View Single Post
Old 03-24-2009, 07:26 PM   #4
orangutan
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 50
I'm Indian and Hindu, and I think Professor Witzel is absolutely correct--there are plenty of things in Hinduism that are less than agreeable, and refusing to teach them is dumb as hell. Absolutely, teach about the Hindu caste system, repression of women, animal sacrifice, etc. Give equal treatment to all religions, to be fair--teach about the passages in the Bible where God commands genocide, infanticide and rape. You can explain the historical contexts of these practices--I'm fine with teaching that the Bible is an amalgam of several influences, and the real core of the Bible involves a loving, just God, just as I'm fine with teaching that Hinduism has a more philosophical Vedic side that leans towards monotheism and doesn't sacrifice animals. But sanitizing any religion to avoid offending members of that religion is not only dishonest, it's immoral; it does serious injustice to the memory of those harmed by that religion in the past--whether they be the cities God commands to slaughter in the Bible, or the castes and the women that Hinduism has historically oppressed.
orangutan is offline   Reply