(November 10, 2013 at 1:04 pm)Texas Sailor Wrote: I'm pretty sure Hinduism is a form of Polytheism, I honestly don't know much about it. Apo will know what to tell you if she sees this. I also don't know for certain, but I think it's native origin is India as well.
"Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.”
-Sam Harris
You have to understand something about terms like theism, monotheism, polytheism, worship, faith, piety etc. Each of these concepts has been coined by Christian priests (or appropriated from elsewhere) to talk about Christianity. These are theological concepts and parts of the Christian religious life.
Through many centuries of Christian domination in Europe, these terms have become part of the daily natural language use (in European languages).
When Europeans (travelers, traders, missionaries) first traveled to Asia and Africa and America, they didn't even consider the possibility that they would not find religions there. Whatever practices they saw there, they presupposed that it MUST be religion. e.g An African bowing before a statue: oh this must be their god, and the African bowing before the statue is the way he worships his god. As I said, concepts like worship were first coined by Christian priests.
It is inconceivable to westerners both then and now to see these practices as anything other than religion.
Why this pervasive belief in the universality of religion? This is because the universality of religion itself was originally a Christian theological belief. God at one time inscribed the true religion in the hearts of man, but gradually it became corrupted by the Devil and his minions and degenerated into many false "polytheistic relgions" which worshipped false 'gods'.
This religious belief (and other associated beliefs) became secularized over many centuries, so even atheists/freethinkers are operating within this framework.
So when Europeans went to Asia, they assumed what they saw was religion and started creating and constructing all sorts of religions (in their head, not in actual reality) that didn't exist and don't exist now either. Religions like 'Hinduism', 'Buddhism', 'Taoism' etc. These are constructs that only exist in western universities and books written by those operating within the western framework. 'Hinduism' doesn't exist in India; it is a western experiential construct that only exists in the minds and books of westerners and the western educated.
Please read through and really think about what I said before you respond.
thank you.
