Of late my life seems to exist as little clusters of thought which are formed every week, and slowly collate to form some theme of sorts. This time it is the turn of God, to be paraded through my blog, whether he wills it or not.
Religion is, I think, the next most talked off topic, rather the next most thought off topic (since its still a taboo), after love, of course. Its perennial rivalry with science is so popular that it finds its way into beauty magazines too. This post is another drop in this ocean, another discussion of what I make out of this enigmatic facade to human life.
Disclaimer: I am not a militant atheist. By referring to Religion here, I do not refer to any one in particular. The understanding of Religion that is being portrayed here is that of an average human, who is moderately aware of the world around him, thereby being the popular and not necessarily the correct understanding.
From what I understand of Religion, I feel there are two significant problems in the way it is. I think it is correct to say that Religion was invented to solve an unfathomable puzzle. And that was done with the concept of God. This sort of a big-bangish birth is always a cause of worry. Human mind tends to lean on to logic for reinforcing ideas it has created. Unfortunately this idea of God does not provide that sort of comforting support. Hence religion is sort of based on an insecurity, if you like, or more strongly stated: fear. Its similar to the fear of the dark. We cannot see (explain) things around us, and hence the sinking feeling. Furthermore, Religion goes on to impress God as an omnipresent and omniscient answer to most problems considered worth pondering. Something like Intelligent Design is a lively example. Somehow this top-down approach with iterative references to the unfathomable complexity of the universe does not count as an attractive theory.
The second problem with religion has been the way it has been propagated. Religion by its very nature has been a very strong magnet, which could be used to domineer hordes of people, that is, it has always been community based. Often such a community has been shown the light by an able and enlightened leader. Outcasts existed, but they remained what they were: outcasts. Somehow in this structure, authority was impressed upon as a tautology. Its not hard to see the murder of democracy in such a structure, and with it the unspoken stench of intolerance.
But it is neither fair nor profitable to undermine every aspect there is to Religion. It has indeed been a very important dimension of human existence, which has consumed the intellectual lives of many a great men, and that too over a very long period of time. The glowing contributions made by religious heads to literature is testimonial to what has been achieved. I think one of the most disappointing mistakes that mankind has ever committed is that of considering Religion and Science as conflicting bodies of knowledge. This is mainly due to the extensions in the job profile of the earliest God.
At this juncture I am reminded of an Akbar-Birbal story. Once Akbar announced, that anyone who could stand in the river (beside the castle), bare and throughout the night, would win a stately prize. It was the winter season, so the water was pretty cold. Many volunteered, but failed. One brave villager however succeeded. Akbar was surprised. He asked the winner, How did you do it? The humble villager replied, Saab! I constantly kept looking at the lamp lit in your castle.
Ok I will cut the story short here, and let you JFGI. Yeah so the trouble of this story telling exercise was taken to just draw a parallel between the role of that light to the villager and the role God, I think, should play in our lives. The role of flickerless light which provides strength, hope and love for no logical reason. God is capable of that, and I think was invented for that reason. An endless fountain in a middle of a desert. I am tempted to correlate this to the capability of the human mind of generating in itself that hope or love from just a concept like that of God. Here is where I feel that Religion begins where Science finishes.
Also the other problem of the lack of democratic nature to Religion is a major concern. One of the fundamental challenges in any thought process is in passing the baton to the progeny. To condense in the education system all the knowledge that has been gained, equivocally, is very crucial. And I think here it is critical to let young minds look at the vast expanse of what is on offer and take back with them there own personalized distillate of it. That is let them define their own God.
There is a nice tea-pot theory related to this. The existence of God cannot be verified, so debate over it can go on an on. One could similarly believe that there is a tea-pot in orbit around Mars. Now such a thing, though more easily conjured in the mind, is again hard to verify. So the idea of God, in that crude sense is not special, and a person could actually believe in the tea pot theory rather than the God theory. So lets not be so rigid about and hooked on to Religion which is just another tea-pot-like-theory. If it can do miracles for you, thats great. Let us not try and be invasive in propagating our experiences. And let us never put this body of knowledge in a war room. It is just not worth all that blood.
To each thy tea pot.
