Y-Sir -
Let me share my view on religions in general.
Religions have created more wars than any other order in human history in my view though I am not a historian. Even today most of the conflicts arise out of religious differences.
This is because most religious traditions, especially the biblical ones and many of of Hindu sub-traditions base their practices on 'faith'. That word means - suspend reasons! So it is but natural if two people who have non-verifiable belief system can end up in conflict especially if the topic is about a concept called God and the stakes are high (hell or heaven whatever they may be).
Hindu religion is unlike any others. There are no books (no one has Vedas in their home, some may have Gita but most do not understand a reconciled view of all the chapters). There is no one form of worship. There are many leaders and practices and no one of authority (like Pope for example). There is no concept of conversion and no one can deny if someone says they are a Hindu (and I know a few Americans who are Sannyasis or on their path to Sannyasy and they are respected like anyone else by Hindu community in America). So it is not really an organized religion.
Even in practices such as Pooja one can do ‘substitutions’ of rice for Gold! There are also many practices that are not conformant to Vedic ideas because no one knows them. Even the priests that chant some vedic verses do a lot of ‘blah blah’ without fully understanding the meanings in many cases. People share bribes with the ‘Lord’
This can only happen in India! The greatest thing is that like Judaism it is a gentle religion with no requirement to convert others. So I will not lump Hinduism with other religion – it is in its own category!
The Vedas which is supposed to form the basis for many Hindu traditions teach (not preach) that Isvara ( purposely I am not using the word God) is to be understood and not believed. The traditions of temples etc. are to aid in that path to understanding. Many are not into learning the concepts and are served well by stories in the Purana which all started out with a message but have been embellished (which make them very interesting). So the story about Brahma , Vishnu etc like you cite is taken as true by common people. Often the significance of a story is lost or never learnt and the stories has evolved over the years. These stories cannot be compared with reading a Bible for example.
I was talking about the concept of Brahman and not the Puranic God in the form of creator Brahma.
Anyway you are right that the average person approaches the practices ‘as a belief system’ without fully understanding the underlying concepts and that may be fine if the concepts are grounded in truth that can be understood.
A religious person is expected to be ethical and may not be. An ethical person need not conform to any religion (traditions) and that is completely fine in the vision of vedas. A sannyasi is free from doing any religious rituals and focus only on learning (and of course to be ethical in how they deal with other beings including human beings).
The foundation of Sanathana Dharma and views of Upanishads about what is true are universal and applies to all beings. It does not belong to Hindus any more than gravitational laws do not belong to the country Newton was born. Therefore I will not lump vedic knowledge with the broad practices of Hinduism. The approach of Upanishads is scientific but the subject matter is beyond the scope of Science (and this is a huge topic).
Though my PhD in physics is dated, I can say that what Hawking taught or has written is not in opposition to the vision of Vedas. Once again in the vedic vision concept of creation does not exist - only manifestation, unmanifestation cycles. The possible and but unprovable existance of multiverses (parallel universes) do not contradict the vision of vedanta.
The best students of Vedanta tend to be in my experience from the religion (another belief system) of Atheism! Hope you will explore that as an Atheist!
Regards,
