Thread by @EveKeneinan

Hinduism is not a religion so much as a collection of related by varying religious schools of thought.

“Hinduism” itself is a European term.

It is more comparable to Greek Philosophy, with the established schools being the Academics, the Platonists, the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Peripatetics, and the Skeptics.

What I find puzzling is that the combination of such deep religious wisdom AND a multiplicity of schools at odds, SEEMS LIKE it would make followers of the sanatana dharma rather open-minded to other serious religious views.

Alas, it does not.

Hindu: Christianity is absurd!
Christian: How do you know?
Hindu: Because the only TRUE religious teaching is either Sankhya or Yoga or Nyaya or Vaisheshika or Mimamsa or Vedanta! I’m not sure which one is true, but it is DEFINITELY one of those!
Christian: Uh huh …

Christian: You kind of accept six schools of thought, or one of them, but you don’t really know, and yet you KNOW everything else is wrong?
Hindu: Well, if I am being honest, there’s a chance that Buddhism or Jainism or Cārvāka or Ājīvika are true, but probably not.