Hinduism

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There is a broader, perhaps slightly less biased, article on Wikipedia about Hinduism

Hinduism is one of the world's most prolific religions, and one of the two primary religions of the South Asian subcontinent, along with Islam.^[1] It is also known as Sanātana Dharma by Hindus. Hinduism originated as a melding of the vedic religion of invaders from the north with the native religion centered on forest hermits in India. It is perhaps the world's oldest extant religion.

Hinduism is a combination of polytheism and monotheism. Hindus believe there are countless gods and goddesses that all are facets of one God. Now does that make sense?^[2] Within Hinduism, there are three main gods who make up the overall godhead, and most of the countless gods are various incarnations of those three. The three are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma. A serious problem with Hinduism is the caste system which treats some people as inferior because of wrong actions which are believed to have been done in past lives. There is no proof that these wrongs ever happened.

[edit] Connections to other Indo-European mythologies

In the most ancient of Hindu myths, one can see many parallels to other Indo-European belief systems. One of these is the celestial war between different kinds of gods. In Hinduism, this is seen in the war between the gods and demons. In Greek mythology, this can be seen in the war between the gods and Titans. In Norse mythology, this can be seen in both the war between the Aesir and Vanir, and between the gods and the giants.

Moreover, many have found explicit parallels between certain Hindu gods and some of the Indo-European ones. The most often cited is the parallel between Indra, god of thunder, and Thor, the Norse god of thunder. To many, this is yet more proof of the close connection, prehistorically, between Indians and Europeans.