America is becoming more Hindu

[kinnell]

Definitely a good, interesting read!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155?GT1=43002

Thoughts?

 

[Ashveer]

They're taking two notions and exploiting them. Watch this get re-hashed on all the diasporic news channels. The same beliefs are foundin Jainism if Im correct, as well as Sikhism. Doesn't mean America is turning into Punjab. It just means notions of religion are changing. People might take this article to mean that America is 'becoming' more Hindu whereas the article shows that Americans are just diverging from traditional Judeo-Christian norms. Tell me that more Americans are doing pooja and revering the Ramayan for its teachings, and then we'll talk.

 

[H.S.]

basically what Ashveer said.

also the title of the article is pretty horrible and mis-leading

 

[Ashveer]

Basically HS cant wait till thursday.

 

[H.S.]

Basically.

 

[justAguy]

All this is saying is that Americans as a whole are becoming more open minded ...

 

[faizan]

Very good point Ashveer. I wouldn't say America is becoming more Hindu, I would just say that it is becoming less Christian.

 

[Pooja]

Interesting find...agreed that the basic point of the article is that Americans are becoming more accepting of other viewpoints and 'paths.'

The title is odd, but I don't think it is literal in any sense...it was written that way on purpose.

I still find it hard to believe that these observations are true...I feel like that population who accepts the values and philosophies of Hinduism (or Sikhism/Jainism/Buddhism etc.) is still quite small?

 

[Kamran786]

I think its cool that America may be embracing these different elements more.

BUT

America has a habit of taking foreign things and exploiting them. I mean where I live we have Buddhist lamas selling their '1 hour talks' for 25.00 a piece, Yoga Classes for 20.00 a class, and much more. I would just hate to see the idea of Hinduism become commercialized much like other Indian things have become commercialized. I don't see why so many people find it okay to take something that is ancient and suppose to be free and make exploit it for all the money they can get . Sure I get that people are trying to be more open but these sort of things are not there for people to Americanize and than market for an arm and a leg.\


At the end of the day the American people are just becoming less Judeo-Christian.

 

[kinnell]

All this is saying is that Americans as a whole are becoming more open minded ...

I agree with this.

I believe the misleading title was used so it would draw more attention.

Interesting find...agreed that the basic point of the article is that Americans are becoming more accepting of other viewpoints and 'paths.'

The title is odd, but I don't think it is literal in any sense...it was written that way on purpose.

I still find it hard to believe that these observations are true...I feel like that population who accepts the values and philosophies of Hinduism (or Sikhism/Jainism/Buddhism etc.) is still quite small?

Yeah! That's what I initially thought when I read the article. It's an interesting read, but I'm curious on the method that they gathered their data. I find it hard to believe that more people believe in reincarnation. Hell, I thought the number of Hindus who believe in reincarnation was getting smaller.

It's hard to categorize what America is. In an ideal situation, statistically America would be the sum and categorization of opinions of EVERY American (or whatever definition we place on that term). But that isn't practical at all. A random survey would be best, but it would need to be a large enough sample to be representative of the entire population.

After reading the article, I felt that the writers drew a misleading conclusion, like you guys stated before. But I also feel that the statistics may not accurately represent the entire population. However, that assumption of mine is based on my notion of what I believe Americans believe.