Posted by:
Troy
(
)
Date: December 11, 2011 09:14PM
In Eastern religions like Hinduism, nobody is concerned about whether the stories in the scriptures are actual historical facts. That point would be irrelevant, since they are intended to teach a moral lesson rather than a historically-factual lesson.
If you went to India and started telling people that the Bhagavad Gita is not a true story, they'd probably just give you a really odd look. It doesn't matter whether it's true or not. It's the principles it teaches that matter. It's not even necessary to believe the gods are real. To accuse an atheist in that society of being non-Hindu would be unimaginable. One never leaves Hinduism. It's more fundamental than religion, it's a whole different way of seeing the world. It's also much more reasonable because to see the scriptures in a non-absolute way is to be more open to new ideas. Let's face it, if you take the Bible literally, you have to deny a lot of modern scientific discovery, like the very backbone of biology: evolutionary theory.
Eastern religions have clung to this idea that religion is inclusionary. To show the meaning of that word, the contrast being exclusionary Abrahamic religions, a Hindu person might be open to converting to Christianity, but the idea of converting is much different. Again, one never stops being a Hindu, but such a person would instead "include" Christianity into the Hindu view, and indeed, millions have done just that. But if you told this person that after converting to Christianity, one is no longer Hindu, she would probably be flabbergasted. You might get a response like "No, I'm Hindu, but now I'm Christian too!" There might be more to it than that. A Hindu person can be Buddhist or Tao or any combination. This is how Gandhi approached the matter.
In a Western, Abrahamic society, just try getting away with saying that you're both Christian and Jewish, or Muslim and Christian too or any combination. These religions are exclusionary. You're either in or you're an outsider.
In a society like India, being atheist is just one way of approaching the world. But what's more, in Hindu society, it is considered offensive to try to persuade someone to abandon their religion in favor of another. It's fine and acceptable to teach others about your own religion, but if you try to get people to give up their native religion to join yours, you'll be crossing the line. You can persuade them to include your religion in their beliefs, but asking someone to abandon Hinduism is a little like asking them to deny their native language is based on Sanskrit. It just won't make sense.
The philosophy that underlies this inclusionary outlook runs very deep and its roots are more ancient than written language.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2011 09:19PM by Troy.