One of the challenges put forth by The Agnostics camp (myself, SomewhatDisgusted, BalangodaMan, with help from Heshan) to The Believers (Yapa, Wijayapala, Off The Cuff, etc.) in the 1000+ comments discussion/debate that’s taking place in the comments section of the Akon & Buddhism article at Groundviews is: prove, using modern science or math or any other verifiable method available, to non-believers, that karma, reincarnation, nirvana, as described in Buddhism, are real aspects/actual things that exist in this world.
So far, in spite of their strong feeling that karma, reincarnation, & nirvana are real, and in spite of hundreds of comments by them, The Believers have not been able to show that karma, reincarnation and nirvana are in fact real – and not just speculative items used to introduce and sustain the Buddhist world view.
So, I will renew the call at this new article (since the previous article mentioned now has over 1000 comments – many wildly off point – and is reportedly making WordPress behave in strange ways); I invite The Believers to focus strictly at the question at hand – not on parables and pointless anger and name calling and mythological “history” – but to lay out the proof for the existence of karma, reincarnation, and nirvana in the real world. In the same way that one may lay out the proof for the existence of lightning or the brain’s capacity to think or the existence of gravity or the ability to travel at a thousand miles an hour – The Believers can use any hard-to-understand math or science, or even just common sense – and show how, as some believers (specially Yapa) claim – Buddhism is something more than a faith based religion (a great world religion, a human intellectual creation that is very useful to many, but, in the end, however, only a religion – with core elements such as karma, reincarnation, nirvana dependent on faith, with those items that cannot be verified to be real/true by a non-believer).
I am certain that hundreds of comments will issue forth here (as it did in the Akon & Buddhism article) from the minds & finger tips of The Believers. I plan on (& hopefully my agnostic brothers & sisters will aid me in this mission) pointing out whenever The Believers go off topic & try to evade the key question. So, lay out the facts Believers (& only the facts please), show us how karma, reincarnation, nirvana are real aspects of this world/this universe.
[Editors note: With well over one thousand comments, totalling over 270,000 words, the logic and arguments in the comment thread on Akon and Buddhism in Sri Lanka became laborious to navigate and for WordPress, technically challenging to host.
Sujewa, who on numerous occasions had problems commenting on the thread, was invited to submit this synopsis of the key arguments on that epic comment thread. We invite you to continue your debate and discussions here, perhaps for another 1000+ comments!]