I Could Invent a Religion…

Christmas is the only religious holiday in America that is also a legal holiday. December 25 was selected as the date to observe Christmas by Pope Julius in ...

RE:-
#36

Mantolives

Give me a break. x-mass is not a religious holiday??
Are you kidding?

When we are given holiday schedule. X-mass comes under official religious holiday.

Sometimes, when I work, it is my choice to take off Eid as my religious holiday or x-mass.

Re: # 37

dear chowkies,

....... contrary to the fear mongering by echoboom, i am glad to report that germany is still a safe and fun place to visit ...... i was there for there for the festival in mainz in march and i can assure you that it was one heck of a party - the beer is still good and the bratwurst has never been better ...........

.......... echo is mistaken if he thinks that the germans are going to stop shaving and start upending themselves five times a day any time soon ............ that would be worse than putting on brown shirts and goose trotting through the strrets of munich .......... i think they have been there and do not want to relive the nightnmare .........

The secularoons & liberaloons have no clue what the new frontiers of knowledge are. How can they? they have accepted westernism from their masters just so that they can prostrate to Lakshmi & Mammon i.e pseudo-hindus & freudo-muslims.(respectively?)

It will be relentless.


http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/News/Trifkovic/NewsST102903.html

YOUNG GERMANS EMBRACING ISLAM:
REICHSFÜHRER HIMMLER DELIGHTED
by Srdja Trifkovic

According to a recent Agence France Presse report (October 25), Germans are converting to Islam in increasing numbers. They are also “getting younger and younger,” according to Muhammad Herzog who runs a Muslim cultural center in Berlin. He is quoted by the AFP as saying that “many are looking for new lifestyles and some sense of direction.” Herr Herzog converted to Islam as far back as 1979, when he realized that “the Qur’an gathered together everything I had ever believed in.”...............


...............(continued):click

Xmass is hardly a religious holiday... Come on now.

The erstwhile communist/socialists, & after the humiliation of their godmother Rusian, the ``maadren`` secularoons & liberaloons have always been a goose-step behind times.

These 40+ aunties & uncles, with sagging breasts & belching bellies (respectively?), are roaming dazed & lost in the concrete jungles. Unzipped & barehipped, they have not heard the news not that the world war is over.

It would be far more productive , than writing such nonsense, to stop the western curses of drugs, sex, and alcohol in yourself & your progeny.

http://christianity.rinf.com/?p=169

---

Odd to think that some young people have better insight into faith than their parents do.

Think that’s too generalized? There are plenty of specifics to back it up. Let’s skip across the ocean first.

The Sunday Times reported last week that baby boomer parents in Great Britain are seeing more and more of their children converting to a faith, especially Christianity and Islam.

And some parents aren’t happy about it.

A British mother, who’s agnostic, conceded that her twentysomething son was “quite aimless” before he joined an evangelical church.

Today, she applauds his sense of purpose, but says, “It also makes me sad because none of the rest of the family shares his beliefs, and it excludes us from a massive part of his life.”

Myfanwy Franks, an author quoted in the Times, has interviewed British converts to Islam (15,000 have claimed the faith in the past few years) and Christianity and sees a sociological angle to their decisions.

“

Revathy
This is a well written article. So many echoes....

However is the need for a religion, perhaps because nobody can live by the highest ethical standards?

Is religion is invented perhaps to absolve you of any blame that you might attribute to yourself, and to make you feel even better when you do something altruistic?

Would it better to be perfect and dead, than be alive and a little sinful , like hamidm2, myself (please not Starbucks, but yes to St.Emilion ) and most of us ?

More questions ....

Why is duplicity and embedded violence in our society a patriarchial trait?
When the religious right became more powerful, did you question every religion and every community?
Would rejecting religion be better than transforming it, even if you did not believe?

Revathy
This is a well written article. So many echoes....

However is the need for a religion, perhaps because nobody can live by the highest ethical standards?

Is religion is invented perhaps to absolve you of any blame that you might attribute to yourself, and to make you feel even better when you do something altruistic?

Would it better to be perfect and dead, than be alive and a little sinful , like hamidm2, myself (please not Starbucks, but yes to St.Emilion ) and most of us ?

More questions ....

Why is duplicity and embedded violence in our society a patriarchial trait?
When the religious right became more powerful, did you question every religion and every community?
Would rejecting religion be better than transforming it, even if you did not believe?

Hi Revathy,

This is a really nice article. What you are pointing out is that hindu practice today emphasizes (1) deities should protect us from bad things (2) social stability, we
should have a family life in which we follow traditions. But are these the main challenges young hindus face today?


With the advent of science and more open societies, these are more and more fringe issues. It may be mildly interesting that our family tradition is vaishnavite or that our jati is such-and-such. But for me these are just details...

So what should be the core issue in hindu practice? Should it be ethical behavior? Is it compassion for all living beings? Should it be seva to others? Should it be participation in a community life?

Many people assume that hindu traditions are frozen in place forever. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are in a period of tremendous change, I encourage you to lead the change.

My own personal take is that hinduism of the 2000s has more to do with Patanjali, Kapila, Buddha, Kabir, Nanak, Ramdev and such. It is no longer 600AD, we are no longer totally dependent on Vishnu`s protection from evil, we are more and more autonomous, so some guru`s opinion is not that critical to us.

The challenge is how to live a meaningful life in a time of both great disparity and wealth; how to make a difference when many educated people are obsessed with consumerism, even as they lead deeply unhappy lives.

Re: # 30

harimau,

..... i understand your pain ........ over the past twenty five years i have spent thousands of hours with my good hindoo buddies - since there is no such thing as a good muslim buddy - drinking and discussing everything under the sun, but i still don`t have the foggiest idea what hindooism is all about ........... other than the fact that an elephant-nosed god once rode on a big rat - which i find highly improbable !

.......... most of them don`t even want to talk about their faith and get a confused look on their face when you ask them to explain it ............ they would rather talk about the barmaid`s considerable physical attributes - which, i must admit, is a very valid subject for discussion ............ and every time they do talk about their religion and say something like ``well, you see, hindooism is a way of life`` they leave me even more confused ........... most hindoos i know would rather eat a cow than worship it, all of them drink like the heathens that they are, and no one wears the red mark of the devil on his forehead and, to this day, i have not seen any of them levitate ............. sure, a couple of them wear some kind of a thread necklace and i have heard other hindoos whisper that these guys also have a little temple in their basement where they chant and sway and engage in all sorts of scary pagan rituals, but these guys are few and far between and most hindoos don`t seem to hold them in high regard and seem to avoid them like the plague .....

........... my hindoo friends are always assuring me that the vegetarian and teetotaling brahmins are horrible people and a bunch of constipated party poopers who, like the mullahs and padres, want to ruin the one and only life that we have since ......... most of them don`t really believe in coming back as cows or crickets or poultry even though some of them have an uncanny resemblance to these creatures .......... the only thing that they take seriously about their religion is tantric sex, and everyone claims to be an expert ! ............go figure !............ they tell me that the majority of hindoos are hamburger-eating and whiskey-swilling party animals who do not care whether they are buried or cremated after they pass out and then pass on ................ and i love them for it ...... as a matter of fact, i have seriously been thinking about reverting back to the religion of my forefathers because, as we all know, islam is a rather dour and joyless religion which eventually leads people to blow themselves up .................

.............so please don`t tell me that there is more to your religion than meets the eye ........... i like the hindooism i know .........

Ref adityapant #24

[A few days back attended a discusssion on Secularism, Democracy et al by a major writer/thinker. He took a position somewhat similar to yours, arguing for the complete erasure of religion from public life.]

Let me make a guess here.

The major writer/thinker, if he is an Indian, is not a Christian nor a Muslim; he is not a Sikh, Jain nor a Buddhist; he is not Jewish nor an animist.

All those who nodded in approval as they listened to his sage wisdom won`t belong to any of the above mentioned religions.

That leads to only one thing.

Hindus are their own worst enemies.

They are worse than Aurangzeb.

Because even under Aurangzeb, Hinduism survived.

With these pseudo-secularists, Hinduism doesn`t have a chance, not when Revathy Gopal and others nod in agreement and look for ways to abandon Hinduism.

I think Revathy Gopal needs to be put inside a burqua.

hamdim2

Please, stop your projection of confusion upon others. Your confusion is killing you and you are like a merry go round, like a vicious cricle of confusion.

I am now worried about your mental health. This state of confusion will kill all your intellectual though process. You see it already killed you and you don`t know what you are talking about.

Seriously,

Re: # 2

This is terrible news! How come this was never reported in the media?

Re: # 26

zeena,

``There is no question of accepting or rejecting Hadiths/Sharia....These two things are created by confused minds and complicated minds ``

.......... anouzobillah !........ are you suggesting that the prophet (pbuh) and his companions (ra`s) had ``confused`` and ``complicated`` minds .......... and what about the chroniclers like imam bukhari; are you suggesting that they too were missing a sandwich ?

........ you must be careful - most good muslims would consider you a heretic for harboring such nasty thoughts ........

..... anyway, good luck to you in your search for the truth ...... you really must contact tahmed - he has already rented an abandoned crack-house in baltimore to start his church of latter day koranists

RE:- #23

Mr.hamdim2

You see once again, you are using this defense mechanism of PROJECTION and reaction formation for me.

Listen, let me remind you again, if you are highly CONFUSED about your belief or religion , do not relate your thoughts with me as well.

I am NOT confused. I exactly know what I am doing and where I am coming from.

I am not making a new and improved Islam. I am not here to revolutinize any new cult.

I am just STICKING with the real, simple and true Islam which is in Quran. There is no confusion about it.

There is no question of accepting or rejecting Hadiths/Sharia....These two things are created by confused minds and complicated minds like you.

So, once again stop projecting your own disrupted thought processes upon me. Both of us are from different sets of class. Thank you

PS:- carry on with your confusion.

#16 by Mantolives
Mantolives sahib

Yes, indeed x-mas is a religious holiday. Those who believe in Christ , they celebrate it and those who don`t they don`t.

When it is marked in yearly schedule, it comes under religious holiday. Like eid , Easter etc etc.

I am not here to be irrational to your irrational approach. All I wished to say about your irrational approach is in my post #12.

Again, you can not judge my rationality with your irrationality and sameway I won`t judge your`s.

I am the one who is being open minded here. And on the contrary you are just repeating the same thing again and again with out even reading my post #12. No further debate on this.

PS:- I live in America, America has it`s certain culture, which is influencing my day to day life. Still I do not celebrate x-mass b/c it is religious occassion. It has got nothing to do with culture.