Here's a poser.
A few months back, I wrote a series of essays on the connections between science and religion. In one of those essays, I pointed out that the phrase, "reality exists" is an essentially Christian religious concept which is specifically repudiated by Buddhists and at least one major school of Hinduism.
In the following months, I received a fair amount of criticism for that essay, most deriving from Buddhists and Hindus who refused to accept that their faith repudiated science.
Now, I discover that my article has become part of the curriculum at an on-line Buddhist university (although it is interesting that they cut out the first three paragraphs).
http://www.eng.mbu.ac.th/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=79
The question is, should I be upset that they took the whole article without asking me first, or pleased that they vindicated my position? I am opting for the latter, but with a bemused shake of the head...
And, before you put it out, they aren't necessarily really stealing. After all, if reality doesn't exist, they didn't steal anything, so my protestation to the contrary would fall on non-existent ears, as it were...
Actually, it is sort of reminiscent of the early days of the Internet when there were very strong arguments that because you could not reach out and touch the "Internet" that copyrights didn't exist in "thought space". Lucky for us that decades later when Al Gore finally got around to inventing the Internet, the feds got involved in protecting copyright. I say we just forget this incident ever occurred and soon enough, it won't have.
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