god" or some spiritual leader at the top. But wait -- these churches are not officially recognized by the state, and therefore are "cults", not "religions", and therefore membership in them is illegal.

It is essentially the same situation in regards to the Tibetans living Buddhas. If a "living Buddha" is recognized by the state, then it is legal, and people may follow him (with the understanding that he, likewise, is under the authority of the state gov't); if a "living Buddha" is not recognized by the state, then it is illegal, and people who follow him risk imprisonment.

On the (moderately) positive side of this issue, the gov't has been showing greater and greater tolerance for "unregistered" or "unofficial" religious groups in recent years. Arrests have decreased, and unofficial churches have increased. However, the laws remain in place, and can be used to crack down at any time the gov't wants (such as the situation with Falun Gong).

[JetLeg]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2194682.ece

And in other news, The Times doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'atheist'.

If atheism is defined as lacking a belief in god, or perhaps claiming that there is no god(s), then there is no reason why an atheist cannot believe in reincarnation. By the way, HH the Dalai Lama is not a living god, but the reincarnation of Buddha Avalokitshvara - who was an enlightened being, but not a god. Gods are inferior to buddhas.

[Complexity]

There aren't any buddhas.

There aren't any gods.

Nothing is supernatural.

Reality is far cooler than your delusions.