harbans wrote:Actually she did pretty well. Clearly she did'nt counter insult Christianity. She tried in her own way saying 'One God many paths'. And towards the end when they hold hands she to their dismay says she thought of Krishna. What is clearly evident that the upbringing of Sara is less bigotted than Molly and her 'regular' friend. This was an attack on 'faith', albeit a minor one. In the end she walks off on them. She was initially taken aback and felt very uncomfortable but comes off as tolerant and non appeasing. I agree that parents must inculcate values and knowledge about core doctrine, such that their children can possess 'tools' to ward off such 'assaults'.
I think the great thing about that video is the comments by fellow Americans on the Youtube page. Almost all of them blast the two girls for their stupidity, which shows that most of them reject such bigotry and goes to support the contention in the earlier article that Americans are becoming more of an 'many roads leading to god' type society much like Hinduism or Buddhism.
Actually if you look at America the great country, the bastion of open speech and free enterprise, and the openness, flexibility and ability to re-invent itself, that makes it a superpower, it has a lot more to do with Indic philosophy than puritanical religions 'of the book'. I am referring not to the hoi polloi that thinks their country was founded on Christianity, or the evangelicals/rednecks who are beyond any form of logic, but rather to the core principles of America and it's real founders, that has made it successful.
I don't care much for any religion, but looking at various religions around in the world here is my take on them (I mean no offense to anybody):
Religions 'of the book' to me tend to be Utopian and cult-like, much like communism. Basically somebody turns up and codifies a bunch of laws and people are supposed to unquestioningly follow that for perpetuity, much like the diktats of the Communist Party or the little red book. Over time they tend to get detached from reality. The ones that appear to be compatible with modernity, like Christianity or Judaism have moved away from a very literal interpretation, as opposed to Islam (which is essentially a plagiarism of old testament Judaism with retarded Arab tribal culture and a whole lot of bigotry added on) whose followers are backward by comparison due to literal interpretation. By contrast Indic religions seem to be more cognizant of reality, i.e acceptance of Mother Nature and more at peace with the circle of life. For example Shiva is recognized both for great destructive powers and tremendous creative energy, you can see similar stuff in nature all the time for example:
1> Apex predators like Lions that kill deer/zebra are essential for the survival of the very same animals
2> Fire which is the probably the greatest destroyer of sequoia/redwood trees is also crucial for their survival
Such stuff is beyond the reasoning abilities of the good/bad, black/white Utopian religions, but have been part and parcel of eastern philosophy and religions for thousands of years.
Going back to my point about what makes America tick, I would say it owes heavily to people such as Jefferson, Payne, Franklin etc, who were not puritanical Christians but genuine intellectuals and also interested in deism and recognition of nature and reality, much like Indic culture. Other influential Americans like Ayn Rand's ideals of free enterprise and destruction of weak enterprises to make way for new ones ultimately keeping the overall society healthy are more in tune again with Indic principles, that ironically Indian economists ignored for several decades. It is these people that are responsible in a major way for America's success, not some jackass tele-evangelist or retards who believe that Katrina was punishment brought upon them by Gay people.
So I would suggest that the most influential Americans have never been too far from India and Indic thought, despite the practical difficulties of the cold war and foreign policy influenced by the British troublemakers during the post WWII period.