Questions asking whether Hinduism is unique with respect to a particular feature?

Question

Consider a question as follows

Is it true that only Hinduism has the feature F?

Suppose it is clear that Hinduism has a feature F. I want to know whether Hinduism is the only way/religion that has feature F.

Such questions needs knowledge on all other existing religions also. So it seems off-topic.

But it can be viewed as a question that is asking about uniqueness of Hinduism. In this view it seems to be an on-topic question.

In this context, can I ask such questions in our main site?

Some sample questions:

Q1) Do Hinduism has large number of gods?

Q2) Do Hinduism is the only religion talking about sati sahagaman?

Q3) Do Hinduism is the only religion has stotras on sun?

Q4) Do any other religion contain Dattatreya?

Answer 1

Most of the sample questions are partially off-topic.

Q1 -- This is is perfectly on-topic.

Q2 -- This question breaks down into a couple of questions viz: "Does Hinduism talk about Sati?" and "Does any other religion talk about Sati?". The first part is clearly on-topic but the second half isn't. So, overall the question is off-topic.

Q3 -- This is also off-topic by the arguments used to show the same about Q2.

Q4 -- "Does any other religion talk about Dattatreya?" This is also quite clearly not about Hinduism so off-topic again. This will be off-topic for all religion sites unless you make it site specific for e.g. "Does Islam talk about Dattatreya?" (suitable for Islam.SE)

In general, a question like "Is Hinduism the only religion having a particular concept?" will be off-topic for our site because, while we can try to show whether that concept is really a part of Hinduism or not, there is no way we can show that the concept is not present in any other religions. Because, to do so we will have to study their religion, quote from their religious texts which is not allowed here.

Answer 2

Such cross-religion questions are not encouraged.

As guided in the FAQ:

Avoid asking cross religion questions, I am just highlighting this out in bold because we want to avoid religion wars here, don't compare any other religion with Hinduism, stick to the topic, I would not post any examples for this, I hope people understand. Don't compare religions on good/bad parts, don't post questions if you've heard some cross religion rumors ...

Another thing is that since this is a site about Hinduism, here we do have learners and experts of Hindu religion. We don't know whether we have users who are expert in multiple religions. So, it would be either difficult to answer or can be opinion based. Further discussion on another religion would be off-topic (As explained by Rickross) So, we don't encourage such questions.

Answer 3

But it can be viewed as a question that is asking about uniqueness of Hinduism. In this view it seems to be an on-topic question.

"Uniqueness" comes when compared with some other religion. We should not encourage religion comparison. So, this should be still off-topic.

Q1) Do Hinduism has large number of gods?

Too broad. Question can be rephrased to make on-topic.

Q2) Do Hinduism is the only religion talking about sati sahagaman?

Off-topic. Discussing about other religion should be off-topic.

Q3) Do Hinduism is the only religion has stotras on sun?

Off-topic. Same as above.

Q4) Do any other religion contain Dattatreya?

Off-topic. Same as above.

Conclusion:

Discussion or comparison with other religions should be off-topic. Yes, there are stories which intersect among the religions. Such questions should be asked on

• History.SE
• Mythology.SE
• Skeptics.SE?

But not here, as we only deal with Hinduism.