Humans Of Coffee World

Hipster Religiosity

One of my College friends is from a Hindu family background.

Since I've come to know him better, I've always suspected that he doesn't really believe in organized religion. He is too cynical, and too skeptical to believe in "Social constructs predefined by historical cultural influences"...and other fancy schmancy liberal arts lingo that escapes me.

I naturally assumed that he is an atheist.

(Fun fact about him: He is literally BORN to be a Hindu. Because his body cannot physically tolerate meat. :') He throws up on chicken, and further up the food chain. The irony.)

He is passionate about film-making, and if everything works out for him, I'm sure I can boast about being friends with a top notch film director!
Discussing movies with a liberal arts student like him, is eye-opening. I always find out obscure symbolism hidden in popular movies, after talking with him.

For instance, did you know that Guardians Of The Galaxy is actually a low-key satire of The Avengers? Lol. Basically, Marvel screwing with us viewers, just because they can...

Also, X-Men is actually about ethnic cleansing and genocide of minorities...not unlike the Holocaust...

During a particularly crucial debate we were having a few days back (It involved Marvel and DC...and Fight Club because no conversation with him, can escape Fight Club), the talk turned to religion.

Me: "...Yeah, it must be hard being an Atheist in a devout Hindu Family..."

Him: *horrified* "Dude! I'm not an atheist. No way! Atheists are schmucks..."

Me: "Oh. Umm. Okay..."

Him: "I'm Apathetic"

Me: o_O "You don't sympathize...?" (First time I've heard this word as a religious ideology. I only know the literal meaning)

Him: "Yep. We Apathetics don't sympathize with religious debates. Are you familiar with The Theory Of Absurd?"

Me: *Eyebrow raise* "Theory of Absurd???? I swear to my sympathetic God, S. If I find out that you're punking me right now, I will kill you..."

Him: *Starts typing on his laptop* "Look. Wikipedia."

Me: "Okaaay. That's legit..."

Apparently, Apatheticism claims that the entire debate of God, and Divinity, and Religion is absurd. Because there's no way to prove or disprove the existence of God.

It's different from Atheism, in the point that Atheists actively deny, and attempt to prove the non-existence of God, while Apatheticists (Mouthful to pronounce) just say;

"Why are we even talking about this? There's no way to prove or disprove the debate of God, so let's just play some scrabble instead."

I'm kidding. They don't play scrabble.
Maybe Checkers...I dunno.

The interesting thing to note was the smug contentment on my friend's face. He loved being different from Atheists. He shared with me this whole idea of social justice that Apatheticist philosophers have designed. He enjoyed this feeling of "belonging" to a niche group. Something that he seemed to lack with his Hindu circle...

I'm happy for him. I really am. It's important to belong. To share thoughts and ideas with similar minded people. To be able to smugly say,

"Well, we believe..."

It's interesting to know about these ever new cropping religious thoughts. Like I recently came across this
"Reformist Islamic" philosophy through Canadian Author, Irshad Manji. She has written a book, "The trouble with Islam" that is causing a whole lot of trouble for her (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

Basically her philosophy focuses on "Interpretations Of Islam by independant thinking (Ijtehad)"
She has a long way to go, before people actually take her seriously, because what I've gathered from her work, is the fact that she kind of ignores previous interpretation of Holy Quran, choosing to design her own rationality. This of course is a major source of criticism directed at her.

In her interviews, she is bold, liberal, unapologetic, kind of biased on some counts...but she refuses to leave her faith (as most hard hitting Muslim critics derisively tell her to do). And I admire her for that. She is just trying to make her own impact in the world, she wants to belong in the debate too. She just wants to do it differently from mainstream Muslims.

Is our need to belong, at war with our need to be different? Is there a growing Hipsterism in religion? like there's a growing hipsterism in most things....sexuality for example. There're not just hetero, homo, or transgenders anymore...there are pansexuals, bisexuals, Queers...and they all get super offended if you confuse them with another group.

It is 2016 folks. And political correctness is a thing now...

Let's all be a little tolerant of each other. Additionally, it is also important to be tolerant of someone's ignorance with regards to your beliefs. It is hard to keep up with ever-new evolving information. Just patiently correct them, instead of patronizing them.

Nobody is asking you to agree with a different opinion. But it doesn't hurt to lend an ear. If nothing, you can write about it on Wattpad later on... ;)