World Religions: Hinduism

Stephen Prothero, the New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy, makes a fresh and provocative argument that, contrary to popular understanding, all religions are not simply different paths to the same end... and why this matters greatly for us. Readers of Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong will find much to ponder in God Is Not One.
Book Description

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, dizzying scientific and technological advancements, interconnected globalized economies, and even the so-called New Atheists have done nothing to change one thing: our world remains furiously religious. For good and for evil, religion is the single greatest influence in the world. We accept as self-evident that competing economic systems (capitalist or communist) or clashing political parties (Republican or Democratic) propose very different solutions to our planet's problems. So why do we pretend that the world's religious traditions are different paths to the same God? We blur the sharp distinctions between religions at our own peril, argues religion scholar Stephen Prothero, and it is time to replace naïve hopes of interreligious unity with deeper knowledge of religious differences.

In Religious Literacy, Prothero demonstrated how little Americans know about their own religious traditions and why the world's religions should be taught in public schools. Now, in God Is Not One, Prothero provides readers with this much-needed content about each of the eight great religions. To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each attempts to solve a different human problem. For example: --Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission --Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation --Confucianism: the problem is chaos / the solution is social order --Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is awakening --Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is to return to God

Prothero reveals each of these traditions on its own terms to create an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to better understand the big questions human beings have asked for millennia—and the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. A bold polemical response to a generation of misguided scholarship, God Is Not One creates a new context for understanding religion in the twenty-first century and disproves the assumptions most of us make about the way the world's religions work.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• world
• religions
• hindu
• hinduism
• faith
• religion
• yt:stretch=16:9

[Trooperalbum]

@statickk14 LOL...where do you even get these notions? Have you even visited a temple?

If you don't want to visit one...just observe from outside, noone is barred entry into temples.

[statickk14]

Hinduism is Casteism. people who do not let Lower Castes in the temples, talk about Spirituality. LOL

[RAJGEET2012]

It is very diffisult for someone to explain a religion he or she is not born into. At least, these two people are trying to shed some light on this ancient religion. The origin of Hinduism actually predates the so-called indus valley civilization, it is millions of years old since it refers to previous Creations and Dissolutions.

[abhishekpathak82]

there are no god or godess there are 12 gaurdains assigned jobs by almighty to look after the living beings of universe

[abhishekpathak82]

hindus only worship aum

shiv lingam is resemblance to holy light that create dwhole universe

[Obsideon9]

@Galavya41 I will send the bulk of my reply as a message so as to not save space and effort. I will summarize it here by saying the Veda have allowed interpretation by the Brahmin, and the Brahmin have, from what I've observed, interpreted it into the system we commonly know (hierarchy included). I will also add that religion and culture can be hard to separate.

[Galavya41]

@Obsideon9 Sir Sages like Vishwamitra and Valmiki were treated a brahmins even though they were born to Kashtria and Shudra parents respectively,sir just like you misunderstood the vedic verse many Hindus too, knowingly and otherwise made the same error so Sir the Caste by birth system is a problem of the Hindu society and not the Vedic Dharma , just like burning of " witches" was an error made by the church and society but has no place in the actual teachings of Christ.

[Galavya41]

@Obsideon9 ..The Geeta clarifies the position of the Vedic Sages of India in this regard : The fourfold caste has been created by Me according to the differentiation of Guna (attributes) and Karma;" Bhagavad Gita Ch. 18, V.41 the mahabharata explains further "There is no superior caste. The Universe is the work of the Immense Being. The beings created by him were only divided into castes according to their aptitude." - Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, 188