Minichan

but i'm not indian. I was raised christian. also, i'm an atheist.
but i do like good indian food.

Depends on the branch of hinduism. Samkya-yoga is very different from Nyaya (which as far as I know is more about logic/epistemology than metaphysics; the philosophy behind it is, at least), which is really different from Vedanta. Personally, as far as Indian/Southeast asian philosophies go, I'm partial to Cārvāka. There's no shortage of Eastern religions/philosophies if you're fed up with western ones.

After centuries of being rewritten by various churches and monarchs, Christianity as a whole doesn't really make sense anymore.

@310,309 (Fake anon !ZkUt8arUCU)
but aren't they all vegetarian pacifists?

If religion is the opiate of the people, then Christianity is the shit tier street heroin that doesn't even get you high of the people amirite.

@previous (misterbones !LcHrgT2NWY)
i don't understand why they don't just give us opiates and cut out the unnecessary middle man

@310,311 (squeegee !firstkPE1Q)
Don't know, haha. I'm not super-informed on Eastern religions so I'll stop talking and adopt the Wittgenstein-ian principle "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

@310,310 (D)
Yeah, as if Hinduism hasn't been rewritten and retold to a much larger extent.

@310,313 (squeegee !firstkPE1Q)
tru dat, probably work better anyway.

@310,314 (Fake anon !ZkUt8arUCU)
well i don't know who ian wittgerstein is, but i'm going to assume i'm correct. They don't even eat cows, and they're always walking around not killing things. i don't think you can be more pacifistic than that. they're just going to sit around eating curry and not killing pakistanis.
no thanks, i'll keep my unpracticed catholicism.

@previous (squeegee !firstkPE1Q)
Uhh... I'm pretty sure the "not killing anything" is the Jainism school of thought. But sure, whatever floats your boat.

(Edited 14 seconds later.)

> Religion
> Cool

Hinduism was used to oppress people just as much as Christianity or any other religion. It was used to enforce the caste system in India.

If you are a Hindu the chances are you will be reborn as a cockroach.

Hands up who wants to be reborn as a cockroach?

I want you to imagine that you are told you are to be painlessly executed at dawn. You are terrified. You are not terrified because it will hurt, since it will be painless. So why are you terrified? Perhaps your fear lies in it being the end of all your projects for the future – the story is over. Or maybe you do not want to leave forever your friends and family. Or perhaps you fear just a great empty void, a nothingness. What is it, exactly, that frightens you?

Now I want you to imagine that your executioner gently puts his arm round you and tells you not to worry. It really isn't so bad. Although you are to be executed, it has been discovered without a shadow of a doubt that the Buddhists and Hindus were right after all. You are to be instantly reborn. In fact, you are to be reborn as a cockroach in South America.

Well - I suggest that you would still be terrified. Indeed you might be even more frightened. But why would you be so frightened? Being a cockroach answers all, or most, of the fears that first sprang to mind when you heard of your imminent execution. Cockroaches surely have projects for the future, to get enough food, poison humans, or whatever it is cockroaches happily spend their lives doing. It'll be fun, once you get used to it. Of course, being a cockroach still means you must leave your friends and family, but then in life we often leave our friends and family. Our family and friends may be separated from us by exile, war, quarrels or whatever. Or if they die, instead of you, it has the same effect. So why in this respect should we be more terrified of our own death, than of the deaths of our loved ones? Moreover as a cockroach you will have lots and lots of new friends and family, many, many cockroach friends and cockroach family to replace the ones you have lost. You'll get used to it. It's not so bad, not half as bad as you thought. And being a cockroach is not nothingness. It's not like a great empty void. It is a life, too. You will still live.

So why are we not consoled by all this? Why do we still not relish the idea of execution at dawn, followed by all the fun of being a cockroach in South America? Well, you might say, cockroaches are horrible, ugly, verminous creatures. Who wants to be one? But is that fair? Perhaps cockroaches are not horrible and ugly to themselves. After all, I expect their mummies love them.

Can you imagine being a cockroach? Can you imagine living that cockroachy life? Surely you cannot. We are not asking can you imagine waking up inside a cockroach's body (as Kafka tells us, in his story Metamorphosis). We are not asking you to imagine being you, somehow having to come to terms with being crammed inside a cockroach's body. That would not be much fun. You would have problems with all those legs, at least for a while, and you would hate your cockroach mummy getting anywhere near you. She is so creepy! But it wouldn't be like that, would it? You would love your cockroach mummy, because (I expect) cockroaches do love their mummies. For you would be a cockroach too. You cannot imagine what it would be like to be a cockroach, because you would not be you inside a cockroach body. You would be a cockroach. And who knows what the imaginations, the dreams, of a cockroach might be.

@previous (H)
fuckin' a, im gonna be a cockroach

@previous (misterbones !LcHrgT2NWY)
Virtues of the Roach

Certain roach species are valued as pets.

Ironically, the difficulty we have exterminating roaches points directly to their most admirable trait. They are among the hardiest and most ancient species on the Earth. They are believed to be roughly 300 million years old, having survived the conditions that doomed the dinosaurs. They can withstand levels of radiation up to 16 times the amount that is lethal to humans, though they are outranked in this competition by many other types of insect. The roach's formidable life span, however, lasting from several months to nearly three years, gives it significant evolutionary advantage.

The primitive nature of the roach can also be seen as a portal back in time, offering scientists a living key to primal life forms. Further, the majority of roach species are not pests, and are even considered to be beneficial members of their ecosystems, as the Amateur Entomologists' Society reminds us. Some of these bugs are even prized pets among a small but enthusiastic population of roach admirers.

@previous (H)
fuckin' a, im gonna be an invincible cockroach.

@310,315 (F)
yes, but hinduism hasnt been guided into a tool to help the ruling class keep power

> Christianity
> a Western religion

lolno

@310,330 (Broseph !!fxnDb+Ve4)
The idea of castes as they are now understood are really the Vedas, and Hindu being misused. The idea that one cannot reach a higher station in life for example goes directly against Hindu teachings.