Can The World Survive Without Religion (Yes or No) A Hindu P (General)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Friday, December 03, 2010, 04:29 (5103 days ago) @ satyansh


> A popular saying in Hinduism is "Atman is Brahman!" In fact, all living things are Brahman at their innermost core! In addition, instead of ritual sacrifice, intuitive knowledge of the oneness of all things came to be endorsed as the way of contact with divine reality. Also found in the Upanishads is the teaching that the material world (including our conscious personalities) is less than fully real. The word "maya" is used to designate the power by which God, or ultimate reality, brought this less than real world into existence.-
Welcome to the forums! As usual, I am about a day late to the ball. -There was something in your post here that struck a chord with me. First the quote "Atman is Brahman" is very resonate with the much later catch phrase of popular science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, "Thou art God", and represents I think one of the key pieces missing from the Abrahamic religions, namely the oneness of everything.-The other thing that caught my attention, is the word Maya. The obvious connection would be to the Mayan population of the central/south Americas. Normally I would dismiss such a thing as coincidence of language. However, based on my admittedly limited study of the Vedas, there was some mention of odd flying contraptions in their text. What is strange about that is that there were necklaces found in Mayan/Aztec ruins that seem to depict such flying contraptions, right down to having the symbols for rise and descend engraved on them. One thing might be coincidence, but two? Makes me wonder if there is any link between ancient Mayans and the Ancient Indians. -Anyway, welcome to the forums, and thank you for your enlightening posts on Hiduism. It is a much appreciated viewpoint. -As far as rationalism is concerned though, don't get to hung up on it. Rationalism is the Yin to Irrationalism's(Spiritualism) Yang. They are both equally valid and necessary for humanity. It is no coincidence that there is not a single culture in human history that is devoid of religion. Just as there is not a single culture in human history that is completely devoid of rational progress in some fashion.