re: #261 Naso Tang

Not every person will grow out of it or change as society changes. OCSP got it right. The primary reason is for oneself, and I’m way too tired to go into the specifics of that tonight. It’s also about belonging to a group, sure, but not in the way some people seem to perceive it.

I’ve read newspaper articles (and personally experienced situations) where people bristle because, for whatever reason, they seem to interpret it as primarily an I’m-better-than-you rebuke. I find that really bizarre. I find it equally bizarre that the feelings of hostility seem to largely be directed at women who choose religiously modest dress (though I’m sure some men experience it too).

It’s not as if a Muslim or Jewish or Amish woman wakes up in the morning and says to herself, “I’m going to cover up and go out there and show all those effing secular heathens how much more righteous & modest I am than them!” To have such an arrogant attitude would completely nullify any spiritual benefits of trying to be modesty since arrogance its very antithesis. It’s nonsensical, therefore I suspect it has much more to do with the seer than the seen.

But whatever, I’m not sure what the point of this discussion is. You’re an atheist and you’ve made it clear on several occasions that you dislike religion. Fine, I don’t question you about it or urge you to change. I’m a Muslim and I’m happy with my religion and my dress, yet that seems to annoy or puzzle you and I’m not sure why.

We live in America where everyone is free to live as he or she pleases as long as no laws are being broken, so I really don’t understand why we have to keep rehashing the subject when neither one of us is going to change the other’s mind. I’m not interested in changing you mind or even particularly curious about why you’re an atheist. I prefer to just live and let live.

Let me not be “too late” in saying this time that I’m going to leave now. I don’t really have anything else to add, so I won’t be coming back to this thread.