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Re: ARTICLE : Just say no to "Hinduism" (was Re: ARTICLE : On

: If the statement above sounds belligerent, please believe me when I 
: say it was not intended as such. On the other hand, when one has 
: repeatedly received this kind of treatment, and appeals to reasoning 
: have failed, it becomes rather frustrating to put up with it. It 
: really saddens me that the Hindu society has become so degraded that 
: intelligent Hindus seek to avoid thoughtful discussion by painting 
: their opponents as fundamentalists. 

I understand your frustration, I really do.  Even among Americans
following Eastern faiths, we a just so high strung on combat mode, we go
off at almost nothing.
	At work, I cannot have _anything_ of religious significance,
because its socially offensive, including items skillfully hidden behind
symbolism, yet the other workers all have something, whether its their
Bible, a cross, or a statue of the Virgin.  (I had an immitation red lotus
flower that was stolen.)
	Intelligent Hindus can have thoughtful discussion by overcoming
their differences.  I still haven't seen a repost of what Krishna said.
I'm entirely unsure of whatever attitude was evidenced in it.
	I come from a Hispanic background and, in college, sought to
improve my Spanish by speaking with native South Americans.  After a
while, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, the question would be asked,
"Are you Catholic?"  The question, at first totally surprised me.  (I was
born Catholic, but raist Protestant.)  Then again, 90%+ of South American
is or claims to be Catholic.  (I think two-thirds of all people claiming
to be Christian worldwide are Roman Catholic.)
	Another person, an American Jew, thought that all Christians have
mass and priests when in fact only Catholics do; Protestants just call
those terms by different names.
	According to the World Almanac 70% of Hindus in India are
Vaishnava although Vaishnava is not listed as a religion.  I can
understand how a non-Vaishnav Hindu could definitely feel in a hostile
environment.

: For me, it is not a question of like or dislike. There are very few 
: whom I can truly say that I dislike, but even then what I usually 
: dislike is their behavior rather then their selves. And if there is 
: one thing I dislike, it is the kind of behavior exhibited earlier in 
: this thread (which is not unlike the behavior of many of the more 
: hot-headed proponents of political correctness on college campuses).

I have to agree with you, at least partially.  The only people I dislike
are those who repeatedly and possibly deliberately offend me.  OTOH, there
are those whom I choose to respect and like.  Or sometimes its
instinctive, I don't choose.
	A polically correct person would call you south Asian as opposed
to Indian, which would also include Pakistanis, Banglasdeshis, Afghanis,
Persians, and many other people.  Which do you prefer?
	But I do get your point.  I was very politically oriented at one
point in time.  FBFW, most of those I associated with came from the
opposite orientation.  They were very amiable towards myself until they
found I came from the opposite orientation as themselves.

: I think you saw the original post by Dhruba which said (paraphrase) 
: [snip]
: statement came absolutely out of nowhere, since we were talking about 
: the means to define Hinduism. Worse yet, it was a complete distortion 
: of what I did hold to be true. There was no reason for Dhruba to have 
: said it, other than to try to make me look bad so that I might stop 
: analyzing his opinions. After all, if I happen to show by reason and 
: argument that certain views of his are ill-conceived, and he is too 
: attached to those views to change them (and unable to establish his 
: position by reason), then what could be more convenient than to 
: silence me by putting incriminating words in my mouth?

The quote of Dhruba was entirely inaccurate, but close enough for our
purposes.  So that's what (partially) started this definition of Hinduism
discussion.  I'm still uncertain what you said because I have not yet seen
it reposted.
	I agree that we need logical reason and debate.  Unfortunately,
many are willing to argue ad nauseum their point, sometimes seeming to
make one more post just so they get the last post.
	Many immigrants are very attached to their homeland, I'd have to
say nearly all.  With Asians that includes attachment to the religion with
which they were raise.
	I was having a discussion / arguement with another about pantheons
that different religions have, whether they are pantheons of gods,
saints, or anything else. They said that their faith had a group of
spiritual rolemodels, but it did not have a pantheon.

Bests,

Jay
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