Prophecies
In his book, The Big Short , Michael Lewis talks about a fund manager named Steve Eisman who, as a young man, decided to study the Jewish holy book, the Talmud. Why? “Not because he had the slightest interest in God but because he was curious about its internal contradictions.” I didn’t read religious stuff with that aim ; but I did start to notice the contradictions as I went along. Take prophecies, for instance. Almost every religion has them. A prophecy implies that the future is pre-determined. So does that mean there’s no free will? And if it’s true that there’s no such thing as free will, then it is illogical to claim that heaven, hell, rebirth or nirvana are based on your actions, right? Take Kamsa. After hearing the prophecy that he’d be killed by Devaki’s 8 th born, if he had turned over a new leaf, would he still have been killed? A la Angulimala? Or would he have been spared, in which case all future celestial prophecies would have been considered non-binding...