God-Minded - Do we need to believe!!!

Now, why did I choose to write about such a topic? Well on the eve of the ‘Ayodha’ verdict, it seems pathetic that an argument about the history of a ‘piece’ of land can cause as much heart-burn as it does in the modern 21st century AD.

I mean look at what the fighting is about… Imagine today you or I have built a nice 5 story apartment in the city of our choice. Now, consider that you are bankrupt some 20 years down the line and the State seizes your property and hands it over to whosoever will want to buy it. Now imagine some 150 years down the line, your 8th generation and the current owners 7th generation get into a blood-fight over the property!!! I mean Grow Up!!!

Although even I would not make such a trivialization of the emotions that are our Country, it is important to realize that all this blood is wasted simply because of a belief in the Non-Existent… Let me ask all of you a question… If I told you that there indeed was no God, or atleast there is no ‘Perceivable’ God, would you still fight as much as you do now???

For some of you who are already wincing, let us say before heading on to the more critical areas of this essay, that supposing there is ‘a’ God, or ‘The’ God, depending on your religious inclinations, would you still justify man-woman-child-slaughter in His Name?

For, some of you and most of you who shall ever read this article, who are truly peace-loving inspite of being religious, you have to understand modern day societal problems can never be solved till you guys stop instilling in your children the sense of a supernatural being… more importantly ‘Your Personal Supernatural Being’…

When does One fight? When One is afraid of losing something precious or is desirous to gain something precious. In this case it is a bit of both. Per say if ‘The Verdict’ goes one way or the other, either you are happy that ‘Your Being’ has won or miserable that He has lost!!! Although many of you will try to disagree even after feeling strongly on the issue, you will slowly realize that in the end it is all about ‘Your’ Ego, or collectively the Ego of ‘Your Kind’. I am here as you can see, completely ignoring ‘political will’ simply as politics is nothing but channelizing the emotions of ‘The People’. If there are No Emotions, then there is no political will.

Now let us discuss the relevance of having a religious belief. Consider that for a moment, your parents would not have subscribed to any of the popular religions, but had a very personal ‘family-God’. Now, you can name Him anything. Here, is where you consider that, Will this God be as useful to you as any of the more popular ones? Obviously there would be no religious ‘places’ of worship where you meet a million other worshippers simply because no one else subscribes to ‘Your God’, but does it make such a huge difference?

I really don’t know…

However, I do believe that it would not make much of a difference!!! How much of our belief actually stems from Others??? This is an especially tricky question for all ‘Believers’, since you are taught not to care about others’ opinions to be the reason for your belief in the first place. However, it is a fact, that collective belief strengthens the credibility in our own belief. I mean this is the basis of all religious practice. In a circular fashion, your belief gives credibility and validates my belief, although the creation is actually mine. Thus there can never be any ‘Proof’ simply because ‘I’ cannot be God, unless you believe me to be ‘God’.
Now imagine a society, where everyone had their own –God. There is no fighting amongst people although most of the benefits of having ‘The God’ is attached to ‘a’ God.

Now coming to the more critical area of this article, Do we need ‘God’?
To understand this aspect, let us try and trace the origins of Religious belief. When were all the religions drafted? A Long Long Time Back…

Even the most recent popular ones are atleast a couple of thousand years old. Did we need Religion then??? The answer is a most resounding ‘Yes’. Why? In my mind I can trace atleast 5 reasons why we needed Religion…

1) Religion as Science: If you trace the origins of scientific thought, you will realize that for most of the couple of thousand years barring the last 3 centuries at most, Religion served as a replacement to Science. In fact, Religion actually tried to bridge the gap of our understanding of Ourselves. And to understand ourselves, we have to understand our place in the Scheme of Things… Thus emerges the ‘Scheme’… and this Scheme is nothing but Religion.

2) Religion as Law: Consider this, there is no Law of the Land. Today I walk into your house, Kill you with my own hands, usurp your wealth and am a ‘happy’ man. Man is ‘Greedy’. Excessively so!!! So to curb the animalistic instinct of the Human race, a law had to be invented. Religion was Law.

3) Religion as a Country: How are countries defined? By land??? If you see trace the history of the world, you will realize that Country is nothing but a collection of power. What is power? Power is the collective will of a large set of people. If for a moment we are willing to consider the time before technological advancement, we will realize that a simple collection of people is Power. Can a country be powerful, unless united by a single goal? No! What we today, call patriotic and will die for our country, was the same for Religion. Thus religion served the same purpose as a Country.

4) Religion as Distorted for Power and Emergence of Sub-Religions: Although religion as power, is covered in the last point itself, this is slightly different. Through the ages religion has been distorted for power. Thus the ‘Existing religion’ has been manipulated, mutilated by whosoever was the most powerful at that point for more power. To create a bigger country, to be richer!!! Thus, all of our religions have factions. Even in the modern world if you look at Northern Ireland, Iraq, sub-religions are fighting and have fought against each other, although they are but Mono-theistic. Can there be a bigger paradox???

5) Religion as Hope: This is probably the most significant aspect of religious thought. All religions converge on this one point. It points to Heaven. If you consider the state of the ancient human, you would realize that hope is probably the only thing that could give them courage. At a time, when common cold and tuberculosis, and malaria and plague claimed the lives of huge percentages of the population, and floods and volcanoes killed a few other, and the sun did not ‘rise’ during an eclipse, we were vulnerable. Our fear of death, was probably far more than in the modern day, life expectancy was not even a concept!!! What does one do? Probably the single most important reason for believing in religion is ‘fear of death.’ Thus our Hope was actually Religion. We wanted to believe, that there is something/someone who can/will protect us from my enemies/nature/disease. Thus religion was hope.

Coming to the Only Question that emerges from the flow of thought. Do we need Religion today?

Here we must segregate the Privileged and the Under-Privileged, simply as the same set of assumptions do not work for both.

First, speaking of the underprivileged, the question is much deeper and difficult to answer. It comes from the most important point above, Hope. Living below the poverty line, not knowing whether you will eat tomorrow, not having seen a book of knowledge; the thought of after-life, heaven is truly appealing. If you question religion you question the remaining existence of your life, your peace. Yes, Lack of religion for the poor, is something that cannot be answered as easily, as religion is probably the only consolation of their lives.

I really do not know the answer to the above yet.

However, let us talk of the privileged. Those of you who are reading this. How important is religion actually to us. If I told you that we do not need a God, even if He truly does exist, would you laugh at me??? Tell me when was the last time you have truly questioned the ‘Miracle’ that happened to you, that made your belief stronger? Tell me one instance that any of you can prove that the reason things happened could not be interpreted in any way, and I will join you in your belief!!!

For you as for me, religion and God, are not that different. I am also human, and drawn to the same necessities as you. God for me as as Big, as God for you. But see what ‘God’ is doing to our society. From Israel to Palestine, Kashmir to Afghanistan, Ireland to Bosnia, ‘He’ is devastating Everything. If there is a God, He Himself would at this time urge us to stop believing in him!!!

My sincere request to all of you. When you are blessed with generations below you, do not poison them as we have been poisoned!!! Let them be free, and One day, They will Set Us Free!!!