re: Avtar in Hinduism?
I don’t think the eastern religions like Sikhism, Hinduism and Jainism are polytheistic but I guess the reason why some atheists/agnostics in west may not directly criticise as much is because they don’t feel it affects them as much. The eastern religions are not big on conversion and don’t have a believer/non believer aspect to it.
Maybe the atheists/agnostics in west feel they are viewed in same way as polytheistic. Also polytheistic are a minority in west and not a ‘threat’ as such.
I completely disagree that atheists in India or East have any soft corner for these religions. They target the majority religion of the country. I have 2 ex hindu atheist friends online and they talk daily about the evils of Hinduism and damage it is doing in India..about superstitions, rituals and blind belief. They mainly focus on Hinduism because that is what they know. Even recently the atheist guy who came up with a law to ban superstitious practices in india(for all religion) was attacked because some people felt threatened by this.