Monday, April 27, 2009

What's the big deal?

How big a deal is religion?
Why is God mixed up with religion? Something as serene and powerful as the concept of God leveled to religion?? Is it really right?

“My God is different than yours!”
“My religion is superior to yours!”
“Parts of the Vedas have gone missing! So ur religion is without any base!”
“Ur religion prays to idols!”
“Ur God is half animal half human… Jeez!!”
“Ur religion is crazy!! Extreme!!”
“All people in ur religion are terrorists!”
“Stay clear from those people! They’ll brainwash you and convert you!!”
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH..........................................

Fortunately or unfortunately I’ve been a witness and a part of these kind of conversations!! It’s got dirty, insulting, humiliating and downright abusive!
In the end of it all, all that’s left is a feeling of discomfort and awkwardness! Which set me thinking…
God…. Religion…. 2 different concepts totally!! If u dare to think out of the box!
Religion provides the framework to find God.
Finding God is the pathway to peace and hope.
So is the framework really important???
Isn’t it just enough to find peace and hope???

Religion is just a way of life. It IS not life. Religion is a private affair. Nothing to be spoken about and yelled from roof tops, you can be a practicing Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and yet be no different from your colleague at your workplace. The ultimate goal in religion is to find GOD right? So what is really the point in discussing its superiority over other religions? Stanley finds peace in praying in a church, Shankar finds solace in a temple. Ali prays five times a day!!
End result? Solace and peace found. Does the question of how matter?
“If you don’t pray to the right God, you will face his wrath on judgment day!”
What judgment day?? Which God is ‘right?’

My interpretation of the whole thing is that religion is manmade. There were no courts, no laws, no judges, no rules when man began to procreate and spread. So he made religion and carved a set of rules for himself and his people to live by. Since there was no centralized body that could make a uniform set of rules, different groups settled in different places, made their own set of rules. And thus, there are so many religions on the planet today!
Im not saying it’s a brilliant idea to scrap all the religions now that we have courts, judges, bills, acts and rulings. I’m just saying that it doesn’t really matter what religion you belong to. In the same way that we don’t choose our family, we are born into our religion. Instead of fighting over something that is so irrelevant, I guess we and our society would be better off if we do something a little more constructive.
Im totally against religious conversions. Forced or not forced. Give the man some education. Let him contribute to society, instead of giving him a trishul, a crucifix or a holy book! He cannot do much with that!
I know my thoughts wouldn’t go down well with strictly religious people. No offence,
……………..but how big a deal is religion anyways??

2 comments:

  1. The way the world is goin, and using religion for its own convenience guess Atheism will the world most popular religion very soon... Great writing keep it up( be careful god lives up ther he he) Love the way u have commented bein secular...

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  2. I totally agree,there is one god and many religions.The ultimate destination is more important than the path you take to reach it.

    Finally we have some common ground :-)

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