Why do people believe in Hinduism?
This post is a bit personal because earlier I was going through a weird depressive cycle of not being able to find happiness or purpose in anything, and usually when I ask people for advice, they tell me to turn to god, or surrender myself to him.
This is just my background (Ik this is a long post, sorry):
I was born in a Hindu family, and they aren't super religious, but they definitely believe in it and go to temples occasionally. I never really understood Hinduism or what it preached, but as a kid, I found it quite boring or tedious to go through ceremonies or different traditions. The one concept from Hinduism that I kept in my life was becoming a vegetarian early on due to compassion for animals, but nothing linked to god.
After this, I became vegan due to the compassion I had for animals and looked into spirituality (that is probably linked to Hinduism). I found the idea of manifesting to be really interesting due to all the things I could get with it in my life, typically linked to my anxiety over unknown things. Because of this, I turned to spirituality, but I didn't really get any results. I just went overboard with things like subliminals and other things. Slowly, I realized none of this even worked, so I just accepted that maybe spirituality isn't necessarily true, or it isn't able to be proven. I became a sort of atheist/agnostic because none of the arguments for religions (especially other big religions like Islam and Christianity) really made any sense to me.
Then to present day I was feeling hopeless in life and anxious again and I wanted to turn to a god that could ease my worries, and since my morals don't align with other religions standards regarding animal exploitation being allowed, buddhism or hinduism seemed like my best bet (not saying christianity or islam has bad morals).
Because of this, I was eager to search out what can prove Hinduism as a religion or what the logic behind, which led me to this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHLfo594qE
You can watch it if you want, maybe I didn't understand it? But basically it just says common arguments around there being a god and the three groups of atheists, agnostics, and theists arguing; however, Hindus see it in a different way, saying that there is no logical conclusion you can make for god. I guess it means that the only proof is the "experience" of god (again, I'm not quite sure), but what does that even mean? It says Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life, which sure can make sense, but why does anyone believe in anything in Hinduism, like why? I just don't get it. If there's no argument, then why do people believe in it? What is this experience? I feel like maybe I just can't understand this video, but can someone explain to me what causes people to believe in this religion, like I know it allows skepticism, but like, what's the conclusion then?
I'm just desperate to find meaning or passion in life, and I sort of want to I guess, "talk" to god or get help from some spirtual higher power, but I feel more depressed when I can't even believe in one, and I feel so dumb for not really getting it. Can anyone please help?
Posted Jun 3, 2025, 7:43 AM UTC