shiv sastry wrote: [ on 08:43 AM 7/21/2007 ]
I believe that even the discussion of such a topic is hampered by absence of
accurate and widely accepted terminology or jargon that defines the exact
parameters of something.
To put it very crudely, if you hear the statement "Islam and Hinduism are
religions" the impression conveyed is of some similarity between the two.
There is often an apple-orange comparison problem when you club two entities
under the same classification.
A person who has no experience or knowledge of either Islam or Hinduism is
likely to imagine something broadly similar when he compares the two. And a
Hindu (or a Muslim) who has very little knowledge of the other entity is
likely to read the statement that both are "religions" and start thinking
of the other in terms of what he knows of his own religion, and apply the
standards that he has been taught to apply.
That is why we seem to have this plethora of descriptive terms and adjectives
that attempt at describing differences or unique selling points of
each. Maybe the word "religion" should be discarded for something else.
Muslims, from within Islam tend to call Islam as a way of life or a code for
life.Hindus from within Hinduism tend to speak of a "dharma" or a "way of
life".
Perhaps a closer description would be "Hindu way of life" and an 'Islamic way
of life" because both have only a small part ruled by a God or Gods - the
rest is rules fro life and other bells and whistles.
Adding Christianity here adds more complexity and problems. Christianity too
used to be a way of life, but the politics of Christian dominated nations
separated the "way of life" from "God" after much bloodshed and defined this
new system as "secularism"
Secularism is clearly not feasible from a strict Islamic viewpoint.
From a Hindu viewpoint secularism as in "separation of religion from state"
becomes impossible to implement because Hinduism defies all definitions and
refuses to get pinned down as religion. The bandied about word is pluralism
although I am not yet clear in my mind of all the baggage that might be
carried by that word.
Shiv,
I'm quoting your entire message to let you know I
have no idea what you'e trying to say. And I say
this as someone who has struggled his way through
the EPW, texts by Félix Guattari, and IBM technical manuals.
This mystification extends over the last several
weeks' worth of postings from you on this topic.
Previously, even if I disagreed with you, I had
some notion of what you were claiming. Currently, I don't.
Just thought I'd let you know.
Udhay
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
