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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 6, 2013 at 5:24 pm
(November 6, 2013 at 5:14 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: (November 6, 2013 at 2:44 pm)LastPoet Wrote: It seems to me that you are calling out a specific member... Oh wait, nevermind, Its none of my business... 
Wait your not a mod now? Now what was explained to me is that Hinduism isn't so much a religion like Christianity so much as its a whole culture reactively packaged as a religion in response to Islam. That left me wondering
Huh? I guess I need a more definitive definition for Hinduism. Last I checked, Buddhism and Taoism both(and possibly the pre-buddhist Tibetan 'Bon' religion) have been influenced by Hindu thought. Since these are all pre- BCE, and Islam is...8th? Ccentury CE, I don't follow.
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 6, 2013 at 6:04 pm
(November 6, 2013 at 4:24 pm)futilethewinds Wrote: Well, I think you can be culturally Hindu and an atheist. Just like you can be culturally Jewish or Catholic and be an atheist. Religions come with traditions and holidays which may be celebrated even if one does not subscribe to the religion itself.
Are you a catholic atheist or a protestant atheist?
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 6, 2013 at 6:13 pm
(November 6, 2013 at 6:04 pm)Chuck Wrote: (November 6, 2013 at 4:24 pm)futilethewinds Wrote: Well, I think you can be culturally Hindu and an atheist. Just like you can be culturally Jewish or Catholic and be an atheist. Religions come with traditions and holidays which may be celebrated even if one does not subscribe to the religion itself.
Are you a catholic atheist or a protestant atheist? I wasn't really culturally raised either way, although we do celebrate Christian holidays.
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 6, 2013 at 6:49 pm
I've a Hindu friend who is an atheist. Hinduism has many schools of thought, my friend describes his family's as being similar to Unitarian Universalism, by which I take it, his sect includes atheists as valid members. This would be distinct from a Hindu who just doesn't believe in God/gods.
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 7, 2013 at 4:30 am
(This post was last modified: November 7, 2013 at 4:32 am by genkaus.)
(November 6, 2013 at 2:14 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: I read a explanation for a user here on Hinduism that said it's basically like if anceint greece took their whole culture and packaged it into something called greekism. Now india has a very rich history that developed some explicitly atheist philisophies that some consider to be part of hinduism hence the question.
This should answer the question:
http://nirmukta.com/2009/11/28/is-hindu-...n-culture/
(November 6, 2013 at 2:47 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: (November 6, 2013 at 2:44 pm)LastPoet Wrote: It seems to me that you are calling out a specific member... Oh wait, nevermind, Its none of my business...
No I'm not actually, apo was the one that explained that bit of hinduism to me, but in all honesty it was just something I'm wondering about
Really? I thought I was the Ist one to think of the Greekism analogy.
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 7, 2013 at 1:30 pm
(November 7, 2013 at 4:30 am)genkaus Wrote: (November 6, 2013 at 2:14 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: I read a explanation for a user here on Hinduism that said it's basically like if anceint greece took their whole culture and packaged it into something called greekism. Now india has a very rich history that developed some explicitly atheist philisophies that some consider to be part of hinduism hence the question.
This should answer the question:
http://nirmukta.com/2009/11/28/is-hindu-...n-culture/
(November 6, 2013 at 2:47 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: No I'm not actually, apo was the one that explained that bit of hinduism to me, but in all honesty it was just something I'm wondering about
Really? I thought I was the Ist one to think of the Greekism analogy.
I may have been you, I could very well be mistaken.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 7, 2013 at 9:55 pm
(November 6, 2013 at 2:14 pm)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: I read a explanation for a user here on Hinduism that said it's basically like if anceint greece took their whole culture and packaged it into something called greekism. Now india has a very rich history that developed some explicitly atheist philisophies that some consider to be part of hinduism hence the question.
There is a Hindu tradition that is atheistic. It is known as
Sāṃkhya
The system rejects God, gods, creator gods and personal gods. Instead, much like Buddhism it distinguishes a true reality from the false reality presented to us by the sense and the conclusions stemming from these.
Here is brief functional description of the system,
Sankhya and Vedanta
"This time the bullet cold rocked ya a yellow ribbon instead of a swastika?" -RATM
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 8, 2013 at 4:25 am
(November 7, 2013 at 9:55 pm)Dionysius Wrote: There is a Hindu tradition that is atheistic. It is known as
Sāṃkhya
The system rejects God, gods, creator gods and personal gods. Instead, much like Buddhism it distinguishes a true reality from the false reality presented to us by the sense and the conclusions stemming from these.
Here is brief functional description of the system,
Sankhya and Vedanta
The only problem is whether Samkhya - or even Vedanta for that matter - can be called "Hindu" traditions - with Hindu meaning a religious identity rather than a cultural one? Hindu religious revivalists had the bad habit of putting the stamp of their religion on anything and everything they could see as originating from the Indian Subcontinent.
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 8, 2013 at 5:28 pm
(November 8, 2013 at 4:25 am)genkaus Wrote: (November 7, 2013 at 9:55 pm)Dionysius Wrote: There is a Hindu tradition that is atheistic. It is known as
Sāṃkhya
The system rejects God, gods, creator gods and personal gods. Instead, much like Buddhism it distinguishes a true reality from the false reality presented to us by the sense and the conclusions stemming from these.
Here is brief functional description of the system,
Sankhya and Vedanta
The only problem is whether Samkhya - or even Vedanta for that matter - can be called "Hindu" traditions - with Hindu meaning a religious identity rather than a cultural one? Hindu religious revivalists had the bad habit of putting the stamp of their religion on anything and everything they could see as originating from the Indian Subcontinent.
Hindu = Indus dwellers or those who dwell by the indus river or something like that. Insofar as Sankhya it bears the stamp of hinduism - it uses their religious symbols it just removes the superstitious aspects.
"This time the bullet cold rocked ya a yellow ribbon instead of a swastika?" -RATM
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RE: Can someone be hindu and a Atheist?
November 8, 2013 at 10:09 pm
(November 8, 2013 at 5:28 pm)Dionysius Wrote: Hindu = Indus dwellers or those who dwell by the indus river or something like that. Insofar as Sankhya it bears the stamp of hinduism - it uses their religious symbols it just removes the superstitious aspects.
Given that Indus also flows through Tibet and Pakistan, that would make all the Muslims and Buddhists living there Hindus as well. That's the problem with conflating a religious identity with its geographical origin.
It bears the stamp of Hinduism only so far as proponents of Hinduism have been able to put it on it. Its a philosophy - it has no symbols or rituals to use. Saying that is like saying Aristotle's philosophy borrows from Greek mythology - it just removes the whole mythology first.
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