Hi everybody (no offense to energy-based life-forms)

I am 20, an Indian (not the red or the western kind, or the island kind, but the actual kind), an atheist, a Hindu (I see no reason why I should simply use a Hindu baseline philosophy with my atheism, the dharmic 'religions' are fairly blurred between atheism and theism anyway), and although I am a non-violent and ethically-minded person, I am a nihilist, because personal belief in some kind of morality dosent mean those morals are worth anything - they are just nice ways of maintaining motivation and ethics without the presence of vengefull deity belief in my humble opinion, not that presence of god-fear prevented theists of the past from acting in depraved ways.

Anyhow, nice to meet you all, perhaps if I had no ego, and was detached from this mortal existence, I wouldnt have announced my presence, and perhaps if I had such controll over ego, there would be no need to post at all, or communicate with anyone, meaning that all the most enlightened people who have found this forum have chosen not to post in it? Just one of many interesting questions.

Welcome Marquis.

I like Sade's Smooth Operator, but I haven't really listened to anything by the Marquis. Is he good?

:D

Yes, you may want to listen to 'Philosophy in the Bedroom' and '120 Days of Sodom' the latter of which was recently covered by 50 Cent and Red Army Choir.

;-)

[GodlessHeathen]

Jennifer wrote

Welcome Marquis.

I like Sade's Smooth Operator, but I haven't really listened to anything by the Marquis. Is he good?

:D

Thousands of satisfied ladies would say "yes".

GodlessHeathen wrote

Thousands of satisfied ladies would say "yes".

Ah, a believer in my gospel perhaps :-P

Welcome to the forum Marquis. We're probably part of a very small group of people in the world that actually know what your talking about when you describe your beliefs.

Ah cool, none of the usual 'how can you be an atheist and a Hindu!!?' stuff then ;-)

Welcome Marquis de Sade!!

Glad to have an atheist hindu with us- maybe you can share your religion with some of the Christians who come to "spread the light of truth" about God. :D

[WITHTEETH]

Welcome Sade, Here is your pointy hat and dagger. You will give all mandetory donations to me. Welcome and praise purple elephants!

(by the way if you are a lady, all ladies go through initiation rituals, they involve a toaster and an speakerphone)

Switch25 wrote

Welcome Marquis de Sade!!

Glad to have an atheist hindu with us- maybe you can share your religion with some of the Christians who come to "spread the light of truth" about God. :D

Haha yeh, Hinduism kills Christianity in terms of logic and coolness, but I doubt they care, afterall, we are all born sinners and must repent through Jebus, and Hinduism is devilish because god has many arms, and a sense of humor ^^

Welcome Sade, Here is your pointy hat and dagger. You will give all mandetory donations to me. Welcome and praise purple elephants!

(by the way if you are a lady, all ladies go through initiation rituals, they involve a toaster and an speakerphone)

Actually, I prefer to dress in a simple loin cloth, as I am a wandering hermit ;-) Right now, I am talking to you from the top of mount Meru, where my disiples have kindly installed a 2 mbit connection :-D

Welcome to the RA, Marquis de Sade! I like your name. May death come swiftly to your enemies.

Warm Regards,
Sir Sin-O-Lot, Knight of the Square Table

Marquis de Sade wrote

Haha yeh, Hinduism kills Christianity in terms of logic and coolness, but I doubt they care, afterall, we are all born sinners and must repent through Jebus, and Hinduism is devilish because god has many arms, and a sense of humor ^^

Yes I think Hinduism is way cooler than Christianity. I've always been interested in buddhism and hinduism but whenever I try to learn about hinduism I just get extremely confused, do you know any internet sites where I could learn about hinduism?

I have been quite interested in Hinduism at times - it's certainly a more tolerant religion that Christianity and makes somewhat more sense i think. however there are many differnt flavours of Hindu practice and belief aren;t there? In fact there are some kinds that are almost atheistic I think? Or at least very vague in their version of God.

Switch, I don;t know any sites off the top of my head, but one of the keys things most people don;t know about Hinduism is that Hindus don;t necessarily worship a lot of diferent Gods , the diferent gods are often seen as kind of symbolic or facets of one over-riding God or higher power that is kind of in everything - I take it as being pretty pantheistic essentially. It is very inclusive in how you choose to worship because by this token almost anything can represent God - for example a lot of Hindus would probably say it was Ok to worship Jesus as your God if it makes you happy. Interestingly there are three main Gods, almost reminiscent of the trinity idea in Christianity. Also one part of the trinity, Vishnu, has regularly incarnated to help humanity according to tradition.
Don;t know if I am just telling you stuff you already know. Anyhow. Hindus also do some quite nice food by my experience. LOL - veggie curries and interesting sweets etc.

BTW I take it it is your nihilism which means you chose the name Marquis de Sade - or is it his other preferences ;) He essentially thought your personal pleasure should come first and life was essentially survival of the fittest - about right? You should act according to every whim and desire and ignore any suffering caused to others, but if we all acted like that though there would be chaos and a lot less of a chance for the average person to feel happy and secure I guess - so certain codes of ethics etc which encourage us to have concern for others are good for all of us in the log run, no? Without it you would live in fear all the time and you would have no friends and there would be no social stability or cooperation, which allow for the development of a stable society in which we have a chance at 'pursuing happiness' and goods and services to help us achieve it.

By the way his books are certainly different aren;t they? I've dipped into one or two - pretty strong stuff. And an atheist of course... Not surprising he spent so much time in prisons/asylums, I mean considering the period he lived in...

oliver

BTW MdS as you seem to say you are a Brahmin can you tell me would it be true to say that traditionally achieving the Hindu version of liberation (which is kind of becoming one with God, as opposed to the BUddhist god-less species) can only be done from a Brahmin life? I mean that other people have to be good and hope for rebirth in higher castes until they become Brahmins? I remember reading that somewhere and wondered if it was true. The whole caste thing is one of he less appealing aspects of Hinduism to the westerner I think.

Oliver

I think one of the reasons the British were able to effectively rule India for so many years is that both cultures had a rigid class system.