Pluralism vs. Literalism

[Guest guest]

Purely by accident, or perhaps partially because eking out a living in

the Middle East has always been comparatively difficult, it seems to

me that the Semitic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) have been

stuck with scriptures portraying God as personal, vindictive and

dismissive of races apart from His " chosen people " . This scriptural

racism (not shared with Hinduism or Buddhism), when combined with the

belief that the ancient scriptures are the literal word of God (shared

to some degree by Hinduism), produce a conviction that everyone who

does not share my religion is doomed in eternity and is somewhat less

than human. It becomes easy to remain perpetually at war, Christians

at odds with Muslims, Muslims at odds with Jews. In modern times,

these wrong views have contaminated ahimsic Hindus who believe that

they must meet violent Islamic fanaticism with violence of their own.

It's all very sad. In my own American community, my conversion to

Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta) is viewed by fundamentalist Christians as a

victory of Satan working through " heathens " . These Christians wrongly

believe that Hindus are polytheistic. To paraphrase Herbert Spenser,

" There is one principle that will keep a man in everlasting darkness:

that principle is contempt prior to investigation. "

[Guest guest]

<<

" There is one principle that will keep a man in everlasting darkness:

that principle is contempt prior to investigation. "

>>

 

Let's have some investigation, then.

 

Islam does portray God as personal (to some degree) but not vindictive in the

same way as the God of the Jewish testament, and not dismissive of races apart

from the " chosen people. " The Qur'an states clearly that God's Mercy takes

precedence over His Wrath, that everyone will eventually enter Paradise, and

Islam explicitly repudiates the Christian doctrine of " Original Sin " (as does

Judaism, it must be said).

 

There is no " chosen people " in Islam, though you'll find the basic ethnocentrism

common to many cultures projected onto the religion by its adherents in many

areas. (It's worth keeping in mind that only about fifteen percent of Muslims

are Arabs.) Islam does claim to be the final testament given to humankind from

the Divine, and many Muslims make that into a " best religion " kind of

identification, in spite of the injunctions in the Qur'an to honor all the

Prophets equally and to respect all sacred scriptures. (You'll even find a few

Sufis among the Indian Muslims who regard Hinduism as a monotheistic religion

and accord it the same regard as they do Judaism and Christianity.)

 

But you'll see the same kind of ignorance among Hindus who claim that Hinduism

is the Greatest Religion. Everybody's ego wants to " fly First Class, " whether

it's " my religion is best " or " my guru is a Perfect Master. " It's all hearsay,

folks, because none of us have the capacity to evaluate that kind of thing from

direct experience, or we'd be prophets of the stature of Moses, Jesus, or

Krishna. It's enough, really enough, that each of us find or has found something

that works for us personally.

 

Off my soapbox...

 

Hafizullah

@)->---

 

 

 

jairamakrishna [bates7106]

Monday, December 06, 2004 6:12 pm

Ramakrishna

[sri Ramakrishna] Pluralism vs. Literalism

 

 

 

 

Purely by accident, or perhaps partially because eking out a living in

the Middle East has always been comparatively difficult, it seems to

me that the Semitic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) have been

stuck with scriptures portraying God as personal, vindictive and

dismissive of races apart from His " chosen people " . This scriptural

racism (not shared with Hinduism or Buddhism), when combined with the

belief that the ancient scriptures are the literal word of God (shared

to some degree by Hinduism), produce a conviction that everyone who

does not share my religion is doomed in eternity and is somewhat less

than human. It becomes easy to remain perpetually at war, Christians

at odds with Muslims, Muslims at odds with Jews.  In modern times,

these wrong views have contaminated ahimsic Hindus who believe that

they must meet violent Islamic fanaticism with violence of their own.

It's all very sad. In my own American community, my conversion to

Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta) is viewed by fundamentalist Christians as a

victory of Satan working through " heathens " .  These Christians wrongly

believe that Hindus are polytheistic.  To paraphrase Herbert Spenser,

" There is one principle that will keep a man in everlasting darkness:

that principle is contempt prior to investigation. "