In Related News:
Kali’s Press Secretary mentioned that Kali will not Acknowledge the Appeasement as she is in a Meat Free Diet

In Much Related News:
People in Lambpur District of orrisa are in surpise as the mutton biryani and lamb korma prices have gone down.They are still to identify the cause.

Kali’s Press Secretary mentioned that Kali will not Acknowledge the Appeasement as she is in a Meat Free Diet

So Kali is on a protein-free carbs-only diet?? Weird.

rid our society of these superstitions would be to eliminate minor religious superstitions like the nimbu-mirchi and kaala teeka from our daily lives.

Santosh,
The difficult part is deciding which are the minor vs major religious superstitions.All religion is based on supersition - which I define as belief that is not based on facts but faith.Can we really pick and choose which parts of religion we want to follow?Is that feasible? I know that I do that all the time - cherry pick what I can do and leave aside the rest

Can we really pick and choose which parts of religion we want to follow?

Runa,
The way I see religion, it preaches the good-old way of living life. Some of it holds good over ages, some of it is just plain antiquated. The nimbu-michi and kaala teeka references are just examples of the latter, I remember off the top of my head that we still follow in India and abroad in our daily lives.
Honestly I’m not out to dog those who still practice it but just point out that it is part of an antiquated belief system

These incidents stem from superstitions, religion-sponsored superstitions.

It’s true, but I would also attribute such behavior [given in the examples] to lack of common sense. So no matter what religion one follows, one can always claim backup from their own religion for the nonsensical things they do.

And I’m in total agreement with you when you say it’s antiquated, and no one individual or group can make alterations to it without pissing off another individual or group, so it will remain antiquated.

However, my complaints are against people who practice it without understanding it, rather than against a religion itself. The current form of Hinduism includes rituals and practices brought in by various tribes across India, tribes that also worshiped Nature and its resources and joined mainstream Hinduism because of similarities. So I really don’t know if the religion itself is entirely at fault. But people who practice meaningless and violent rituals are…..

Honestly I’m not out to dog those who still practice it but just point out that it is part of an antiquated belief system

Hey Santosh,
I was not trying to be a Hindu apologist at all!Its just that sometimes I feel my faith is weak (flawed?) compared to others’ who follow all religious traditions but I just cannot bring myself to follow everything that any particular religion subscribes.(whether its Hinduism,Chritianity,Islam etc) I describe myself as Hindu because I was born that way not because I believe in everything that Hinduism preaches-I simply cannot !

Why is it barbaric? Because the killing is being done for some ‘nonsense’ reason? Because the reason for the killing doesn’t make sense to you? How is this any different than killing to eat? I see a double standard here.

As far as I can tell from the piece, the killing is being carried out of the same animals as those that are eaten. So unless they kill some endangered species, the only thing that makes this newsworthy is that so many animals were killed, but not for eating.

Why is it barbaric? Because the killing is being done for some ‘nonsense’ reason

Was that a rhetorical question? yes.

Because the reason for the killing doesn’t make sense to you?

Yes.

How is this any different than killing to eat?

Lets see. Killing an animal and consuming its flesh to feed a human v/s killing an animal to “appease a goddess”. One is for a practical purpose, the other one is wasteful.

Happy now?

Ha ha just when I thought I could dismiss all the usual mumbo jumbo that surrounds naming of kids in the des ( the “rashi ” system, numerology, Rakesh Roshan naming all his movies with “K”..) ,I see this !

Millions and millions of animals are slaughtered for food for the developed countries, but most of it occurs behind the doors. Given the huge number of animals involved, the abominable living conditions of these farmed animals and the wastes that occurs, I would say that is much more barbaric. Just because something else is less visible, doesn’t make it less barbaric.

Having said that I have to confess that I became a vegetarian after seeing a goat being slaughtered thus. I protested to the village elder (in charge of puja) saying this practice has to stop. They pointed me towards the queue of dirt poor people who was overjoyed at the prospect of few morsels of meat that comes only once a year. I know it sounds all very dramatic, but its all true. I have the luxury of giving up something that they didn’t have. I could not stop the sacrifice of one goat a year. I would rather try to convince the persistent meat eaters to eat less corporate-farm-raised meat rather than snatching a rare tasty moment from unfortunate poor kids.

Millions and millions of animals are slaughtered for food for the developed countries, but most of it occurs behind the doors. Given the huge number of animals involved, the abominable living conditions of these farmed animals and the wastes that occurs, I would say that is much more barbaric. Just because something else is less visible, doesn’t make it less barbaric.

Agreed, but if they are doing it for food’s sake, let them say that. God does not want us to sacrifice animals, so why spoil his name.

Runa,

In some places it does make a difference. In fact a few years ago (5-7) a lot of people in India started naming their kids with the letter A (sometimes AA), because back home, your First name determines where you stand, starting with Attendance, being called for interviews etc. etc.

As far as baseball goes, I don’t know. It sounds like this is one of those math supported myths.

God does not want us to sacrifice animals, so why spoil his name

Err, how can you be so sure that Kali does not want us to sacrifice animals?

In any case you are entitled to your opinion that it is superstitious nonsense, just as thousands of Kali-devotees are entitled to whatever they believe about her mythology. If you ask them, they may not think that this is ‘wasteful’.

How do we decide which rituals, traditions are OK and which are not? And who gets to decide this?

Mumbaikar,
We don’t remember the Hindu scripture where any of the gods demanded an animal sacrifice but that is besides the point.
I agree with you, sort of. Of course Kali devotees are entitled to do as they feel fit as long as it does not infringe on someone else’s personal rights. And we on our part are well within our rights to call such practices barbaric. So there.

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