natselrox wrote:Questioning of authority and disrespecting other's beliefs, no matter how stupid they are, are absolutely forbidden in India. The whole nonsense that is Indian secularism seems to based on these two ideals. And apparently, the Indians seem to be very proud of this virtue of tolerating stupid beliefs.

I imagine that this stems from the need to keep Muslims and Hindus from each others' throats. The alternative would be the removal of all sanctions against criticising authority and belief but that would probably require a greater degree of sophistication than a country steeped in superstition and other problematical features such as serfdom could cope with. Which I suppose applies to most "Muslim" countries as well.

They're going at each others' throats even with the current attitudes, thank you very much.

On the other hand, it'll get rid of some of the nutters <wink>

I mean, this tendency to respect traditional wisdom was a part of almost every culture and none of them banned it overnight. There was a gradual shift in the zeitgeist from credulity towards scepticism. You don't need to remove all sanctions against criticising authority, but at least the guys in power must show the intent that they are interested in promoting scepticism as a way of life. The situation in India is like, "We have been tolerant towards every faith and that's the sole purpose of our existence and we are not going to change that." Secularism in India is like an insurance-policy for all the religions whereas it could have been used to promote 'non-religious secularity' as a way of life.

Precisely, my vote is buggered up and wasted because the majority are just too credulous, not saying the candidature for the parliament is any good, either...

And there is no chance of unifying the rational votes which get diluted beyond homeopathic concentrations in this sea of nonsense.

Not sure where best to post this, which I've just found on brassgoggles.co.uk - nor am I sure how the late 19th century American attitude to sex fits in with the timeless Islamic one. Similarities and differences abound.
http://depts.washington.edu/psy210/1894.html
Anyone fancy calling Poe? After all, it couldn't be real. Could it?

Snopes doubts it, but not enough to deem it false:
http://www.snopes.com/weddings/newlywed/advice.asp