How factual are verses mentioned in religious books of hindus?

Question

Are they even debatable?

Answer 1

"In quality, in quantity, in significance for man's intellectual, cultural, and spiritual life, this literature in its totality is unsurpassed among all other literary traditions of the world."

source: Religions of India: Hinduism, Yoga, Buddhism - Thomas Berry

"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology.
-Carl Sagan, (1934-1996)

Manu said, perhaps 10,000 years before the birth of Christ about Evolution:

'The first germ of life was developed by water and heat.' (Book I, sloka 8,9 )
'Water ascends towards the sky in vapors; from the sun it descends in rain, from the rains are born the plants, and from the plants, animals.' (Book III, sloka 76).

(source: Philosophy of Hinduism - By T C Galav p 17).

" Temporal notions in Europe were overturned by an India rooted in eternity. The Bible had been the yardstick for measuring time, but the infinitely vast time cycles of India suggested that the world was much older than anything the Bible spoke of. It seem as if the Indian mind was better prepared for the chronological mutations of Darwinian evolution and astrophysics."

(source: The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman

"Hindu cosmography, for example born in hoary antiquity, strikes one in certain ways as surprisingly modern...... Thousands of years ago India's sages computed the earth's age at a little over two billion years, our present era being what is called the seventh Manuvantra. ....... Consider how much scientific evidence has been needed in the West before men could even imagine so enormous a time scale."

(source: Crises in Modern Thought: The Crises of Reason - By Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters) vol. 1 p - 94)

Princeton University’s Paul Steinhardt and Cambridge University’s Neil Turok, have recently developed The Cyclical Model.

They have just fired their latest volley at that belief, saying there could be a timeless cycle of expansion and contraction. It’s an idea as old as Hinduism, updated for the 21st century. The theorists acknowledge that their cyclic concept draws upon religious and scientific ideas going back for millennia — echoing the "oscillating universe" model that was in vogue in the 1930s, as well as the Hindu belief that the universe has no beginning or end, but follows a cosmic cycle of creation and dissolution.

(source: Questioning the Big Bang - msnbcnews.com).

Ages before Lamarck and Darwin it was held in India that man has passed through 84 lakhs (8,400,000) of birth as plants, animals, as an "inferior species of man" and then as the ancestor of the developed type existing to-day. The theory was not, like modern doctrine of evolution, based wholly on observation and a scientific enquiry into fact but was a rather (as some other matters) an act of brilliant intuition in which observation may also have had some part."

(source: Is India Civilized - Essays on Indian Culture - By Sir John Woodroffe p. 22).


Six Schools of Philosophy (Darshana)

Indian philosophical thought, in contrast to the Western tradition, has remained more stable and more clearly continuous.

Indian philosophy is essentially practical, aiming at realizing spiritually what is known intellectually. ....Philosophy and religion in India are intertwined, because religion for the Hindu is experience or an attitude of mind, a transformation of one’s being, a consciousness of the ultimate reality, not a theory about God. Whatever view of god the Hindu many adopt, he believes that the divine is in man.

Philosophy, as religion, is seen in India as a means to an end, not as an end in itself. Hence, there is no room for dogma or intolerance in Indian tradition because the roads to truth are more than one. The infinite reality cannot be comprehended by the finite human mind.

(source: India and World Civilization By D. P. Singhal Pan Macmillan Limited. 1993. p. 23 - 25).

As for the "Debatable" , most of the ideas have proven to be time tested and accurate.They have been debated too many times. Hinduism encouraged open debates about all of its aspects, beliefs. It is not a one book one founder religion. It is a collection of wisdom of various sages.

Debates(Sahastrarth ) have alwys been encouraged. You are not forced to follow antything you are not convinced of and it is NOT a sin. you can partly accept and reject it. you can reject it completely yet you can be a Hindu. Its a way of life not exactly a religion in western sence.

Answer 2

(Just by having a little knowledge) You are not supposed to make ignorant generalizations about 'any' religion, it needs deep understanding of that religion. Otherwise you may find fault with every religion not just with Hinduism. And may get confused with the facts in the verses and holy books
And moreover you need to be more specific about your question like what facts you want to know or clear.

Answer 3

A lot of Hindu religious books are mythological.

Answer 4

Hinduism was actually created by 2 religions meshed together when the two groups of people settled in the same area.

But, eh, it might be true :P

Answer 5

Not very. Come on, these are people who worship cows and stone idols, for crying out loud.

Answer 6

At least they know the cows and stone idols are real.