My kind of fiction
While I am on Nitin,
Recently he had a post on how Hinduism can make world a better place (Under foreign affairs category!)
I am uncomfortable with the premise of writer Jean - Pierre Lehmann.
In brief his position is religion is meaningless. What is worse it is a impediment to growth of civilization, therefore in theory it would be a good thing to get rid of it. However since it is not practically possible to do so, we should replace monotheistic religions with polytheistic religion i.e. Hinduism.
The logic that I can see is, since all religions are equally fictitious, therefore replace fiction which is bothersome, with fiction which gives a wide latitude.
Why I object to this, for two reasons
First is obvious, since I am a Hindu (so far at least) I disagree with the premise that religion is fiction. Ofcourse it is, in a way left handed compliment to Hinduism.
Second is while the author argues based on pragmatism, I think it is in a way intellectual dishonesty to promote Hinduism over Islam and Christian.
If the author is convinced that atheism is the right way, it is incumbent upon him and other atheists to stress this and debunk religion using as persuasive arguments as possible.
Failure to do so and promoting a particular religion for sake of expediency breeds the sort of unhealthy cynicism which is never good for progress thus defeating the whole purpose of charade.
Recently he had a post on how Hinduism can make world a better place (Under foreign affairs category!)
I am uncomfortable with the premise of writer Jean - Pierre Lehmann.
In brief his position is religion is meaningless. What is worse it is a impediment to growth of civilization, therefore in theory it would be a good thing to get rid of it. However since it is not practically possible to do so, we should replace monotheistic religions with polytheistic religion i.e. Hinduism.
The logic that I can see is, since all religions are equally fictitious, therefore replace fiction which is bothersome, with fiction which gives a wide latitude.
Why I object to this, for two reasons
First is obvious, since I am a Hindu (so far at least) I disagree with the premise that religion is fiction. Ofcourse it is, in a way left handed compliment to Hinduism.
Second is while the author argues based on pragmatism, I think it is in a way intellectual dishonesty to promote Hinduism over Islam and Christian.
If the author is convinced that atheism is the right way, it is incumbent upon him and other atheists to stress this and debunk religion using as persuasive arguments as possible.
Failure to do so and promoting a particular religion for sake of expediency breeds the sort of unhealthy cynicism which is never good for progress thus defeating the whole purpose of charade.
Categories : Secularism, Religion, Hinduism, Civilization
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