What is OmniNerd?

Welcome! OmniNerd's content is generated by you, the reader. Through voting and moderation we strive to highlight the nerdiest of what's around and provide content that's a little more thought provoking than other sites.

Submit New Content

Voting Booth

I am most afraid of dying?

View Results, All Polls
75 votes, 13 comments
0
Nerd-Its
+ -

What words mean

Comment comment by scottb on 04 July 2007

I think this story offers a really interesting perspective on theology. So very often disagreements over religious beliefs fall into very strictly dichotomous thinking - the "religious" vs the "non-religious". Especially here in the US, the "Abrahamic" religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) so dominate the culture that people tend to think that all religion is more or less the same.

But here we have goddesses who stop being goddesses after a little while. Not just young Sajani, but all of these girls stop being goddesses - normally it happens after their first menses. This is very obviously a different idea of what deity means than the Abrahamic religions have.

I suspect most westerners reading the linked articles react with a kind of superior "how quaint!", and don't give it much additional thought. It really is worth thinking about what's going on there, though - if you think it's wrong, why so? Don't just dismiss it as "foreign", engage with the idea and see what it really means. "Alien" ideas are a great lens through which to view our own beliefs.

I loved the reactions of the American kids in the linked NPR story about Sajani's visit to the US. The reactions children have to ideas are themselves sometimes very enlightening.

You are a viewing a subset of a larger discussion.
View Full Discussion
Star This to Save in Your Profile Favorite
Thread parent sort order:
Highest Voted : Lowest Voted : Oldest : Newest
Thread verbosity:
Expand All : Minimize Replies to Comments
0 Nerd-Its - +
How Quaint and a revisit of the Atheist Wager by VnutZ :: NR8

I suspect most westerners reading the linked articles react with a kind of superior "how quaint!", and don't give it much additional thought.

I think you're close to the mark on that assessment. That opinion will likely never be vocalized of course, because if somebody gave it a moment's though, they would realize its the same as downplaying any religion.

But the polytheist religions of the East have absolutely nothing in common with those of the West. This is where I have my problem with the notion that there must be a god because so many people believe it. True - but so many people also believe in a completely dissimilar system that there's an equal chance that your god/dogma is a complete farce. This is exactly where the so-called Atheist Wager comes into play.

Posted 05 July 2007, Hide, Parent, Reply