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To: arun gera who wrote (68356)	9/3/2005 10:44:04 PM
From: Slagle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Arun Re: "dogma" By your lights Seventh Day Adventists have no "dogma" either. The woman who is considered by many Adventists to be the founder of their church, Ellen White, wrote extensively about the reasons a person should not eat meat, drink alcohol or use tobacco but there are Adventists who do all of those things. And they are not banished from the church or hectored by their clergy for those things. And even within a group like the Adventists there are many divisions. The Branch Davidians (of Waco fame) are an Adventist sect at odds with the SDA national leadership. Every Christian church is like that, with many sects and sub sects. I suppose you could call Ellen White's opinions "dogma" if you like. Or you could maintain that they are just her personal belief. But most reasonable folk would consider them to be a sort of "dogma". By the way, I called my Indian buddy when we were discussing the number of English families in India that have been there since before independence. He says you are full of it, there are NONE. NONE in the whole country, and he called his older brother in New England and brother confirmed that. No English families and no families with English surnames in the whole country that remain from colonial times. New recent arrivals yes, but remaining from the colonial period, no. They were all run out of the country. And I will call and ask him about this. I definitely remember him telling me that folks of his parents generation were just as devout and held to the same rules of behavior as our Brahmin South India roomy. I remember him telling me that his father had never eaten meat or would not kill an insect and spent time in his daily prayers, just like our roomy. And he said that all his parents generation there were like that. And they a well off family of the merchant caste from Ahmedabad and our Brahmin roomy was from a very rural place in South India. So there must be some common practices throughout the country, you think? By your definition there is no "dogma" within American Christianity either. Slagle

To: arun gera who wrote (68356)	9/4/2005 2:36:36 AM
From: Gib Bogle	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

I have to stick my oar in here. Whether Hindus are as dogmatic as adherents of the other great religions is certainly debatable. My guess is that the variation within any religion (I mean within its believers) is greater than that between religions. But let's face facts: Hindus are just as nutty as Christians, Moslems, Jews etc. From a scientific point of view religious faith is quite interesting. Considering that what really sets us apart from the chimps is our intelligence, it is intriguing to ponder the evolutionary value of the "religion gene". My guess is that it increases social cohesion, and helps our group to prevail over that group over the other side of the hill. In other words, a version of "my country, right or wrong". From a more personal perspective, I can't help admiring those who are able to believe what they want, rather than what their intelligence tries to impose on them. Such strength of will!