The original post in this thread (made way back in 2006) was a little over-the-top. And certainly the recent rejoinder (made in just the last few days) is at least equally so (in the opposite direction).
Why do people always assume, the most horrible religion on earth is the one for thinkers?
I wouldn't call Hinduism "the most horrible religion on earth". I like it.
It's probably the major religion that's most continuous with, and best preserves, the religions of antiquity. That makes it historically interesting at the very least.
As far as thinking goes, I think that Indian (broadly speaking Hindu, Buddhist and Jain) speculation, philosophy and religious psychology are easily the equal (and probably in some areas in advance of) anything that western (Jewish, Christian or Islamic) theology has ever produced.
Look at india, and tell us why it would be considered worthy of being compared to what christianity has done?
What has Christianity done?
Christianity has stood the test of time, and without it the whole world would be like india and africa
It's true that the Europeans gave the world the scientific and industrial revolutions. Those led to a rapid improvement of living standards.
But I don't think that Christian religion had very much to do with that transformation. In fact, the scientific revolution didn't occur until after the renaissance, until European civilization had begun to think in new and creative ways, ways that weren't derived from late antique and medieval religious tradition. One could almost say that Europe made the scientific and industrial revolutions in spite of the continent's Christian heritage.
and you people still look upto this horrible religion, that tells people its alright to be worthless rubbish.
Christianity tells us that we are all "sinners", and that there's nothing that human beings can possibly do about that. There's no path that we can follow in hopes of becoming any better than we already are. All that Christianity offers humanity is the promise that its God has forgiven us for what he views as our inadequacies and has promised us eternal life in heaven anyway. Provided that we accept Jesus as our lord and savior, etc.
The Indian religions offer people a lot more than that. They offer people a whole variety of paths of inner spiritual transformation. People might argue about whether those paths work, but my point is that India does offer them.
Anyone who claims to be a thinker and follower of the hindu religion, i would not even bother listening to his or her words.
That's your choice. The question I'm asking is why other people should pay attention to your words. (Right now, I'm just using your words as an occasion to present what I think is a better-informed and more nuanced view of Hinduism and Indian thought.)
Telling people that they are worthless rubbish because of past lifes, and they need do nothing to try and live some sort of decent life. How the hell did that ever catch on?
The theory of karma doesn't tell people that they are "worthless rubbish because of past lifes" (that should be 'lives'). It tells them that the seemingly-fortuitous aspects of each of our lives, the circumstances of our births, who our parents are, the accidents that befall us, are the result of past actions.
And it doesn't tell people that "they need do nothing". Just as the circumstances of people's lives right now is the causal result of things that happened previously, the circumstances of people's lives in the future is going to be the causal result of things that they do right now. So if people hope to improve their future circumstances, they will have to behave appropriately now.
The theory of karma is basically an ethical theory.
It provides rather neat answers to the annoying problems of thriving sinners (they did good deeds in past lives, but will inevitably suffer for their current bad deeds in the future) and suffering saints (they are suffering for past misdeeds, but will indeed receive the rewards for their present good deeds sometime in the future).
Karma also provides a solution to the so-called "problem of evil" that bedevils Christian theology. If God is all-powerful and all-good, then where does all the evil come from? Why does God permit it to continue? Many Indians would probably be more inclined to say that it's just the fruit of everyone's past deeds. The way to get rid of it is to perform better deeds.
