Expert: Aupmanyav - 12/1/2008

Question
Dear sir,

I hope you can answer my question. We all know about the middle east conflict and the claim of the Jewish people that Israel is their native homeland.
I am a born Roman Catholic and I wondered about some questions.
The way I see things, there is one original book of wisdom translated in many languages so we all can enjoy and study the books of wisdom.
I considdered always all people as children of God.
We all know the story about Mosus and this story is very important to the Jewish people.
I see the bible and the holy book as a book full of symbolic wisdom. Therefore it is an interesting book to all people in the whole world.
I think this book can inspire all people in the whole world.
I believe in one religion. But the story is told all over the world in many languages.
No I have the idea the Jewish claim the holy books as if those books are theirs and they are the out chosen people. Now my knowledge to explain all the contents of the holy inscriptions is limmited. I don't know if we even should take the stories to litterly. I myself heart about an explanation about a movie about the mahabarata a story about Krishna and Arjuna, and it was very beautiful explained.
As I understood, the conflict was the same as our own inner conflict. There fore I loved this story.
But I believed to some aspects to see as perhaps equal with the story of Mosus although I am not sure of it.
I thought about the inner struggle we can have even ourselves with God or the aspect of God and how to act and handle right and correctly.
My question is, can we see a nation as the Jewish people. Is being a Jew a nationality or a religious thing. Is the aspect we find in the bible an aspect of all of us. Is it the way God can speak through all of us, seen as our own consiousness or does God have a litterly outchosen people, nation he want to have the land we call the promise land. The land is called Canaan in our bible.
Should we take these stories litterly. Do you believe the Jewish should go back to their native land as they claim it to be.
I wish I knew what the word Jewish means. Noone knows even where the word comes from. So little we know about these things.
If we discuss who should live where we are in a complacated situations. How does God wants us to live right, and does God wants the Jewish people to live in Israel.
I have an other question since I rote about that the Holy books of the Jewish people refer and are somehow simulair to the books of India known as the veda's.
Although this is logic , I wonder if the Jewish people translate or understand their books right to claim the stories are about them. I think, a Jew is someone, who calls himself a Jew, if he wants to show only he is interested in the holy books like a christian calls him self a christian in a way.
Let's put it differently. I think if we do what the Jewish people are doing by claiming Israel, we all could do that if we wanted to do so.
On the other hand, we all must live somewhere and how do we know what our native and original homeland is.
The problem of the Jewish people is that they don't have a homeland. I must think about our priests or our disciples, who travel through the world to spread the word of god and educate people. Perhaps, the Jews forgot they are a priests and should preach the word of the holy book. It can be in this way, you don't have a native land, because , it is because of your job as a priest or in their language a rabbi to spread the word.
I hope someone knows the answers to find some peace for all of us in this world. The Palastine or the Islam have somehow a similar problem as the Jewish people. They also feel as if they don't have a homeland.
As an expert of ancient history, can you perhaps bring some light in my darkness around this subject.

With my special regards,

Connie

Answer
Dear Connie,

You must realize and accept that there are many ways to look at things. 1. Various people have their own books of wisdoms. 2. Not all accept the existence of God or soul.

I am an atheist hindu. In my view also all people arise from 'what exists' (in my case, it is physical energy). I would not exclude animals, vegetation, or even non-living objects from that. They also arise from same energy.

No, Bible is not an interesting book for me. Also, all religions are not the same. We all have our differences and it is important that we should be able to live with these differences, otherwise we are no better than terrorist muslims.

It was wrong of British to try to establish a homeland of jews (1919) in Israel. The inhabitants of the land (the Palestinians) were unnecessarily disturbed and have gone through many difficulties in the last nearly 90 years. The jews should have remained in their own countries, Russia, Poland, Germany, Britain, etc., where their people have been living for generations. If any jew wanted to come to Palestine, they could have done it in their personal capacity.

It depends on a country and its people to declare itself for a religion.

For christian countries, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religions#Christian_countries
For muslim countries, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religions#Islamic_countries
For buddhist countries, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religions#Buddhism_as_state_religion

In contrast, India, Nepal, and Mauritius, which are hindu majority countries, have chosen not to declare hinduism as the State religion.

Israel is a Jewish country. The origin of the word is from Judah  or Yahuda, who  is supposed to be the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. Not all jews are priests.

Vedas are different from the books of jews and christians. They contain all kinds of philosophical thoughts of Indian Aryans, including polytheism and atheism.

I hope I have answered some of your questions. If you need further clarification, please feel free to ask me more questions. With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Aupmanyav

p.s. - Dear Connie, I wanted to add about Israel that after its establishment, even the jews have not lived there comfortably. They have also faced terrorism and many difficulties. With warm regards,

Aupmanyav