2009/8/21 Supriya Nair <supriya.n...@gmail.com> > On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 1:00 PM, Kiran K Karthikeyan < > kiran.karthike...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > How many Hindus who follow such practices know? Are you saying it > necessary > > to know this before being considered as belonging to a faith? If so, I > > would > > think the followers of most faiths can't be considered as such. > > > Yes, I am. If you don't follow a practice in the awareness that it's > mandated by religion - even if you don't know or question its motives - > then you're *not *doing it for religious reasons.
So if somebody read the Bible, and - I don't know - it maybe touched a chord somewhere, and goes to confession purely for the spiritual experience, you couldn't say that his faith tends towards Christianity? What I find interesting is not that we can now call 65% of Americans as Hindus, but rather the change in attitudes towards other religions. As for the article, reincarnation, tolerance for other religions, or any of the other characteristics the article mentions are attributed to Hinduism. Agreed the article went a bit too far in implying that Americans are all now becoming Hindu. Kiran
