NEWS: Religion is the New Black

"Mmmmm, sugar-sweet Christ-blood" -- some neo-khristian lunacy, most ripe and in season, no?

The author Camille Paglia is one author having used the phrase, Pauline Christianity. It is a fact, in fact, that most of the New Testament is identified as a work of the man called the apostle, Paul. So, I think she was onto something.

As for what Paul was up to, darned if I can really give a rat's candy-cane -- unless it might be addressed in an (hopefully, objective) analysis of the social, ergo primarily secular phenomenon, the Christian religion.

(NB: This is said not as if any other thing identitified as "religion" was not social, ergo primarily secular. Insofar as I can determine, it appears that all things called "religion" are social, primariliy secular.)

As such: If religion is the new black, that may be quite fitting for the matter. Propers, Subrosa

I came to post that I think this title is the cleverest yet.

Well, actually my Hindu Thought and Culture Teacher who was from Yemen (and who spent a lot of time in India) said that the folks in India don't think very much of non-Hindus (the faith) trying to "become" Hindus (i.e. some young, idealistic American kids wandering through marijuana fields...) I say that jokingly, but I use it as an example.

So I guess what my teacher was trying to say is that technically you can adopt those values and beliefs, but Hindu society as a whole might not accept your decision and actually snub you for trying to cut in.

So, wait-wait-wait. You're the one who categorically sees people as either "my Armed Services brah" or "second-class civilian", but everyone else on here are somehow the ones with the problem relating to people?

Damn, this aldushuxley guy sure has been a glutton for punishment over the past few days.

I never noticed this behavior with all the Hindus I was around. Of course, I realize that my anecdotal evidence cannot be stated as any kind of objective truth. It is contrary to what your teacher from Yemen experienced.

I think it really depends on the sect, and who you're hanging around with. I also think it would be more appropriate to say that there's no mechanism (that I know of) for joining a caste, which is - or at least formerly was - a pretty basic Hindu social unit.

That being said, of course, individual Westerners and other non-Hindus have been taken on as chelas by various gurus for centuries.

Don't forget Buddhist.

I omitted Buddhism from that list purposely, since, like Taoism, it's a nontheistic religion, so I don't see it as fundamentally erroneous in the way I see Abrahamic or polytheistic faiths as being.

So there.

That's right bitch.

I didn't know they made a Zarth smilie.

I was gonna tell him it was just that you didn't like or care about any Buddhists

It's all yours. You should make it the sig at the end of all your posts like FP.

Meanie....

Well that, and I think the disdain is more along the lines of what you might expect a devout Native American to think of some fashionable New-Ager showing up looking for a vision quest. It's not a disdain for outsiders. Not even for outsiders looking to convert.

It's a disdain for outsiders with no serious interest in the actual beliefs looking for an "authentic" experience, when they wouldn't recognize "authentic" if it crawled up and bit them on the ass.

But then, I'm just a fashionably ex-Adventist atheist. So you can take my opinion with as much salt as you like.

How dare you make sense and remain well-written while speaking out against things that you don't agree with! That's not how internet forums work AT ALL.