Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Prophecy ? [Re: Tanaj] #17202 - 06/07/02 04:30 AM Edit Reply Quote

Hmm, Tanaj, maybe this isn't the proper way to discuss things. It sounds to me like a badminton game with both sides trying to smash the other out of the game, forgetting to enjoy the game of discussing. A debate-like discussion is okay, when it leads to something. Some suggestions Maybe it's an idea to concentrate on the similarities of concepts, which there are plenty of. (This counts equally for the Hindus) It's always very good to make a difference between ideas, personal and social behaviour and organized behaviour. Last but not least, being specific about the subject matter will also help. This helps in the case of very delicate subjects. Of course this counts also very much for Indian people. Unfortunately, emotions come too often in to prove or disprove a point. But it never proves anything beyond emotions. My personal approach is to be critical towards any tradition, also the Hindu, but I don't want to touch the devotion of people, for that's not my business. Some of my remarks regarding Hinduism are very much against the traditional views. When something is not true about other traditions, I give comments on that too as far as my knowledge and common sense goes. Note The frustration of some people is, I believe, not really against religion as such, though they may formulate it in that way. It's more against the historical contacts that have been with certain PEOPLE of other religions who tried to annihilate the indigenous traditions, with force, education, disfavouring indigenous functions, etc. The frustration of especially Indian society is the historical antipathy towards its traditions by certain factions. The sympathy is fortunately there too, but it was in recent centuries too meagre to balance the antipathy. Most European countries became more loose towards religious matters, especially from the sixties of the last century. The people were more absorbed by the consuming behaviour. In a way western countries lost too much of their religious tradition (there should have been modernising) to create a vacuum, which may be the source of many troubles in western society. Modernising is the problem of every major religion. The reverse is to be observed in a fast changing, uncertainty creating world: conservatism is the main hype, unfortunately.