Huston Smith on the Origin of Religion
In discussing Hinduism, Huston Smith explicitly floats an account of the origin of religion and its function in human life. Does that account strike you as the sort of thing that insiders (i.e. members of various faith communities) would accept or reject? Why or why not?
THE FUNCTION OF SAMSARA
The mainstream Western religions certainly have nothing even remotely resembling the Hindu notion of long cycles of births, lives, deaths, and rebirths. Why is that, do you think? What is the function of that idea of Samsara in Hinduism? Do the Western Religions, with which you are familiar, have another way to satisfy this function?