its a peaceful religion

Fun Fact: Jesus is considered by some Hindus to be an incarnation of Krishna. You can worship Jesus in Hinduism. Weird, huh? UPDATE: So check it, I did a religious studies class and we were assigned to visit a religious service that was not of our own faith. I went to a Hindu temple in Scottsdale and was rather impressed by the people there. Oddly, I saw alot of what you see in a Christian church's service in the general behavior of the people. Some were completly engulfed in the worship, some kids were running around being kids, and a couple people were looking at me curiously wondering what I was doing there as I sat in the back observing. There was alot of music involved in the worship and they did a purification ritual where they annointed the people there with water and they got me with it too. After the service they invited me to eat and talk with them. They were eager to share their beliefs without being the least bit pushy about them and were overall quite friendly people.

The caste system alone is enough to give it a bad rating.

I have no problem with polytheism or reincarnation-both of which are quite plausible.There is a lot of Wisdom in the Vedic Scriptures,and unlike most other major religions-the Proponents of Hinduism tend NOT to be dogmatic.This alone shows a very high stste of spiritual advancement.

a religion built on freedom of thought, experimentation the one and only one religion which first provoded an intellectual approach towards the pursuit of God..whose very core essence is true secularism in which the rituaists,etheists,idol worshippers,yogis,jnanis,sanyasis,married men..all can live and have a place and eans of attainment of God..all are free to approach the way they like till they attain for themselves what truth is..unto them....Even a preconceived notion o a God form is not necessary to practise hinduism...this is simply great.

It has a tremendous historical ability to survive and will probably persist into the future, but should decline with the advance of Western thought and materialism. Polytheism has a hard time surviving modernity. It will sink to a superstition in the urban areas but persist in the rural areas.

The worlds oldest religion as far as I know.

This gets a 3 from me only because it kept me interested. Hinduism is a religion, like many others, whose people are allowed to pick and choose what's most convenient for them to believe in and pratice. There are a lot of nice, caring, generous, non-judgemental people out there that have no or little faith based up bringing. I think that in 2005 we have finally learned that regardless of your skin color or religion, people are still nice but when it comes down to salvation that's completely and totally irrelevant. I agree that Craetion is the reason we are here and I believe that Jesus Christ created Evolution so that we could continue to develop and adapt to what he bestowed upon us. It doesn't matter if you go to church or what you practise if you don't have Jesus Christ in your heart. He is the only way to eternal salvation.

seems really confusing since they belive in more than one god.

Caste system bad, very bad. Also, cows make good eating. But some of the best people I've met have been Hindu, so i have to give it a two. Total nonsense, of course, but far more likely to be true than Xianity- the dumbest religon of all.

Three stars, I'm a mixed Indian, but not Hindu, and neither are my family. I don't really mind this religion, but there are backwards ideals within it. I believe the caste system came from this? Anyway, Hinduism is ok, but I don't like the Hollywood idiots that practice it to be trendy and the Indians that think they'll get rich from overworshipping the gods. Most Indians don't take it seriously anyway, almost every Indian kid I know NEVER practices their faith.

Wish I got reincarnated as a parrot or maybe a whale. Hehehe... whales

False religion.Jesus Christ is the only sure thing.

GOD is the author of real science. Most people in the scientific world are so arrogant, that when the find out one of their truths (opps I mean theories) are wrong, they refuse to accept it and just go on believing the mistaken information. Anyway as for hinduism, there are billions of nice people in the world what does that have to do with the fundamentals of a religion. In hinduism they have millions of GOD'S how exhausting. Don't worship the creation, worship the creator, and by the way. As for all you evolutionist and creationist out there. I believe in evolution and creation. Oh wheww shame on me. It is obvious that a great creator would not make HIS creation unable to adapt to the changing world around it. I believe GOD made everything able to adapt to it's surrounding environment so it can thrive and live. Why in the world are people so many different shades if we all came from the same two people. This in itself leads me to believe that GOD made HIS creation able to change and adapt. Not in a fixed state or we would all be the same color. The white skin peoples ancestors are from harsh cold climates with weaker sunlight (needing little or no melatonin for protection from the sun), the dark skinned peoples ancestors are from climates that are hot and need protection from the sun (more melatonin more darker) etc. etc. blah blah blah, thank JESUS for being such a thoughtful creator.

One reason wny people rate it bad is misinformation. In western media only the bad picture of hinduism is depicted. Actually there is no bad picture. Caste System is itself not a Hindu Concept, the original system is VarnAshram which British translated to Caste System. Caste System is bad, VarnAshram is not. And the rest of misinfo goes because of prejusidice of original religion. One can notice that ratings show clear distinction, Most rate either terrible or Great. Just try to learn about it a little bit, you will never rate it Terrible. It is the most flexible religion in the world, so people generally not even call it religion.

My best friend is Hindu, and he is such a wonderful person. His family always seems so nice and they are never judgemental of me. From what I have learned so far, their religion just teaches them to be good people basically. From what I have read, their stance on homosexuality is that it is usually up to the individual and/or their family, and that also maybe the homosexual was of the opposite sex in a previous life with issues, there is no specific reason why some people are gay according to Hinduism. It just depends on what area of the world you are Hindu. But you certainly are not stoned to death in the name of Hinduism....

The idea of reincarnation and multiple deities can not agree with my personal taste. Please understand that when I rate a religion I rate it by how compatable I am to it, I am sure that many people would disagree with my choice not to go with this one.

More of the same humanistic works religion. What can I do to get into heaven? Whatever happened to God's plan? Didn't He already make provisions for us through His Son Jesus?

Like every other religion, this one is false and the enemy of moral and scientific progress.

Hinduism is a Vedic religion. Vedic means knowledge. Vedic knowledge does not have a beginning or ending. Knowledge dates back to the beginning of time (do we really know the beginning of time?). There is no end to knowledge either. We (humans) cannot claim that we know it all, because all we learned becomes Maya (illusion). All life’s, planets, stars and other physical bodies go through a vicious cycle of formation, transformation and annihilation. This process is eternal and carried by knowledge. The term knowledge is referred as energy, which is infinity. God has no beginning or end and God is full of energy. In this multi-dimensional universe, energy is in everything. Therefore, in a nutshell, Knowledge is infinity. Infinity is symbolized in Hindu scriptures as AUM (Cosmic). AUM is the core of cosmic energy, which is referred as Brahman in Sanskrit, God in Latin and Allah in Arabic.

I must admit, this is a very fascinating religion. It has great romanticism to it. And I must give it some props for simply being so old. And it forces India, with its high ratio of muslims, to have a relatively liberal policy in terms of world trade and diplomacy, and to be one of the more receptive and stable nations in the area. But let's face it, the largest concentration of poverty in the world is the Hindu region. The caste system is so rigid; people can't try to work themselves out of poverty because of the culture. They can only work to hope that they'll be rich in the next life. I'm sorry, but that's not gonna cut it for 60 million starving people. It is a beautiful religion, but something needs to change.

One star because it doesn't seem like a religion but rather like an unique myth. I don't know the teachings as well as I like to, but the concept of reincarnation is to absurd to believe in, and it sounds more like a Japanese anime than a belief. This is perhaps the longest lasting polytheistic religion that is practiced by a significant number.

is this the one where they worship the cow?

Started c1500BC by Aryan invaders mixing there own religion with a few diffrent local Indian ones. Contrary to what hindus claim this is not one united religion but many with diffrent philosophys, social systems, politics, myths, hyarchy of gods, meditation systems, most being polythiest (over 50 gods), some monothiest, & some athiest, being diffrent in diffrent casts, tribes, suberbs, etc. The only beliefs in common to all of them is Reincarnation & Karma. Most believe in the 'cast system'. Major sects are 'Visnuism' (70%) with 10 major denominations and many more cults which worship Visnu as the supreme god and practice mantra meditation; 'Saivism' (25%) worship Siva as top god, use mantra, gazzing (the second most popular meditation practice in India) & jnana meditation; 'Skatism' some of which worship Shri others Kali as most high & practice kundalini-carkars (imagining motion of internal forces) meditation as well as yantra-gazzing meditation, mantra and a few other forms, some Skatis eat meat, All European explorers (Dutch, Portuagese, Spanish, Italian, English) claim to have seen them preform human sacrifice however Skatis now deni this; 'Orthodox' Hinduism (<3%) is the original form and has several sects some of which have been corupted by the others, it has Brahma (God) then Indra then 32 other gods (7 arch-gods, 26 other hevenly gods, plus 23 fallen devil ones). The Spirit of the Universe, creator father God is called 'Brahma, Dyaus Pit-ar/ri, Om' and other names and has been down rated by most sects. He was also called 'Atman' before 400BC but since then cults have altered the definition to mean self. Most claim they don't worship Brahma b/c he dosn' answer their prayers. Other popular gods are 'Siva'(Rudra) storm god, distroying hunter, yogi, the kindly one (identical to the European horned god Cornicopius), 'Visnu'(Surya) Sun god creating maintaining saviour from lawless disorder, king of harmonius relm, allie of Indra, incarnate (form of God) every 500 years as 'Krisna', in original scriptures he was created by Brahma but now claimed to be God. 'Indra' regent of heaven, rain, lightning, storms, monsoons, wind, & creation,first god created by Brahma (remaining myth identintical to St. Michael), 'Agni'- fire god and messanger, 'Kali'(myth identical to the fallen arch-angle Asterath). Contains many controdictory myths. Politics: usually conservative and nationalist but some groups are socialists (eg Hari-Krisna [a Visnu sect]). Hindus believe and practice law, duty, morality, piety, devotion, yama & niyama, yoga, breath control, meditation (many types ussually mantra), astrology, pilgrimages, arranged marrages, respect for life and most groups are vegaterian. Some sects demonic.

It's quiet evident that lot of people rate here something out of sheer lack of knowledge! Hinduism is a very perplexing religion but with a lot of inner meanings & sprituality... It doesn't say as bible or koran says this is bad or this is good. To understand the basic ethos of hinduism u need to know "VEDAS & UPANISHADS" & even the generation X knows very little about this. The more u try to unravel , the more mystical it is.

Hinduism is the region where the person achive his sould and it is a fantastic religion.Tis does not make people more orthodox but it helps in scintific way.

The caste system is degrading in itself. Is there a difference at all with this and Buddhism?

Orthodox Hinduism is great, most others deviate and controdict all the original scriptures: Upandisands, Vedas, etc.

A religion that is completely comfortable with horrendous proverty and mind numbing degradation unknown in the west. You're absolved from responsibly for your fellow man by a very useful caste system and a simple idea that you get a multiplicity of lives to improve yourself through reincarnation so don't try too hard to improve things in the present one.

Hinduism is the best religion in the world. Though it confuses people sometimes, the ideals behind this great religion are well thought out. The caste system is simply misunderstood because of Western misinterpretation. The West and Christians have a good way of manipulating truths about other cultures. Hinduism is the oldest religion on earth, and it will be respected.

it discriminates people according to social rank.

I especially like their belief in reincarnation, and some of their colorful art and festivals. I do NOT like their caste system and the fact that women often have it very rough.