King Tut, you're under arrest!

[jackshoegazer]

That's a pretty big curse...

Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:14 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police are looking for two mystics who persuaded a student to part with more than $160,000 in exchange for lifting a curse, RIA news agency reported Sunday.

"Two unknown women, on the pretext of lifting a curse, stole $150,000 and some jewelry by means of deception. The total amount stolen is estimated at 4.48 million roubles ($161,800)," the agency quoted a police source as saying.

The victim is a female student at Moscow's elite State Institute for International Affairs, RIA said. Many Russians are highly superstitious. They spend huge sums each year on faith healers and alternative medicine.

My question is, what if they really removed the curse?  Is it crime merely because we live in a pseudo-scientific culture that doesn't believe in curses?  We tithe to churches for blessings and miracles from the Lord God, so why don't we arrest priests and their ilk for theft by deception?

(x-posted to thelunarsociety)

Comments

[shaktipat.livejournal.com]

Yes, well it would be amusing to sue the Church for false advertising, in that they can't prove anyone has ever cashed in on the whole heaven offer. (But then, since Trent, they don't really demand money for their blessings, although they will take it as a gift; these women might have demanded it, and such a sum as to be suspicious.)

But seriously, the answer must be "yes, it's the metaphysics, stupid!": it's because we live in a godless culture mired in 19th century reductionist materialism (including Marxism of course) and early 20th century Logical Positivism, both of which are the ultimate products of Protestantism and Puritanism.

Why worry about metaphysics? Because every cultural product follows from it, that's why--but in the Kali Yuga, we don't care about such things anymore.

_Magic, Science, and the Scope of Rationality_ by S. Tambiah is worth your time for further reflection.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Oh, silly Kali Yuga, Apocalypse is for Christians!

[schmecky.livejournal.com]

You've reminded me of the only part I remember from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, where he discusses our disdain for the beliefs of Native Americans - a god for every natural process, etc. But what are our 'laws' of math and physics if not gods? We believe they are the invisible realities by which the universe operates, and that's exactly what our forebearers believed - just as fervently as we do.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I've had this theory that all athiests have done is to strip away God's powers and assign them all to random chance, thus really just renaming God and de-anthropomorphosize him.

Silly Athiests, God is for Christians.

[panther-nesmith.livejournal.com]

Wow. Wonder what the curse was?

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Forever cursed to be bilked out of large sums of money?