Stephen Batchelor err on accumulated karma

by Paul Griffin, The Buddhist Channel, May 26, 2012

Stephen Batchelor's interpretation linking science with Buddhist (Does Buddhist need the supernatural stuff?), while accepting the law of cause and effect, is inconsistent in not providing any explanation of what happens to accumulated karma after death.

Buddhist doctrine of course definitely refers to reincarnation, for example the Anguttara Nikaya 6/63 states: "Threefold however, is the fruit of karma: ripening during the lifetime, ripening in the next birth, ripening in later births......".

A further difference is that the scientific method is analytical, it breaks things down into their component parts, wheras Buddhist proceeds towards an expansive synthesis, i.e. the four boundless states, the four immaterial spheres and indeed the central doctrine of non-self is opposed to the scientific focus on 'identity'.
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