I want to know how many advocates of cremation, vegetarianism and so on explicitly stated or were aware of its implications of Hinduism (for the value of Hinduism assumed by the writer). Surely (electronic) cremation is gaining popularity because it's less of a bother on several levels than burial? And vegetarianism - which is so dubiously a 'Hindu' requirement, anyway - is being pushed by activism and/or the health foods industry? You can't attribute these to any religious sentiments.
Reincarnation is interesting. Perhaps someone has been giving copies of *Karan Arjun* away for free on iTunes or wherever Americans buy films. It seems like a fairly spin-heavy article, stats notwithstanding. It's amazing what they pay magazine writers for these days. Supriya, vegetarian magazine writer. On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 7:00 PM, Kiran K Karthikeyan < [email protected]> wrote: > I'm not sure what to make of this, but having a more tolerant view of > religion is a good thing I guess. It also a weird coincidence that it was > written on Independence Day. > > http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155?GT1=43002 > > Kiran > > We Are All Hindus NowBy Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK > Aug 15, 2009 > > America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by > Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to > identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American > history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or > Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a > fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that > conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less > like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, > each > other, and eternity. > > The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, > but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many > paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a > third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, > conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn > in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus > said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father > except through me." > > Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 > percent of us believe that "many religions can lead to eternal > life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to > believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek > spiritual truth outside church is growing. Thirty percent of Americans call > themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 NEWSWEEK Poll, > up > from 24 percent in 2005. Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston > University, has long framed the American propensity for "the > divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism. > You're not picking and choosing from different religions, because they're > all the same," he says. "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever > works. If going to yoga works, great—and if going to Catholic mass works, > great. And if going to Catholic mass plus the yoga plus the Buddhist > retreat > works, that's great, too." > > Then there's the question of what happens when you die. Christians > traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they > comprise the "self," and that at the end of time they will be reunited in > the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever. > Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the > spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In reincarnation, central to > Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies. So > here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent > of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris > poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're > burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans now > choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America, > up from 6 percent in 1975. "I do think the more spiritual role of religion > tends to deemphasize some of the more starkly literal interpretations of > the > Resurrection," agrees Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at > Harvard. So let us all say "om." > -- roswitha.tumblr.com
