The British royals don’t cost the Irish people any more than any other foreign head of state.

Lucky nobody said they did.

The Royals also bring lots of tourist pounds into the UK. Google the biggest tourist attractions in the UK…

It’s not stupid if you are a Buddhist I would imagine

Stupid is not subjective. Stupid is objective. Read how he was selected and tell me it’s not stupid.

Taken from the Dali Lama’s website….relative to how the current Dalai Lama was chosen. When Lhamo Thondup was barely three years old, a search party that had been sent out by the Tibetan government to find the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama arrived at Kumbum monastery. It had been led there by a number of signs. One of these concerned the embalmed body of his predecessor, Thupten Gyatso, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, who had died aged fifty seven in 1933. During its period of sitting in state, the head was discovered to have turned from facing south to northeast. Shortly after that the Regent, himself a senior lama, had a vision. Looking into the waters of the sacred lake, Lhamo Lhatso, in southern Tibet, he clearly saw the Tibetan letters Ah, Ka and Ma float into view. These were followed by the image of a three storied monastery with a turquoise and gold roof and a path running from it to a hill. Finally, he saw a small house with strangely shaped guttering. He was sure that the letter Ah referred to Amdo, the northeastern province, so it was there that the search party was sent.

By the time they reached Kumbum, the members of the search party felt that they were on the right track. It seemed likely that if the letter Ah referred to Amdo, then Ka must indicate the monastery at Kumbum, which was indeed three storied and turquoise roofed. They now only needed to locate a hill and a house with peculiar guttering. So they began to search the neighbouring villages. When they saw the gnarled branches of juniper wood on the roof of the His Holiness parents house, they were certain that the new Dalai Lama would not be far away. Nevertheless, rather than reveal the purpose of their visit, the group asked only to stay the night. The leader of the party, Kewtsang Rinpoche, then pretended to be a servant and spent much of the evening observing and playing with the youngest child in the house.

The child recognised him and called out Sera lama, Sera lama. Sera was Kewtsang Rinpoche’s monastery. The next day they left only to return a few days later as a formal deputation. This time they brought with them a number of things that had belonged to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, together with several similar items that did not. In every case, the infant correctly identified those belonging to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama saying, Its mine. Its mine. This more or less convinced the search party that they had found the new incarnation.

Google the wealth and lifestyle of the DL

Stupid to a closed mind

John, what’s a closed mind in this context? You think the dead head might have pointed to the next DL by magic? As has been said, “an open mind is fine as long as your brains don’t fall out”.

Dumb media sheep

@William: very good, It gave me a pleasured grin. It would be salient to keep in mind that life in Tibet, while now grim under occupation by the Chinese, was by no means a spirirtual paradise previous to the annexation. It was an isolationist state practising an extreme version of religious feudalism, where the majority of the population in what we would consider extreme poverty, living in tents with little of no access to education. I’m quite convinced the Dali Lama is a pleasant, friendly chap, just as I think Charles is, for all his ridiculous upbringing, is probably a decent enough chap. Both are in their positions by accident, effectively, it was thrust upon them. But they only have these lives because the general population buy into the fantasy that there is anything behind the curtains.

@ Kevin: the myth of a person returning from the dead is equally stupid. To have faith in a religion you have to get over the obstacle that any religion contains elements of monumental stupidity involved with the hero origin story. If you you can still believe, then you are granted all the benefits and solace given by a religion. If you can’t accept the irrationality, you’ll end up a free-thinker. Not a joyous outlook on life.

Religious belief is universal and found in all cultures. As such it is clear that it is inherent in human minds. This does not confirm that anyone’s particular beliefs are true but they are no more stupid or even irrational than acceptance of the existence of other minds or even trust of our senses. Therefore if a Tibetan Buddhist’s worldview holds that reincarnation occurs and that the actions of buddhas benefit humans then the selection process makes complete sense to them.nn@ Karswell . Your use of the terms stupid in reference to believers and free-thinkers in relation to non-believers highlights the usual intellectual arrogance of anti-theists. If you truly believe that intelligence and reasoning are negatively correlated with religious belief then you are simply wrong.

Kevin, Religious belief, or more specifically superstition, is common in all human cultures. That’s probably more to do with the way our brains work than anything else. We are not naturally perfectly logical. If you think you’ve seen a lion then you act as if you have and do not conduct a scientific study to determine conclusively that there is one. We guess a lot. We make decisions on little evidence and we crave answers even if there are none. It proves nothing about the existence or not of gods, angels, devils, fairies, pishogs, unicorns, monsters, Santa Clause etc.

“….believe that intelligence and reasoning are negatively correlated with religious belief”

In the US about 80% maybe more of the population believe in gods. A survey done on the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science showed 5% believed in gods. The more intelligent and educated you are, particularly in Science, the less chance there is that you are superstitious.