religion choices in profile

I noticed there are three instances of Mazdayasna (which non-members call 'Zoroastrianism') in the profile religion choices, including 'Mazdaism.' There is also a choice for 'African-Eurasian,' which I may or may not have recommended but is just a geographic area (including India) that contains lots of religions... maybe have a choice for 'pagan/heathen' and any other indigenous religions you can find, such as in American and Australia, though not many people would probably choose something but 'pagan/heathen' if they are regularly on the 'net, ironically.

and I was probably the one to recommend adding Zoroastrianism/Mazdayasna/‘Mazdaism.’ In their original language, it's Mazdayasna, and in much of the rest the world, it's ‘Zoroastrianism.’ I don't know there even is a term ‘Mazdaism’ or if I just thought of it using their God name. I think I also made up the geographic one, but doesn't really reflect any one religion, or even one culture or people, but is closer to something like a specific paganism (or some mix of Egyptian-influenced Essenism with Indo-European paganism, like I had) and/or ‘New Age,’ basically including world religions (and a choice of ‘New Age’ would let people indicate that for other areas... apparently ‘New Age’ is a pretty popular religious description, as long as they believe in astrology, and people in it are very influenced by Dharmas.) If you get Westerners like me joining, you could add ‘New Age’ and ‘pagan’ as a choice, until maybe later someone asked for ‘heathen’ (‘pagan’ in a different language, but some people are extremely particular about it.) I wouldn't really call myself mostly Hindu anymore, rather than Classical Greek & German Idealist philosopher: Pythagorean, Ephesian, Empedoclean Pluralist, Platonist, Neopythagorean, Neoplatonist, Gnostic, Hermetic, Cartesian, Leibnizian, Nietzchean, etc. (so basically, ‘philosophy’ as one of several terms for my ‘religion,’ but all pagan if Leibniz was pagan, which some contemporary philosophers think)... though I still accept Hindu Yoga ideas about energy in a human being, etc.--microcosmic--and for a worldview about the universe--macrocosmic--I'm more Platonist & Leibnizian pagan now... so I'd like to be able to indicate ‘pagan,’ but it doesn't matter. Classical Greek philosophy and Leibnizian Monadology (about monads/atmans) matches Hinduism in the list most closely. If pagan is capitalized, there's a Western problem that it has no formal meaning, but a few people think that means worshipping European gods only, not just all the non-Abrahamic religions (Hinduism included, also agnosticism & atheism,) but I'd just have to explain where appropriate how my views are an atheist-pagan combination of 50% Western philosophy and 50% Hindu & Jain & Taoist Yoga & Chi Kung... so I would select ‘pagan’ if available. I'm not here to stop anyone worshipping Hindu gods, just now to still learn about Yoga, and see similarities in philosophy.

Namaste
The religion choice dropdown comes pre filled with the initial setup of the software.

Namaste,

If I were designing this site, I would just have two choices in the drop down menu for religion - Hindu or non-Hindu. To me the object is not to find everyone's detailed label but to see who all are Hindus in this Hindu forum. Most of us are here to discuss Hinduism or the factors which affect Hindus/Hinduism. If a visitor can benefit from the contents of this website and wishes to participate in the subject matter, fine; else one is free to move on. Among the non-Hindus, who belongs to which nuanced subset of another philosophy/religion is not what I come here to note/study.

Pranam.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Believer

Namaste,

If I were designing this site, I would just have two choices in the drop down menu for religion - Hindu or non-Hindu. To me the object is not to find everyone's detailed label but to see who all are Hindus in this Hindu forum. Most of us are here to discuss Hinduism or the factors which affect Hindus/Hinduism. If a visitor can benefit from the contents of this website and wishes to participate in the subject matter, fine; else one is free to move on. Among the non-Hindus, who belongs to which nuanced subset of another philosophy/religion is not what I come here to note/study.

Pranam.

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Namaste Believer

I fully support your views.

Hari Om!

And if it makes any difference, am another that agrees with Believer. Perhaps this change can be considered?

Om

Quote:

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Originally Posted by satay

Namaste The religion choice dropdown comes pre filled with the initial setup of the software.

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Well you or someone definitely added four I suggested almost 10 years ago (http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthr...ght=#post34985) and it wasn't a clear suggestion (three being alternate words for the same, and one basically I made up, but a realistic term for a view in paganism I had, closer to just ‘pagan’ often referring to Indo-European areas and nearby, or ‘New Age’) Doesn't anyone else see these--‘Zoroastrianism’/‘Mazdaism’/‘Mazdayasna’ (all the same, but I'm not sure ‘Mazdaism’ is proper translation of ‘Mazdayasna,’) ‘African-Eurasian?’

Believer has a good point. A problem may be, is if there is more than one definition of Hinduism--on Wikipedia or somewhere, I've read of three: one of course just being Sanatana Dharma, another being Sanatana Dharma and similar but non-Vedic tribal polytheism, and another being those but (Hindu referring more to India than Sanatana in this case) also other religions of India like Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism (which someone here told me Sikhi is a Hindu sect, but maybe not all Sikhs agree)... and I've heard of people like various ancient spiritual Masters who had lineages in both Hinduism and Buddhism, and continued to take both seriously. Then you also have people like me who are Western pagan (some say Pagan, not meaningful, but common usage) and focus on both Sanatana Dharma and other ancient cultures that had polytheism and pantheism, i.e. not everyone wants to say they are or not.