Why Would You Worship?

[Aoi Magi]

What you say is interesting, but with your number 6, if anything goes, how is it a belief system at all?  Aren't there Hindu priests or holy men or women who exert authority over others?  Even if your answer to 6 is true in theory, it does not seem to be true in practice.

Also, it is worth mentioning that a significant percentage of Christians reject Catholicism and do not care what the Vatican says.  There are thousands of different, independent sects (or denominations) of Christians.

Good question, and after banging my head for several hours the only explanation I could find is, if you consider yourself a hindu, you are a hindu. The only concept common in hinduism is probably the "paramatma" or the original soul, which essentially says every soul(existence of a soul is pre-established somehow I guess), including the gods/deities, us, animals, and even non-living things like stones and the planets themselves are part of this original soul, and the life cycle is a test to purify our impure(?) souls for re-merging with this original soul. If you ever argue a hindu though, you are eventually gonna get slapped with "it is not a religion but a way of life".

Also as per many hindus, everyone is a hindu, even if they belong to a different faith. I hope you know Gautama Buddha is considered an avatar of Krishna, and the popular belief also includes that God, Allah, and everything else is just different names of the same entity. It's one of the most stupidest and facepalm-worthy belief system out there, and arguing against it is the hardest.

As for the priests and such, yes they do dictate the rules, but they are too localized, and the rules, rituals and everything in between vary wildly between each priest you encounter. There is no centralized body to dictate any specific set of rules, and thus you cannot pin it down as a specific belief system.