PDBROYLES@OWUCOMCN (The Golden Rule: He who has all the Gold makes the rules.) (02/08/90)
Uggh, I guess I'mm going to have to go through it once again! I really wish that people wouldn't attack or criticize other peoples religions unless they knew or understood what they were talking about. Once again, MAKS and I will go out it, because MAKS intends to quote a biased account on the Hindu tradition. Once again, MAKS will post information which is biased, tilted, and sometimes flat out wrong because his source is approaching the subject from a Western Christian attitude not from the Hindu perspective. Before I go any further, I want to add, that I am not an expert on Hinduism. I've done some study into the religion, taken a course, and have several Hindu friends, but that doesn't necessarily qualify me as an expert and if I make a mistake and somebody catches it, please correct me either privately or publically, but if MAKS intends to attack the Hindu religion then I WILL defend it! ************************************************************************* > On the way home, I heard some interesting things on Hinduism. They believe in > reincarnation, and you come back based on the life you lived before. Does not Christianity teach that our next life will be based on the one we live right now? > This > makes for some interesting customs. (And they say Christianity isn't > liberating) They say no such thing about Christianity!!! In fact, it is not beyond the Hindu concept to be BOTH Hindu and Christian! In their mind, the two are compatiable, and I have personally met several people who claim to be both Hindu and Christian! You also don't understand the type of salvation offered by Hinduism. > They would beat dogs. Why? Because they wanted the souls in the > dogs to be uncomfortable so that when they came back again, they wouldn't want > to be a dog again. I have NEVER heard of this, in fact, the Hindu's have a practice called Ahimsa. Ahimsa means not to harm anything. So strong is this belief, that some Hindu's (in particular a side religion known as Jainism) would wear mask so that they wouldn't acceidentally kill bacteria in the air, some would sweep the ground before them so that they wouldn't acceidentally step on something killing it. Many Hindu's are Vegetarian because meat was a living creature. To kill something was very bad, because if you kill at the wrong time, then you may be the cause of that creatures returning in a lower life form (a Christian example, if I killed someone immediately after they accepted Christ, it wouldn't be all that bad in most of your minds because that person is now going to heaven. But if I killed the same person 2 minutes before he accepted Christ then it would be on my head that he died unforgiven! Make sense?) To harm or hurt something, even the lowest form of life, was piling up bad Karma on ones self!!! Anyway, one doesn't choose not to be a dog, but rather earns the right not to be a dog. One doesn't choose to be a human, but his Karma determines whether or not he is a human. The logic presented by MAKS and the 700 club goes against virtually everything *I* know and understand about Hinduism. (If I beat a dog, it would be just like fate to make me reincarnated in the form of a dog in my next lifetime and I Don't want to risk that---Hindu logic not mine.) > They have the lower class of citizens called the > "untouchables", and these people are lower class because of the life they had > led before. Because of this, they do NOTHING to help them so that "they will > be uncomfortable and desire for a better life when they come back." On and on. Again, I say that one doesn't choose his place but rather his actions in a previous lifetime determine them. If a Hindu ignored the untouchables (an outdate illegal custom by the way) it wasn't so that they wouldn't choose to be an untouchable in their next lifetime, but rather because that person had done something deserving such a punishment. It sounds kinda harsh to us today, but Christians did the simular things (Jews, lepers, AIDS victems...) It is also now an illegal practice, which can only be found today in a few outlying villages where tradition is still very strong. > This is where New Age comes from. Yes, most of the New Age Movement can trace its origins back to Hinduism. > Pat seemed to think the reason people go for it is that it does not demand a > change, Wrong! It does demand a change, in fact the religions of India tend to be the ones that demand the most! If only I could explain ALL the details, but Hinduism demands self sacrafice in the extreme. Ideally people go through 4 stages of life. The final stage being to go off on ones own, leaving their family, and become a monk! >and you have no sins to confess, no god to rely on for the forgiveness > of sins and the like. Sin in the Western understanding is a foreign term. Everything they do has a consequence, but good and evil are vague terms. To an example that we are presently discussing on this list, illness. Is illness inherently good or evil? Is death inherently good or evil? No, its ones attitudes towards such. What one person believes is evil may in fact turn out to be for the better in which case it is in fact good [This whole paragraph is for those of you who do not understand the Asian mentaility at all, because good and evil are no/t terms they understand. It is Fate/Heaven that knows what is good and evil not humans. About the "no god to rely on for the forgiveness of sins and the like." A Hindu would say that they do not necessarily know which acts are inherently "sins" and which are not. They do, however, ideally practice very strict personal standards. > Only problem is they believe they are on a "wheel of > life" they just go round and round. Fate or what ever might deal them a "do > not pass go" and they may come back as a dog or what ever. Let me try to BRIEFLY and as accurately as is possible explain their belieffs. Hindu's believe that they are on a continous cycle known as Samsara---the wheel of life. The endless wheel of suffering death and rebirth. They believe that this physical world is inherently bad, and that only the spiritual world truly exist (Nirvana). Thus, physical pleasures (sex, eating, etc) are false pleasures---real pleasure lies in Nirvana. Unfortunately, mankind, for the most part does not know how to escape from this endless cycle and is thus doomed to be reincarnated. Usually, only the highest life forms (Humans and Cows) can find the key to Mochtcha (pronounced Mock-sha), the release from Samsara. It is this to which mankind should strive! To obtain Mochtcha is to be released from this cycle of pain and suffering and find Nirvana (Heaven). This is a VERY rough explaination on the goal of Hinduism: To escape this world and cycle and enter Nirvana. So what is the deal with Karma and reincarnation? Unfortunately, only a very few can obtain this "Christ Consciousness" and find release from this world of suffering (most do not see the pain in which they are really in, and can't let go of their earthy nature. THis shouldn't be hard for a group of Christians to understand! Not many people are willing to sacrafice all for Christianity, and in a like manner not everybody is willing to sacrafice everything eventhough they will gain more if they did so.) As a result, most people are trapped in this endless cycle of Samsara, which is fairly rigidly set up and monitered by ones Karma. Right actions lead to good Karma which leads to elevation on the cycle, while bad actions lead to bad Karma and a devaluation of ones position. one doesn't make a conscious thought as to where he will end up, but can make decisions to improve his state. (on a side note, a dog that kills something will not accumulate as much bad Karma as a Human that kills something for two reasons. 1) it is part of the dogs nature to kill for food and 2) the dog doesn't know anybetter, thus the Human is at the most risk for gaining bad Karma but is also able to accumulate it easier because of his intellect. I hope this makes things a little more clearer, but like I said, I am not an expert on Hinduism, but I will defend it against unfair biased and uneducated attacks! I really wish that people would research their subject out before condemning something on blind faith. And as I asked MAKS all of last semester, have you EVER read and reasearched ANY religion from their point of view using their sources and reading by members of that religion? Have you ever done so with an open mind? Or do you feel that publications by groups such as CARIS and the 700 club can be taken as gospel? I have yet to find a professor who would! S*M*I*L*E PDB
ACS_BELSCAMP@UWRF (Queen of Raisins) (02/11/90)
AWWWWW......c'mon people why don't we all just leave the other religions
alone. There IS freedom of religion in this country.
Can I ask something without making everyone angry??? probably not -
but, I am going to ask it anyway.
Why do you continuously put down other religions?? Does it intimidate you
that other people believe in something different? If we all have so much
faith in God then we don't have to worry about others. Why don't we try
to take care of ourselves - let the other people take care of themselves.
I have learned in psychology class that many people who put down others
all the time have some sort of inferiority complex. Now I am not trying
to say that you do - but you might. I feel just fine about the God I
believe in - which is the christian God. I don't have to justify my
beliefs to anyone on this list or myself by putting down other religions.
I feel that my God is the right God and that is all that should matter.
There is nothing wrong with sharing the things that God does for us - but
telling other people that they are wrong because they don't the same things
you do is very unchristianlike (or I believe that it is). There is no way
you can say your religion is THE religion and theirs isn't.
Does anyone have any real proof that they have not been reincarnated????
Love,
Jill