Topic started by observer (@ 1cust49.tnt42.nyc3.da.uu.net) on Sun Jul 22 10:14:35 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

India is the World's biggest idol worshipper? The poor uneducated souls continue to live in superstition and to worship anything. They worship monkeys, elephants, penis, and some now want Amitab Bachan to be declared a god...who will know the difference in a 1000 years? And I don't mean "respect" these various things, they literally believe that these things are gods. Just ask the UN why it took so long to eradicate chicken pox in India..they thought it was a godly quality.

Seems to me India needs some cultural civilization.

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Indian (@ newgw4.me.iastate.edu) on: Sun Dec 8 16:43:02
  
  When God created the universe there were no witnesses as an idiot oormila says atleast not according to Hinduism. There was only God the omipotent, the eternal and none to be worshipped with him. Period.
  
  
• From: Skanthavelu Nadarajah (@ edtntnt13-port-189.dial.telus.net) on: Sun Dec 8 17:09:31
  
  Indian,
  I suggest you watch what you say! Why do you call Ormila an idiot? Did Ormila call you an idiot? I don't think so!
  
  
• From: ormila (@ firewall1.uwindsor.ca) on: Sun Dec 8 17:30:32
  
  
  Skanthavelu Nadarajah,
  
  Thank you. I did not see this until just now. That person is obviously trying to spark trouble. Where did I say that there were witnesses at the time of creation. What do I or any one know when the world was created. What we know is that Hinduism is the oldest religion and could have been around for thousands of years if not 1.9 billion as some claimed.
  
  I would not allow such trouble-makers to keep going at me one way or the other. Since my postings about them following me around, I had some peace. They know they are hunted. So this forum will continue to be a hit point for them. People who never had anything or nothing to lose, would come up with all sorts.
  
  Indian should well know by now that it is a violation of the policy of Forumhub to call people names in trying to make a point.
  
  I had my time with them and I think it is coming to an end.
  
  
• From: ormila (@ n79.ucce5.uwindsor.ca) on: Sun Dec 8 17:33:30
  
  Why is it that Indian did not interpret what I said to be the creation of Hinduism instead of the creation of the universe.
  
  
• From: Indian (@ newgw4.me.iastate.edu) on: Sun Dec 8 20:18:02
  
  Skanthu
  
  O.K
  
  I take it back.
  
  
• From: BAB (@ cache-mtc-ah06.proxy.aol.com) on: Sun Dec 8 21:41:37
  
  The concept of idol worship is poorly understood by many Hindus. Idol worship in Hinduism is only one level of devotion during the elementary stages of Hindu worship.
  
  Form worship or Idol worship are required before advancement to higher religious practices can be attained and valued.
  
  The highest religious practices in Hinduism is no worship at all. Formless worship is a higher stage than form worship, but formless worship is not the highest. No worship is only achievable after all the stages have been practiced. It is not atheism. It is deep religious conviction.
  
  Having graduated from form and formless worship the devotee of God need not seek God, as he is self realized.
  
  Because of people's choices, like in seeking an education, many never make it to the top, and are satisfied to remain at preferred stages in their spiritual development. Besides, many Hindus generally leave religious practices to individual choice and preferences.
  
  
• From: BAB (@ cache-mtc-ah06.proxy.aol.com) on: Tue Dec 10 08:52:22
  
  Here is one of the dictionary meanings of Idol:
  
  "A representation or symbol of an object of worship; broadly : a false god."
  
  The Murtis that we Hindus worship are representations or symbols of only a few of the multiplicities of God's functioning. Photographs, like Murtis, evoke great feelings in each human being.
  
  How can a Murti, otherwise known as a representation of one aspect of a functioning be false? We Hindus know the meaning of the word representation. A representation is just what it says. Simple logic says it can never be false if we know what it stands for.
  
  A Murti or representation of a Deity can also be described as one of the many roads to Brahman or Godhead. It gives direction. Worship or devotion is the mind or mental aspects in our relationship with the formless God.
  
  Human feelings must be properly developed if we are to evolve through the practice of "Love of Mankind" which stands for God and God's relationship withus.
  
  The importance of human feelings is often not well understood in our devotion, and hence we often do not see progress in the way we offer our devotion to God. It is through the development of rich feelings of love that we are able to serve God meaningfully, and consequently mankind.
  
  The God we speak of are the Gods that are resident in all beings. When we Hindus look at a Murti, we do not see a lifeless object. We see the presence of God in the Murti, knowing fully well that it is the depth of our devotion we experience, no matter in what way we choose to symbolize God.
  
  All is consciousness is well know to Hindus, and how we choose to express our devotion in ways very personal to each one of us.
  
  Deities have the same relationship to God as the organs of the human body to the whole body, like the heart, kidneys, bladder, brain, stomach, ear, nose, and all the cells of the body. In fact, it is said that the universe is a total combination of the cells that make up the body of Christ.
  
  Deities are not seperate Gods but different aspects of God's functioning. Furthermore, Hindus are the only people who believe that any mention of any aspect of God is God in Totality, like the cells of the body that contain the whole.
  
  Only we Hindus speak about the number of Deities there are, like we speak of the age of the universe, which is being confirmed by scientists today. Many deride Hindus for speaking about millions of Gods or the million aspects of God's functioning, yet we know the human body is made up in the same way. Everything is a microcosm of the macrocosm.
  
  Hinduism is a scientific religion, and many scientist and other intellectuals who have studied Hinduism know this fact. Yet, many of us Hindus go about as if we practice a religion of darkness, when the truth is that we Hindus are perhaps the only people practicing a religion of enlightment.
  
  
• From: BAB (@ cache-mtc-ah06.proxy.aol.com) on: Sat Dec 14 09:57:07
  
  All concepts of God and the choosing of symbols that remind us of God constitute Idol Worship. The differences in Idol worship between religions that practice it are only in degrees and forms.
  
  Most, if not all Christians have concepts of God that serve as Idols or symbols that convey and remind us of the essence of what we believe God to be. Crosses, bible, icons, photographs, kabba, lingam, house of Abraham, cresent, torah, etc., make up only a short list in the range of objects that symbolize God's goodness and reflect Idol worship.
  
  Only when we discard the concept of God in its entirety, living in the experience of loving and being loved that we can be considered to be true non Idol worshippers. Discarding God as a concept is perhaps one of the most difficult experiences we will ever have. Perhaps, that is why we are made to believe that many will be called but few will be chosen, meaning truly experiencing ourselves as God.
  
  Concepts keep us at the Idol Worship level, the basis of the perpetual regression in our search for God. These distance us from the only God that dwells in our hearts as we ourselves. Worship of God externally is always Idol worship.
  
  No one will ever be able to prove that there is a God through concepts of God. Only by faith we can know that God exists, and even so, it can only be an experience that may be filled with doubts.
  
  The regression concept is the first analytic religious question most children develop when they ask about God. Who made God is the question most parents must attempt to answer from children when the concept of God is presented to them. How this is answered may determine the direction children may take in adulthood about beliefs in God.
  
  As soon as we come up with one concept of anything, we immediately face its opposite concept which leads into a series of regression of thoughts to infinity. Therefore, the questioning of God and Idol worship remains eternal, without full understanding, and it does not make any religion better than the other.
  
  The one concept of Unicity, otherwise called Totality or All-inclusiveness, have no outside competing opposites, and make the concept of God as Totality or Unicity without perpetual regression.
  
  It would be impossible to worship a non regressive concept as an Idol or an object? The concept of Unicity does not permit Idol worship as unicity would be God itself without a need for God to worship itself within himself.
  
  The need for worship is only when we see the world as subject and object, meaning God is the subject and everything else is object.
  
  It is only when we discard the concept of God in its entirety, and understand "experincing love through giving and receiving" that we can be considered truly non Idol worshippers.
  
  If I am not mistaken, I believce that the prevailing Hindu belief is that "All is God."
  
  
  

Want to post a response?