Quote:Anyways, on an unrelated so far note, The only person I've met that wasn't a Christian/Mormon or an Atheist was one Hindu person and his family. They all seemed to be perfectly fine with me being an atheist. Is that normal for Hindus generally, like, is it only Abrahamic religions that get so uppity about it?
You know, it's funny you should mention that. In my personal studies (Which is formal and fairly extensive) of the different religions the Abrahamic religions are very unique. They all arose in the same area, for basically the same reason. An intrusive conquering force had created a large serf underclass that had limited rights and few freedoms. With the Hebrews it was the Assyrians and Persians, with the Christians it was the Romans, and again with the Islamic faith it was a Persian, patriarchal society that had risen up.
They arose out of a need to protect the indigenous groups from invaders, to create a very clear distinction between who was "ok" and who was not, and what ideals to follow. In many ways the books were civil rights movements, freeing people from the tyranny they lived under, though typically this freedom extended only to people within this new religion, a type of in-group/out-group moral mentality that permeates throughout history. An interesting note, the original word for Hebrew person and gentile were different, with only one granting the luxury of divine embodiment.
But I noticed the Eastern religions, the Native American religions, grew out of a different purpose, and there are still wars and caste systems, but in terms of the idea they will attack outsiders for non-belief isn't so much of a concern for them, the religion isn't rooted in survival.
Feel free to object to this, but this has been my personal conclusion. So yes, in my experience again, its almost exclusively Monotheistic Abrahamic followers who tend to get defensive, and it's my thought that the reason for this stems from the very origins of the religions themselves.
My religion is the understanding of my world. My god is the energy that underlies it all. My worship is my constant endeavor to unravel the mysteries of my religion. 
