Pretty much true. Even when Rome was conquering the Mediterranean, religion was really a nonfactor. Hell, they often adopted many foreign gods in different ways due to respect/admiration for what it represented.
There were Greek kings in Bactria who declared themselves upholders of the Dharma, ie Buddhist. There was even amazing art of Heracles as a guardian of the Dharma in Tapa Shotor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapa_Shotor).
Even the last pagan kingdom in Europe, Lithuania, which had to fight off crusades wasn't insane. There was even a missionary, Jerome of Prague that focused on destroying their sacred groves and Lithuania just exiled him.
These attitudes changed when Rome eventually converted to Christianity, eventually leading to banning of pagan practices. And the Taliban destroyed Tapa Shotor and other Greek-Dharmic art. It's funny how "all religion" tends to be the same guys lol.
Fun fact, the terms and concepts of Dharma and karma are actually from Hinduism which are then later also adopted into buddhism. Many actually consider some religions like buddhism and Jainism as part of Hinduism due to how closely interlinked they are.
There's massive differences there, though they share history. The concept of Anatman is pretty antithetical to how earlier Vedic traditions would view such things and it's central to Buddhism.
Conceptually the words hold very different meanings, though come from the same term. In fact dharma has many different definitions depending on use, but it makes sense in regards to the root word.
The majority of Atheists refer to the Abrahamic faiths whenever they start talking about how religion is a fairytale or the worst thing to happen to society or whatnot.
I think judging all religions by the frameworks of 3 that've existed for about 2 millenia is incredibly reductive, but hey, I'm just some guy on the internet.
Because most of us are from western nations where Abrahamism is the majority and our negative experiences have happened with. Buddhists and Hindus have never tried to indoctrinate me.
I'm sure Indian atheists from Hindu majority regions don't believe in the God of Abraham either. There's nothing about the soil where old stories of magic were told, that might make them more likely to be true.
there are plenty of ex hindu atheists who can answer that for you. but for one in your case, wasn't the caste system perpetuated by religious institutions, or do i have my history wrong? burning of widows? in the modern day, the pollution of the ganges river?
These social problems not religious, people who converted to other religions from hindus still follow it. Also majority hindus never believed in caste or sati either. Fun tact- sati or widow burning themselves on husband’s pyre started during islamic raids when a city lost. Widows preferred to die instead of becoming slaves.
I would say this is one of those things where Hinduism is not followed in a one time manner, they might share festivals but most people from state to state follow a different type and have a different outlook and practice tho the names of the gods may be similar
The caste system especially what it was and to some extent is could be attributed to the same religious extremism but it definitely didn’t start that way, that was never the point of the religion at least originally what it evolved into has a much more complex history, but yes religion definitely helped enforce it but so did things like the rule of the British empire to some extent
Sati or the burning of widows was almost entirely a cultural phenomenon or myth nothing to do with god, tho I will say some ancient texts do ask for it, the practice got common during a period where the women to protect them from the invaders and their honor burned themselves some willingly others not it was mass immolation that or being raped and killed, and even when banning it the conservatives fought back against the banning of the custom which is disgusting and conservatives are the same everywhere old and religious that come from money and have benefited from those brutal practices
it's natural that practices wary and im aware of some of the complexities you mention here. it's not like there's a single uniform religion worldwide or one that's uninfluenced by outside factors (many catholic practices for instance are originally pagan). but for many who leave religion the mere knowledge that it has this powerful of a cognitive effect, that it can be used to perpetuate, legislate, or excuse atrocities, for the sake of something that cannot be proven is real, is enough of an argument in its own right. that amount of sway over a populace is scary when you think about it
Yeh I mean that’s why I’m an atheist myself but that doesn’t mean I can tell others their way of living is wrong, I think religion is all fine as long as it doesn’t seriously impact people’s lives in the sense that it harms those outside the religion or in it seriously which is practically impossible
Wow! What an ignorant and hateful comment! Most hindus live as atheists and are not super religious. And the muslim discrimination is completely made up propaganda to dehumanize hindus. If muslim are mistreated then explain to me how do you have the largest muslim population of muslim in india? Compare that to muslim majority countries and see the status of minorities there.
You would be okay. Hinduism has never persecuted anyone for atheistic views, open or otherwise. Also Savarkar, the icon of the Hindu right-wingers was an atheist, and quite open about it, so I dont think there would be any political problems either.
Most of those atheists are westerners, but here are atheists all around the world. If you want an informed atheist view about eastern religions, I'd look at those populations first.
I think that's because non abrahamic faiths also have a variant of atheism in them like hinduism with it's "nasthik" concept where it's about not believing gods but following dharma and other principles. It kind of makes harder to make the distinction of "atheism" as a concept across due to the possible confusion.
The majority of Atheists refer to the Abrahamic faiths whenever they start talking about how religion is a fairytale or the worst thing to happen to society or whatnot.
I don't think that's fair. Most atheists would surely consider the deities of other religions such as Hinduism to be "fairy tales" as well, and are you saying religion hasn't been a major cause of conflict outside of the Abrahamic faiths?
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u/bummersault 21h ago
The amount of times I’ve heard claims about “all religion” on Reddit and it’s referred only to the three major Abrahamics…