User talk:Viking17

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on, or ask your question and then place  before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome! Abecedare 18:03, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

August 2007
Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did to Hinduism. Your edits appear to be vandalism and have been reverted. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. Abecedare 22:44, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Hinduism as a monotheistic religion
It's good to see that there are people making sure that there's no vandalism on the Hinduism article. My changes weren't an attempt at vandalism though. I felt that adding "monotheistic" to the introduction, above the table of contents, would help quickly explain the basics of the religion to people coming to the article....I personally often use the first paragraph to get a basic understanding of whatever topic I'm looking at. The articles for Christianity and Islam, for example, include that, so I felt that the addition would be alright. I don't think I made any technical mistakes in my edit, so the only objection I can see would be that the information I added was false....although I can see how someone coming from outside Hinduism may believe that it is polytheistic at first glance, it is widely accepted that the beliefs of Hinduism fall under monotheism. I did read the section on "Concept of God"; nothing in there elaborated on the concept of atheism in Hinduism, and everything else in the section supports the idea of a single, all-powerful, all-pervading God. Based on both the existing article and my own personal knowledge, I believe monotheistic is a far more accurate and far less disputable "overarching term" for Hinduism than henotheistic is.

Wasn't sure what the problem was, sorry for overelaborating if it was just something small....I'm new to Wikipedia. Thanks for reading my comment, hope I put it in the right place (I didn't see a reply button for your message).

--Viking17


 * Thank you for approaching me on my talk page about this issue. That is the right approach to take on wikipedia when one disagrees with another editor and I am very glad to see another contributing editor joining us to expand and improve the encyclopedia in a collaborative fashion.
 * You are right that some people consider Hinduism to be a monotheistic religion, while other reputable sources call it polytheistic (especially with reference to the early Vedic tradition) or use terms such as monism, henotheism, pantheism, panentheism etc. This contrasts with Islam and Christianity which are overwhelmingly referred to as monotheistic faiths, but is not surprising given Hinduisms history and diversity. (You'll note that the first sentence refers to Hinduism as a "religious tradition" and not simply as a "religion" to reflect its distinct composition from other mainstream religions.)
 * The issue of what terminology to use with respect to Hinduism has been discussed extensively at Talk:Hinduism (see the archived discussions too), and the current consensus is that calling it a a "monotheism (or any other "-theism") is a factually unjustifiable oversimplification. This is also supported by several reliable sources.
 * You are welcome to raise and discuss this (or any other issue) on Talk:Hinduism and your input will be greatly appreciated. Welcome to wikipedia. Abecedare 18:20, 25 August 2007 (UTC)