We Are All Hindus Now

M

Michael

歌舞伎
Valued Senior Member
.... at least those of us in the Americas (and probably most of Europe and Australasia) .

This is a positive thread with some really encouraging news :)


We Are All Hindus Now
Recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.
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"Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."



I wonder, of the religious people here at Sciforms, how many would agree with the above sentiment?



I'm not religious, but I like the direction Americans are heading in. IF we have to be superstitious (or at least a sizable percentage of the population) THEN we should teach tolerance in our beliefs.


Some positive news:
According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone.
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Some other interesting news:
According to a 2008 Harris poll - 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation.
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I think this is a good direction because it eliminates a "Hell" concept. We never really needed a Hell concept, we did find with Hades. So, it's good people are moving on and maturing in their beliefs.


So, that's great. Religious Fundamentalism is really the biggest enemy of our times so it's good to see people are, by their good nature, moving away from it.

:)
Michael
 
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Michael said:
I think this is a good direction because it eliminated "Hell". We never really needed a Hell concept...
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Ah, but there are hellish states in Hindu afterlife lore.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama#Naraka_.28Hindu.29

Naraka in Hinduism, is compared to the Abrahamic concept of Hell. However, Naraka in Hinduism is not equivalent to Hell in Christian faith. Naraka is only a purgatory where the soul gets purified of sin by sufferings. In Hindu myth, there are many hells, where Yama, Lord of Justice, sends human beings after death for appropriate punishment.
 
Hinduism, taken seriously, is no hippie commune btw...where all are welcome and everyone does what they wilt.

They can be just as austere and dogmatic as any other religious culture.
 
It's not that we are really becoming Hindu, just that our societies are multicultural and so are becoming much more tolerant in our religious outlook. Somewhat mirroring certain aspects of Indian culture (maybe due to the same reasons?)

What do you think? maybe? I certainly know a lot of Americans I speak with think like this - i mean, are really open-minded in terms of their beliefs.
 
Michael said:
I certainly know a lot of Americans I speak with think like this - I mean, are really open-minded in terms of their beliefs.
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Whats really happening is that increasingly they have NO beliefs.

If you have no beliefs you become tolerant of all beliefs.
 
I agree that Americans are increasingly becoming agnostic/atheist..

In general it seems that Americans have some sort of belief in something and enough of one that they are uncomfortable with me having no belief. From my experience Americans seem to gravitate towards the idea of a God, but maybe mixed in with an idealized native American Great Spirit and the idea that the environment should be looked after... a good step in a positive direction.
 
Michael said:
From my experience Americans seem to gravitate towards the idea of a God, but maybe mixed in with an idealized native American Great Spirit and the idea that the environment should be looked after... a good step in a positive direction.
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In Christianity there is a great divide between spirit and matter. Even though God created matter the new testament upholds the ideal of leaving this earthly plane to return home to God's spiritual realm.

The earth is God's responsibility.

Man's responsibility is to leave it behind and ascend to heaven...through the miracle of accepting Christ's sacrifice.

The native americans see a more integrated picture, with the spiritual dimension happily co-existing with mountains and rivers...rocks and trees.

An integration which demands human responsibility for the earth.

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/natrel.htm

Important as it is to appreciate the affinities between the religious cultures of Indians and early modern Europeans, there were real differences that must be kept in mind. The most important is that Indians did not distinguish between the natural and the supernatural. On the contrary, Native Americans perceived the “material” and “spiritual” as a unified realm of being—a kind of extended kinship network. In their view, plants, animals and humans partook of divinity through their close connection with “guardian spirits,” a myriad of “supernatural” entities who imbued their “natural” kin with life and power. By contrast, Protestant and Catholic traditions were more inclined to emphasize the gulf that separated the pure, spiritual beings in heaven—God, the angels, and saints—from sinful men and women mired in a profane world filled with temptation and evil.
 
This is written by someone who probably has no clue what Hinduism is.

I've lived in the States and no they are not like Hindus, far from it. Occupying and killing people while demonising them is not Hinduism.

One can only hope that Hindus do not think it is "cool" to become like them./
 
Carcano,
I think Americans are moving away from this traditionalist outlook on nature/man dichotomy and while they may not know a lot about Native American religiosity they do appreciate this "one with the environment" aspect of it.

Americans are funny. Many think Constitutional ideals are somehow "Biblical". I think they are becoming more open-minded and maybe are moving in a positive direction. I like to see Americans actively weed out intolerant ideas as we progress forward.

SAM,
PMS can be tempered with high Calcium supplements together with Chaste Tree oil. But you have to take it daily, not just when you are feeling moody. Also, SSRI's can be affective in some people.

I don't seem to remember the USA occupying India so really you needn't worry about anything. Hell, India's GDP has been increasing since having the opportunity to trade with the USA.


Anyway...
 
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Sorry its not PMS to look at the history of the United States and the history of Hinduism and see them as polar opposites.

Please don't insult Hinduism by insinuating that anything the US does is in any way reminiscent of any Hindu philosophy.

Its not.
 
Michael said:
.... at least those of us in the Americas (and probably most of Europe and Australasia) .

This is a positive thread with some really encouraging news :)


We Are All Hindus Now


"Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."



I wonder, of the religious people here at Sciforms, how many would agree with the above sentiment?
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Ummm you made a few statements above. I cannot agree with both cause they are in conflict.

So are you asking if i agree with the many paths lead to God?

or

That eternity with God comes only through believing Jesus?





I'm not religious, but I like the direction Americans are heading in. IF we have to be superstitious (or at least a sizable percentage of the population) THEN we should teach tolerance in our beliefs.
Click to expand...

I believe what Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

I have hundus living in my street, athiests and even a pagan. I tolerate them without much effort.


I think this is a good direction because it eliminates a "Hell" concept. We never really needed a Hell concept, we did find with Hades. So, it's good people are moving on and maturing in their beliefs.
Click to expand...

Well seeing that the Lake of Fire is true, trying to eliminate it as a concept would be a wrong thing to do.


So, that's great. Religious Fundamentalism is really the biggest enemy of our times so it's good to see people are, by their good nature, moving away from it.

:)
Michael
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I guess that depends on what one views as Religious Fundamentalism?

If you think that i am a "Religious Fundamentalist" then you are sadly mistaken in your view that i am your enemy.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
Michael said:
It's not that we are really becoming Hindu, just that our societies are multicultural and so are becoming much more tolerant in our religious outlook. Somewhat mirroring certain aspects of Indian culture (maybe due to the same reasons?)
Click to expand...

I had to reply to this extreme case of naivety. Sadly you use the example of hunduism as your glowing example of an open minded religion.

Tell that to the tens of thousands of muslims who where hacked and burnt to death by hundu mobs during the times of the partition of india and pakistan, tell it again to the victims of hundu extremism of recent times who have died by the hands of the allies of the BJP

Here have a read:
Daily Times
reporter: Khalid Hasan
January 15, 2004

"Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House’s Centre for Religious Freedom who recently published a book on the rise of Hindu extremism in India, writes that a country once personified by Mahatma Gandhi is fast becoming known for religious hatred and violence. While India remains the world’s largest democracy, the ruling BJP is linked to Hindu extremist groups like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which mount hate campaigns and sometimes-violent attacks against religious minorities and demand that Hinduism dominate society and politics. The RSS was founded by admirers of fascism and Nazism, produced Gandhi’s murderers and is now perhaps the world’s largest paramilitary organisation, with millions of members, he adds."
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So much for your hundu tolerance perception. But then again with the statement below you are an example of "hindu tolerance"


QUOTE=Michael
Religious Fundamentalism is really the biggest enemy of our times
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Oh how tolerant you are of Religious Fundamentalists. NOT.

You are the intolerant person you claim others to be. The above "hate statement" proves just how intolerant you are.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
Suppose the Hindu teaches his kids that the Muslim kids are on their own path to enlightenment and heaven.
And the Muslim teaches his kids that the Hindu kids are polytheists and on a corrupted path to ignorance and hell.

Can you really be all that surprised when one day the Hindu starts teaching his kids that the Muslims are a bunch of arse-holes. And then a fight breaks out? In the end we are talking about people here. Most people can only take being poked just so many times.

It's very interesting that many people in the USA are coming to similar conclusions as are found in some Hindu philosophy. I think this is due to (1) exposure to a multitude of beliefs (2) wealth.

People in the USA have a pretty open media and now-a-days people learn a lot about the other ways of belief. Second, people in the USA are rich (relatively speaking). The same could be said of India. A lot of beliefs and so there was an openness to them and they were pretty wealthy.
 
i think it's really nice, kinda chaotic and illogical like atheism but at least with a happy ending and a spiritual life.

now i wonder what means will those new peaceful hindus take to spread their new peaceful hinduism:D

a war on terror perhaps?(just kidding)
 
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Michael and his like have no clue what they are talking about. He has never actually seen a Hindu religious procession or met a kar sevak
 
S.A.M. said:
Michael and his like have no clue what they are talking about. He has never actually seen a Hindu religious procession or met a kar sevak
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Oh ho, from the chick who said some people need to see and touch their gods (aka: the little people who are too small minded to know better .. unlike SAM).

See here:
Is it possible the Indian Goddesses are real Gods?
Micheal's answer: Yes, it is possible.
SAM's answer: The USA is to blame for the worlds ills since the dawn of time (even though they have only been a world power for about 40-60 years).

Are Hindu beliefs equally as valid as my own beliefs?
Micheal's answer: Yes, they are.
SAM's answer: The USA is to blame for the worlds ills since the dawn of time (even though they have only been a world power for about 40-60 years).

Simple really,
:D


What's interesting is that Americans are actually progressing PAST their own inherent intolerance to reach conclusions Indian Hindus arrived at millennial ago. Something SAM, an Indian, isn't able to do. Now, THAT is irony. The quintessential fat loud American is more Hindu than SAM!

Who'd a thunk it
:shrug:

:)
Michael
 
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