2-11-10

Upon studying the nature of Hinduism in one of my classes, I call bull shit. I call BS on the very nature of the religion, as well as its backings. Just like with any religion, Hinduism has its many contradictions.
So the whole religion starts off with this being just chilling in space. This Being is named Purusha. So this Purusha, just chilling in space, realizes that he can create a universe, but cannot make it out of thin air, but himself. He wants to do it but he struggles with the fact that he will have to sacrifice himself for the sake of creation. He develops a "tapas", which is pretty much the equivalent to guilt, or the literal meaning of somebody having something to get off their chest. So yada yada yada-and then he decides that he should do this and his tapas explodes as does he. Every bit of Purusha's body makes the universe, and everything in it. So-not a big shocker. It's more or less the typical patriarchal to start to any religion/universe.
Onwards with the story. From Purusha's body, each type of person from the world is made from a certain body part. The priests come from his mouth, which is understandable in a figurative sense. From his arms begot rulers and warriors. His legs were skilled workers. And last and certainly expressed as least, the unskilled workers were his feet. Each person has a Jiva, which is a persons mortal life and an Atman which is the eternal greater self. In Atman there is Brahman, which is sacrificial energy. Atman is Brahman, Brahman is the god-head, it is divinity itself and it is everyone.
So what I don't get is that there is equality, but some people are just better than others? I guess the reason that Hinduism is so accepted is because it helped justify the caste system, which held people in poverty for the most part, and wealth for the few. Its main point was to prove that there wasn't equality and that people are bound to a certain path in life just because of their ancestors work skills. Its the type of religion that says warfare is the body attacking itself, like a sickness of the world, yet it will justify the problems of the caste system? It will let class warfare and inequality in some places ring true yet in the end it states that we all have the same thing inside us? If everybody has the same thing inside them, then why bother trying to split hairs and put people down?
Hinduism and Christianity are a no go for me. Maybe this atheist will become a buddhist or "drink the kool-aid" in the near future? Time and education will only tell.