The Nirmukta Freethought Community

Lets create a small questionnaire for the kind of apologist who will recite the pious litany "Hinduism is not a religion. It is a loose collection of philosophies. It is a way of life. Atheism and rationality are a part of it." when somebody criticizes their religion. They can be asked to fill this questionnaire first before their grievances with the way of freethought are addressed.

Do a majority of people who call themselves Hindus believe in,

• a supernatural force?
• praying to god(s)?
• pseudoscienctific nonsense like Jyotish and Vaastu?
• performing rituals to obtain some benefits?
• the afterlife, souls and the need to propitiate the soul after the body dies?
• karma?
  

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This article cites M K Gandhi's self-responses to a self-designed questionnaire on why he self-identified as Hindu.

Quote:I call myself a sanatani Hindu, because,

I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore in avatars and rebirth.

I believe in the Varnashram dharma in a sense in my opinion strictly Vedic, but not in its present popular and crude sense.

I believe in the protection of the cow in its much larger sense than the popular.

I do not disbelieve in idol-worship.

Cow protection (and related dietary restrictions) and also reverence for Vedas (and the Sanskrit language) could perhaps be additional items for the questionnaire.