A Honest Hindu's Answer to Evangelist Christians-Part 2

If you have not gone through the first part of these questions, I suggest you read them first before reading part 2. Here is the link for part 1
http://spiritofahindu.blogspot.com/2010/12/honest-hindus-answer-to-evangelist.html

8) But just look at the bounty with which God has blessed America! Surely that is a sign he favors us Christians.

Reply :-If that was the case, then God must really favor the Muslims, since many oil-rich Arab states have the highest per-capita income in the world. You cannot equate material happiness with God's blessings. Tyrants and ruthless kings have lived lives of luxury. It is important to understand that material wealth is not always in the living being's best interests. He may come under the spell of illusion, thinking, "The material world is not so bad. Who needs God?" Real wealth is spiritual wealth.

By the way, it is questionable to consider the United States "blessed". Drug use is rampant and crime haunts both the cities as well as the countryside. Millions of abortions are performed every year. In addition to these murders of the un-born, 45,000 adult murders occur each year on the street, in schoolyards and in private homes. Although Christianity has had a strong foothold here in the United States since the very beginning, it is still glaringly obvious that something has gone awry with the social fabric. And yet Christians criticize third world countries "backward ways" and want to export Western culture there? Even in your own Bible, Jesus admonished the sanctimonious hypocrites, saying, "Before you can remove the speck in your brother's eye, first remove the log in your own."

In Hindu's homes around the world, the center of the home is the family altar, where spiritual values are shared. In America, the center of the home is the family television set, where the favorite fare is sitcoms, where anti-social skills are learned (the favorite source of "humor" in sitcoms is usually insult and sexual innuendo).

It is the goal of every devout Hindu to visit the different places of pilgrimage (especially after retirement), such as Varanasi, Vrindavana, Badarikashrama, and great holy places of worship such as the temples of Venkateshwara, Jagannatha and Ranganath. In the United States, the places of pilgrimage are either Reno, Atlantic City, or Las Vegas, the Mecca's of gambling, meat eating, intoxication, and prostitution.

9) So if you say God is a God of love, why doesn't He take away everyone's opulence?

Reply:- It depends upon the individual's spiritual evolution. Taking away someone's opulence is beneficial only for the person is who ready to surrender to God. Other people would become angry and bitter at their misfortune.

10) If a person believes in reincarnation, he will think. Oh, I can enjoy this time... in the next lifetime I will become serious about God.

Reply :- Yes, he might think like that. But he may not be in a position next time around to become serious about God. If he has been extremely sinful in this life, his next body may be that of an animal or a flea... or even a bacterium inside the bowels of the flea. This human form of life is actually very rarely obtained. Instead of pursuing sense gratification, which is so easily obtainable in other life forms, we should fully utilize this human form of life for God realization.

11) So this concept of reincarnation in other species of life is related to your concept of non-violence and vegetarianism. But animals have no souls. According to Genesis in the Bible, man was given dominion over all the animals. So there is no sin in killing animals. Animals are here for our enjoyment.

Reply :- As for man being given "dominion over the animals", look in the dictionary for what the word "dominion" means. It means "authority or control". A man has "dominion" over his children, but that does not give him the right to kill and eat them! And as for the pernicious doctrine that "animals have no souls", there is absolutely NO place in the Bible where it is stated, or even hinted, that animals have no souls. This doctrine is not found in the Bible at all, but is derived from the speculations of Aquinas and Augustine who preferred meat eating. Animals feel pain, we feel pain. We fear death, animals fear death. Animals seek pleasure and warmth, and so do we. Even the ancient Greeks, such as Plato, observed that animals dream (as evidenced by dogs barking and twitching in their sleep).

12) But humans are extremely intelligent. That is what makes them special, that is evidence of their soul.

Reply :- baby child has less intelligence than a dog. Does that mean the child has no soul? What about people in a degenerative mental state or the retarded? Do they have no soul?

13) But if all life forms have the same quality of soul, why are not animals as intelligent as humans?

Reply :- Because they can express themselves only through the body they are in. Here is an example: suppose an expert computer programmer has to program two separate computers. One computer is an 8-bit, 1 mHz microcomputer, and the other is a 32-bit, 50 mHz mainframe. In this example, the programmer represents the soul, and the computers are the brains of the different bodies the soul may inhabit. If you were looking at the output of the two computers, you would see the output of the mainframe is much faster and more efficient than that of the smaller computer. So you might assume that the programmer of the mainframe is much smarter than the programmer of the micro-computer. But, in reality, it is the same programmer! He is just limited by the capacity of the computer he uses. In the same way, one may think that a human soul is different (and much more advanced) than an animal soul.

By the way, this analogy is also useful when explaining the results of brain injuries. After a brain injury, a person may act confused, or lose his ability to control his emotions, etc. But the soul is undamaged. It is just that the soul's mechanism for [removed]the body and brain) has been damaged. Just as a computer with a faulty keypad would seriously hamper the computer's efficiency, even though the programmer is unchanged.

The Bhagavad-gita explains it in this way: some embodied souls are compared to smoke-covered fire. These are the souls encased in human bodies, where a dim glimmer of God consciousness can be perceived. Other souls are compared to dust-covered mirrors, which are the souls in animals... the spiritual nature of these beings is almost imperceptible. And, finally, other embodied souls are compared to an embryo encased in a womb, which represents the souls in plants, where consciousness is so covered that it is imperceptible.

14) Speaking simply from a practical, realistic standpoint, if we did not eat the animals, they would overpopulate the Earth."

Reply :- This is nonsense, a truly narrow vision. Farm animals are forced to reproduce, especially by artificial insemination. To encourage the breeding of livestock, and at the same time, saying, "We have to eat them, or they will overrun the Earth" is truly demoniac thinking.

                                                                                                          Shrinaath Paravasthu