STATUATORY WARNING: If you are a strong believer of god then this post can seriously offend you. Feel free to ridicule it anytime.
I live in the city of gods, Varanasi. Here, you can find him in every corner giving hope to some, making someone rich, gifting baby boys to the expecting ones, or simply, giving meaning to the lives of the thousands of foreigners who come here every week.
Religion gives identity to this country. We are known to invent it and follow it regouresly. Our world famous culture and traditions originated from it. we are what we are because of our beliefs, belief in god, belief that whatever our ancestors believed in was right. The whole concept of god and religion was invented when we decided to give up on our search for answers, answers to our existence, purpose on this planet. We decided that if we cannot explain them, then let’s believe that there is someone who can and if we believed in him, strongly, may be one day he will let us into those secrets. The rational and logical explanation of everything gets too obvious and comfortable for us. We needed something to satisfy our thirst for the fairytale fantasies, with unexplained mysteries and magic, hence were born the Ramayanas, the Mahabharatas, the bibles and Korans. Whenever anything good happens in our lives we relate it to our right doings, to explain the calamities and catastrophes we take help from the devil. the usual feel good factor involved with helping someone just isn’t enough anymore, we need motivation, some concrete assurance that good done will be accounted for and reciprocated with good. So now guess who became the accountant.
It’s like a delusion which we created to bring the people together, make them give up alcohol and non-veg, strengthen the system of families and values, give hope and save them from depression and hopelessness. Throw in some heaven and hell and scare the society into order. Throw in some marriage and obtain better governed child upbringing and happy joint families. It provided employment to many, with all the enormous temples to build and thousands of lines of religious text to read.
However the best thing about religion is that most of it is based on logic. For example, solar eclipse is considered as a bad omen in many religions and hence the superstition says that, “do not go out of your house and never ever look at it or bad things will happen to you”. We obviously do not stare at it because of the harmful infrared rays during that time. But whatever be accepted, it has saved many from losing their eyesight.
This concept of religion works and India is the biggest proof of that. But for it to work properly we need to stay in that delusion long enough, believe in it to such an extent that it comes close to reality. Now science can ruin that, with all its logic and reasoning, it’s a tough fight. In India to do that is very difficult but in the US it has adversely affected their religion business and created messed up societies. So much so that many feel the need to come here and experiment with our thing. It is like that Matrix movie, where people were made to live and believe in a virtual world to manage and control them. A beautiful delusion. Then some felt the need to break out of it and face the reality….. Some couldn’t stand it and felt that it would have been better to live with the delusion. The truth is the reality does us no good. It may give a temporary feeling of superiority over the rest but eventually we will realize that the bubble life is actually better. science alone cannot satisfy, at least not like religion and god.
So now this has given rise to the present societies where the fanatics have been drastically reduced and replaced by sensible and god fearing people. Who follow religion, but are ready to accept that there is a world beyond this delusion. They have accepted the good (or rather gods)of both worlds. Obviously there are many side effects of GOD too. It’s like with toys, when children have different ones they will want to compare them and fight over it. But considering the many helpful advantages I can safely conclude that GOD has indeed been Mans greatest invention. Religion Rocks.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Mans Greatest Invention......GoD
Posted by reversedpolarity at 9:01 PM
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13 comments:
I think you should listen to the speech "Paper on Hinduism" by Swami Vivekanand, September 1893, given in a World Conference of religion. You ought to have a bigger insight of whether or not religion is man made by studying deeper into it. The things you have said about religion being custom made to set thresholds of actions and thinkings can be contradicted if I say the exact opposite of your beleif i.e. you believe religion is man-made to remove thresholds from your own actions. Though, I know few people who don't beleive in GOD but have been satisifed in doing good, selflessly, and, I think, they are better than those who prefer 'karma-kaand' rather mercy over the needy.
Thank you bhaia for your generous comment. I'll do listen to the Vivekanand speech.
one of the main reason I feel religion is coustom made is that it perfectly suits our mindset and mentality. its prespective on good and bad, on Karma and Kaand matches with the non believers humanitarian self. its like with a newly brought electronic gadget, either you can try to operate it on your own or reffer to the manual.
I really like this one Mohit…Anyways, I don’t think the concept of God or religion was /is an invention of man. Maybe the names by which they are known yes, but not the concept. I tend to think it’s just the other way around. And I agree that a lot of rules concerning religion were invented by the people, but wouldn’t the world be a chaos without certain universal rules? I know no country / religion where things like rape, murder, theft etc. are allowed or justified.
For ages people used to believe in God. Yes…used to. Since we have started using our intelligence, we try to explain everything in a rational way. Before this, we mostly accepted what was said. This is actually an improvement, cuz one must not always accept what people say. We must do research for ourselves or experience it ourselves to believe. But we sometimes go too far with the rationalizing. Cuz some happenings, incidents or whatever u may call it, CAN NOT be rationalized. And it hurts these die hard rationals that they cannot find an explanation for everything becuz for most of them, in their world things like faith do not exist.
So if I understand this correctly, Mohit wants to tell us that faith is just a myth. So God does not exist? I don’t agree.
How can one explain us humans then??? Where did we spring from? Isn’t it God who created everything? Now ur going to tell me that God also created evil, cuz he created everything…That’s where most people think wrong.
For example:
1. Does cold exist? We feel cold, yet cold does NOT exist. According to studies in psychics cold is the total absence of heat. And an object can only be studied if it has and transmits energy. We created the term cold to explain the lack of heat.
2. Does darkness exist? One can study light and brightness, but not darkness. Darkness is a term we created to explain the total absence of light.
3. Does evil exist? To answer the question above, God did NOT create evil. Evil is like the absence of God in people’s hearts, it is the absence of love, humanity and faith. Love and faith are like heat and light. They exist. Their absence leads to evil.
The name of the person, who said this, was none other then one of the greatest minds mankind has ever seen….a rationalist…Albert Einstein.
Keep on writing Mohit..
Thank you very much sasha.
Religion as a set of rules, rocks, no doubts about that. But we go too far when we involve him in things like our existence. It’s true it kills us when we are unable to understand something, in the past we imagined gods hand in everything from earthquakes to tides to eclipses. But eventually science developed and explanations were given for them. So now they are left in the domain of science to explore. It’s true that our evolution theory needs revision but that still doesn’t prove god. Absence of something doesn’t prove presence of something else. And as for Albert Einstein, he too suffered with the same human tendency of expecting order in the universe. His famous statement "god doesn’t play dice" showing his discontent with Heisenberg’s theory of uncertainty.
it is verrrrrry difficult for anyone to accept that our existence is just a matter of chance, an event with a very small probability of occurring, a game of dice. And when we face such situations god comes to the rescue, taking all the credit.
Btw, as u said urself, science has developed a lot and still is. But I think that science sometimes tries too hard to explain things which cannot be explained (red. in a rational way). We should learn that we shouldn’t always try to explain everything. Cuz we might not be happy or satisfied with the knowledge in the end. Sometimes we’re better off not knowing. But it has and always been human’s nature to try to know and explore everything. We should be careful with that, cuz we may find somethings which goes beyond our rational thinking and understanding. Cuz its not the lack of evidence or absence of God they try to explain…No, there’s just much evidence which still leaves (especially the “i-don’t-believe-in-God” guys) science mouth shut. They still can’t explain certain found historical artifacts or occurrences which do point out to the existence of God.
We always say, if u believe or have faith, one can make anything happen…Right?
And if faith can be that strong, one could only imagine what faith in God can have as results. Some of these results cannot be explained by science till today…
Oxford University and Cambridge have recently removed the word “can’t” and “impossible” out of their dictionary. Google the name Jessica Fox pilot, u’ll see why. I will try to send the article by mail for u. It’s only through strong belief (faith) of her parents in the 1st place who had the guts, motivation and strength to bring her up and her own faith and will power she has been able to raise the bar so high…The same faith we’re trying to ridicule. And don’t tell me this is an exceptional case, cuz in reality we are all exceptional cases. She is an outstanding example of how we should not only have faith in ourselves…but also faith in God. And for the record, we should not only believe when we are in need, but all the way. I hope u will start believing soon too. Greets
thanks sasha, you said that science may give results that we may not like, so we should alter our perceptions to make ourselves happy. let science explain certain things and let god fill the rest of the voids.
the artifacs and things only prove that the stories in the religious test is accurate and nothing more.
faith does work and i am not challenging it. its a great concept and has helped many, but have you ever heard of the term 'placebo effect'. faith in religion gives a psychological support, an assurence that someone is there looking at you, judging you, who can put in a word to the luck department if we impress him with our faith.
the whole thing does work and the world needs faith, as i said before religion rocks. but in this debate between religion and reality, just give reality a fair chance
Offcourse i do give reality a fair chance..Imagine what kind of life we would have believing everything that is said to us without giving it a good thought or having done thorough research on it. I just had the impression u weren't. And i wouldnt want use the term "placebo efecct"as it is generally seen as an unethical method in the medical world and seen as a sham. Cuz a lie does more harm than good. And i wouldnt dare say that religion is just one big lie. But then again it may be unethical to use a placebo, but also unethical not to use something that has potential healing powers for people who are desperately in need of it..and it even works as a great conscience for the god fearing group, to know that someone is watching ur actions all the time..
Greets
in any medical test different test groups are made, some get the actual meds and some are given the placebos (sugar capsules). the subjects are obviously not aware of this. the same thing is true for religion, no one knows if their beliefs are true or fictitious, but if you think of it. it doesnt matter, for religion as a concept to work we dont need a proof of its existance, just a belief is enough. we dont expect god to come down and chit chat with us. but pple need to know he is there, thats all.
a brilliant and a very controlled and calculated article. Its very easy to drift into the emotional zone as can be seen from the comments u have.
There is a very famous quote that seems to be tailor-made for your article."if God can not be discovered we need to invent one".
But there is another dimension to it. You say that religion is in complaince with non beleiving humanitarians. But i think that without God you will be having problems in "scientific" or "rationale" justification of humanity.
Humanity is not a seprate independent entity that you can use as an alternate to God. I think humanity in itself stems from our faith in God. What say?
thanks for the comment, but giving godly explanation for humanity and ungodly excuses for inhumanity isnt consistent with the way things are. heard of the term terrorism. all the religions originated at some point in the history, that means people had no idea whos up there before that. so does that mean that people were inhumane in the non godly times.
man walked the face of this earth much before gods did, so guess who invented whome
Hey Mohit. Check the special edition of an article written in Time magazine. 23rd febr 2009...
Very interesting..If u dnt find it ill post or send it. Chiao
Mohit, it was very nice to go through article and all comments. Those who vouch on the shoulders of God use rational choice in most of their decisions. To quit thinking and tag unknown as God is not right attitude. Curiosity to discover is natural instinct of man until we discover the right answer. There was a person there giving example of Swami Vivevakanand. Swami Vivekanand searched for God like a mad person. He found a teacher who made him realized about God. That is end of story. People take God for granted and think he can be achieved by bowing head in temples and reading stone age written documents. God does not speak to its believers; it does not mean anyone can do anything in the name of religion. But they do.
Just Name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith, that could not have been made or performed by a nonbeliever.
Mohit, you have written well argumented facts. AND I love the last line in previous comment : man walked the face of this earth much before gods did, so guess who invented whome
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