Good points, but...

I still fail to see how the law of karma differs that much in its ethical implications from original sin. There is no such thing in Buddhism as someone who is born completely free of "bad" karma from previous lives and no such thing in Christianity (Jesus and His mother excepted) who were born free of original sin. So, again the Buddhist commandment of compassion and the Christian insistence on forgiveness strike me as quite similar. (I particularly appreciated your reference to Dante.) SR