On Jul 28, 2012 3:35 AM, "ss" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Friday 27 Jul 2012 5:23:53 am Shoba Narayan wrote: > > What will Indian culture (or any culture) be like without religion? > > I am not sure that I should reply to this because it typically launches me off > on one of my rambles. > > Religion is never culture. The exception in my view is Arab culture. Islam was > designed to fit Arab culture closely
Religion is *always* culture. All you have to do is observe how religions match their original cultural context and how they change when adopted by new cultures. African Christianity is very different from European Christianity which in turn is very different from South American Christianity. Tibetan Buddhism is very different from Japanese Buddhism which is very different from Sri Lankan Buddhism. In ways that reflect the local culture. The best example though is Judaism. Trying to claim that the Jewish religion is not cultural, or that Jewish culture is not inextricably bound to Judaism is ludicrous. -- Charles
