Calvin wrote: However, if you had said that "you have a CONSCIOUS bias against anything publically religious" you might have been closer to the truth.
Good. This is an excellent starting point for something I would like to say.
Simply put "Religion" is an alien word that is defined as follows in an online dictionary. I will ignore the idiocy (regarding idol wordhip) in the definition - except to comment on it later
The outward act or form by which men indicate their
recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having
power over their destiny, to whom obedience, service, and
honor are due; the feeling or expression of human love,
fear, or awe of some superhuman and overruling power,
whether by profession of belief, by observance of rites
and ceremonies, or by the conduct of life; a system of
faith and worship; a manifestation of piety; as, ethical
religions; monotheistic religions; natural religion;
revealed religion; the religion of the Jews; the religion
of idol worshipers.
This fits in very well with your attitude. Religion should not be discussed.
But Hindu dharma is not about religion per se - as Valkan's post on page 2 of this thread (and much other Hindu knowledge) shows.
Nevertheless whatever is known from the Hindu perspective has always been classified as "religion" placed in the back seat, ignored or even derided as undesirable. For Hindus in India this is a serious lacuna. Hindus live lives that involve modes of behavior NOT mandated by God, but by certain rules of conduct. These rules are not too far different from the Ten commandments or other rule-sets followed by humans.
They have no connection with "God". The conduct of a Hindu's life is not threatened by punishment or reward from God, but from logical thought and theory that does not involve God - incomprehensible as that may sound to a person (such as yourself) brought up on standard monotheistic belief.
It may put you to sleep and it is your right to sleep when you are sleepy - but you have no right to redefine it as "religious" without redefining the meaning of the word religion, and without staying awake long enough to try and learn why Hindus have their knickers in a twist in a world where your comfortable, monotheistic, Christianity biased world view is comforting, present almost everywhere, and keeps you awake.
The atmosphere in India is that welcoming - a fact that you may not acknowledge. It allows you that comfort and ability to sleep through Hindu discourse despite the fact of hundreds of millions of Hindus living Hindu lives under a voluntarily accepted and secular umbrella.
I am saying for the third time that a Hindu viewpoint is absent from what is "generally known" in this world and two examples of that are the dictionary reference to "the religion of idol worshipper" and your allergy to hearing about what you have been taught to consider as "religion."
Since Hindu thought has been generally classified as religion and it has been opposed and sidelined as "religious thought" to the extent that people such as yourself can dismiss it from your mind as boring and undersirable, - it will be discussed under the religion thread.
That might change when there is more general agreement that Hindu thought has no specific battle with Christianity or Islam, but the reverse is true - i.e. that Christianity and Islam are both at war with Hindu thought because their core guidelines oppose anything that does not conform.
I see it as no business of yours to oppose anything that does not
a) Criticise you
b) Criticise your belief system
c) means something to a large number of Indians
Hindu dharma is all of the above.
If you or your belief system is being criticised - it is your right to defend your viewpoint. You will find none of that in Hindu thought - if you stayed awake long enough.
Person C? Where is my hammer and chisel? I wanna make a statue!
]
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