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So I have been asking my Indian friends with varying degrees of adherence to the Hindu belief system.

I'm a little bit confused regarding the use of sources to answer questions.

Most of the guys I have asked tell me there's no sacred/holly scripture in Hinduism hence there's really not point in citing any book when explaining a certain belief.

Then how can this site clarify/explain/help in the understanding of the doctrine if no reference can be considered reliable.

I read this question and the guidelines seem good in principle, it basically says to provide every reference you can find about the topic and provide them even if they are contradictory.

Wouldn't this kind of response confuse more than it helps in understanding Hinduism?

How can different sources be weighed/ranked so that they users know which ones should be given precedence when answering a question?

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    very confusing. but the thing is, even the precedence of scriptures would vary from sect to sect. For example, some would say that Upanishads are most important. Some would say Gita is most important. Some would say that Saints quotes are most important. Some would say nothing is important. Thus it is better to just put down the source and let the user decide whether or not it has greater precedence to Him. On the whole most Hindus generally place most importance to Gita and the Upanishads. It would be impossible to get everyone to a consensus on the rest of the texts. – Sai Feb 3 '15 at 23:14
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All orthodox Hindus believe in the Vedas. There are 3 'pillars' to modern Vedanta. All trace their roots to Vyasa. Those 3 are the Upanishads (which are part of the Vedas), the Brahma-Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita. All 3 have been commented on by proponents of the various sects. These 3 are accepted by all the different sects. Other scriptures such as some of the Puranas, may be accepted by one sect, and not another. Some take the Puranas as literally true, others take the Puranas as mythology.

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As mentioned in the post you linked, there are accepted sources such as the Vedas, Puranas and other sastras. These are the foundation of "Hinduism", as the general culture of the Indian subcontinent, as well as the different religions within - such as Vaisnavism, etc.

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