Sunday, May 13, 2007

christopher hitchens bashes the semitic religions

may 12, 2007

hitchens is someone who can be respected: a principled atheist. however, like dawkins before him (see discussion we had here on dawkins' even more incendiary book bashing that, in his words, 'fictional' 'monster', the semitic god yhwh) i suspect everything hitchens shows to be idiotic is strictly true only of the semitic faiths (including communism). these old or new leftists in the west have not been exposed to the far more interesting and challenging religions of the east -- hinduism and buddhism are infinitely more satisfying as religions (and they are not dictatorial edicts telling people what to do). these people should read the gita and the upanishads and the buddhist scriptures, and they will find that, indeed, there are religions that make sense. oddly enough, these religions don't even push you into god-worship.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/books/review/Kinsley-t.html?_r=1&8bu&emc=bu&oref=slogin

2 comments:

Ghost Writer said...

The reason these arguments have come about is that the West does not have a well developed tradition of Bhakti Yoga.
There are many paths to realising the truth; and one may be more suitable to you than the other -depending on your own temperament. Hitchens and Dawkins essentially stress that only Jnaana Yoga ; the way to realising universal truths through knowledge is correct.
However, this may not be suitable for someone with a heightened sense of emotional being. For them - one (or more) of the nine paths to Bhakti are recommended. Incidentally - some Christian denominations have stumbled upon some of these unbeknown to them. Specifically, I point all to the African American churches and the tradition of vigorous singing in them. I have attended some services in these Churches and the Kirtana to Christ are quite awesome and do leave many people, including yours truly with tears of spiritual delight. (Of course the sermons on sins and unbelievers does spoil things).
Read more on Bhakthi Yoga - and why this sometimes descends to fanaticism - in the words of that peerless sage Swami Vivekananda (lecture of Bhakti follows that on Karma)

Of the neo-atheists in the West I have to say that Sam Harris is my favorite, as he does not jettison the possibility of spiritual and mystical transcendence altogether. However, I have found that even he tends to the Buddhist path of meditation and mind control only. This is not for everybody

nizhal yoddha said...

i also think that intellectuals in the west have found the church to be so rotten, corrupt and disgusting that they automatically assume that all faith is the same way. they are not broad-minded enough to look at eastern faiths and realize these are qualitatively different and superior, something that god and man can both live with. they are *real* faiths. the semitic ideologies (christism, mohammedanism, and communism) are mere manuals for world conquest using blind faith as a weapon.