Badfish

Psychedelia, I believe your answer is, is that humans are instilled with an instinct to search for our creator, in most cases we have been given the tools and instruction. And Hinduism doesn't satisfy that instinct.

Badfish

Not yet, have you?

Rhea

That might be a robust conclusion if MOST Hindus converted to Christianity. Or even a BUNCH. She's talking about two. Herself and her father. All of the other Hindus would disagree with you, apparently.

*sound of important point sailing right past badfish's head, unheeded*

The irony of this statement is thick. Thick.

mike_decock

You can always start with the Religious Tolerance site. They also have several external links under Hinduism.

-Mike...

Amaranth

*ahem*

You would realize that Hinduism is true if you would just open your heart and believe Vishnu first.

PsycheDelia

the problem with me posting in the early am hours is that my thought process is not very clear, and as a consequence my post is a little muddled. what i was trying to say i think is that i did have a chance to evaluate hinduism early in my life, but i rejected it simply because i was born into a christian family, and looked at things from a christian-centered viewpoint. maybe there was a subconscious feeling in my earlier years that if my dad chose not to be hindu, there must have been something lacking in that religion.

as i grew older however i realised that some of the criticisms that my family directed at hinduism were as valid for christianity - the collection of myths that hindus beleive in is, in my opinion, no different from the collection of myths in the bible. hinduism's polytheism finds some parallels in the trinity of christianity, and even stronger parallels in the pantheon of catholic saints. all that happened is that as soon as i was old enough to use my brain, i started rejecting christianity as well.

badfish, i have several responses to your points:

1. you said that all human beings are instilled with an instinct to search for a creator. i think that all human beings are driven to make sense of a sometimes senseless world, and therefore start looking for the origin of things in various manners. christianity has a creation story, the same way that hinduism has one, and the same way that science has one. so yes, hinduism does satisfy that instinct. i don't think any hindu will agree that their story is less valid than the christian one - i think they actually have the upper hand because they recognize it for what it is - a story, while christians, for the most part, accept their creation myth as fact.

2. i don't think that any hindu will agree that hinduism is a single, undivided faith. a lot depends on the geography, with some gods or godesses being more important in some parts of the country, local deities etc. most of them would agree that hindus are at best a collection of people with similar beliefs.

mike_decock

Couldn't you say the same thing about Christianity? Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestant Christians, Gnostic Christians and other groups all use different Scriptures. Heck, if you throw Judaism into the mix who only use the OT scriptures, you've got an even greater diversity of "faiths".

-Mike...

Bree

Great point, Mike. Each group is trying to establish itself as the only way to salvation (hence the term True Christian™) and in doing so they seek to disaffirm other denominations' claim to the same thing.

Demigawd

Wow! A whole ten minutes between this post and your prior one. Ten whole minutes' worth of scholarship, and you're making definite statements on the value of Hinduism.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

poului

Just more "Lying for Jesus" I suppose.....