Hope you are all doing good. I want to thank you all for the support you are showing Aviyal. We are really grateful for that. Keep supporting, it is our main source of motivation. With your support we are confident we can write some great articles.
This might be a controversial post that some might not like. This is about Gods and religion, and ultimately, faith. The article is merely a discussion and a few opinions from the author, and not meant to offend anyone. The main purpose of this article is to raise some questions in the readers’ mind, which they themselves can answer as they please, after giving it some thought.
First we have to know what religion is - well, according to Google, religion is defined as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or Gods”. So basically it means that a group of people believing a supernatural phenomenon or a personal God can be called a religion.
Most religious people believe that God is the creator of the universe. He (or she, or they - for simplicity, let’s use ‘he’) created earth and humans. As God is the creator and the most powerful being in the universe, people trust God to protect them from bad things in their life. Honestly, if you know for fact that there is a powerful guy who created humans and he is willing to help, then naturally everyone will be willing to follow that guy till death. So what is the problem with god and religion?
Well.
The first problem with religion is how people become religious. We live in a society where every parent forces their child to be religious. Children in our society don't have a free will. The child has to go to the temple, church or mosque according to the respective religion of their parents. Parents tell stories about gods to their children; so upon hearing these stories and visiting temples/churches/mosques, the child is forced to believe in their respective religion. After that it becomes a habit for the child to visit the temple, to pray and to believe in god. Children almost become emotionally addicted to the concept of praying, and the character of God. Very few children actually question themselves on why they are following a particular religion or God.
This doesn’t seem like a good way to become religious. If someone is a major and they read a religious book and they are willing to follow that particular religion, it is healthy and acceptable. Parents force religion on their children which doesn’t feel healthy at all.
For example, consider a newborn baby. Would it be socially acceptable or even rational to say that the newborn baby is a communist baby, or a capitalist baby or a right-centre liberal baby? Of course it would not be rational, because that baby doesn’t know what those things are, and doesn’t understand or believe in those concepts, even if its parents did. But why is it acceptable to call it a Hindu baby or a Christian baby? The child does not know or understand the ideas behind Hinduism or Christianity, nor has it read and accepted the Vedas or the Bible, nor does it believe Shiva or Jesus to be its saviour.
So why do people force religion on their children?
They don’t want their child to follow any other religion.
To raise a righteous child with good morale.
“One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all.”
― Arthur C. Clarke
Parents tell their child that god is watching them at all the time so they should not do anything bad that would upset god. This ‘lie’ makes the children feel scared of doing anything bad, so parents think it is morality. This might feel acceptable but it's not. The child is not being good because of compassion or kindness, but because of fear. People with conscience won't commit a crime because they know it's wrong; not because they fear punishment. If the fear of divine punishment is the only thing that is forcing you to be a good person, you are not a good person at all. The moment you think the punishment is acceptable, or that you will not be caught, there is nothing stopping you from being bad.
Religion was created with the goal of stopping people from doing bad things, to make people righteous. This is the basic point of the religion but it has failed incredibly, as history shows us plainly. Most wars fought in history were over religion. Because as it is easy to convince someone that god wants you to be good, it is just as easy to convince someone that god wants you to be bad. Because the morality that religion teaches comes not from human kindness, but from blind faith and obedience. The only successful thing religion did was, it divided the people into many groups and turned one against another. People fight over religion which was not supposed to happen. It was supposed to make people righteous but it made people hate each other. It is very clearly evident that religion and morality are mutually independent spheres, because religious people also commit crimes, and non religious people can also be good people; religion does not have a monopoly on morality.
"If you don't believe in God, then why don't go around killing and raping as much as you want?"
"Well, I do kill and rape as much as I want, which is none at all. I have a conscience"
- Ricky Gervais, After Life (2020, available in Netflix)
The Bible and other equivalents books in the respective religion were all written when oppression of women was common and legal; they were written when racism and casteism were at their peak; they were written when slavery was a normal thing. The common knowledge and morals that a 12-year-old possesses today did not even exist when these books were written. Not to discredit or condemn these books, but it has to be accepted they are outdated. They were written with the knowledge and culture and ethics of thousands of years ago, and so they are naturally outdated as instructional material, though their literary value has to be appreciated.
There is nothing wrong with people believing in God, as it gives a comfort in hard times which sometimes other people can't offer. There are multiple studies showing that having a spiritual outlet is good for our mental health, and helps relieve grief and stress. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with being religious and spiritual, it is healthy even. The problem is those beliefs and spirituality must be chosen freely by an individual, and not be forced on them by virtue of birth, just as any other doctrine like communism. And kindness and compassion should have a higher moral position than what is taught through faith and obedience.
Stay tuned with Aviyal for more articles on Religion and faith.
Are you religious? Are you not? How has religion helped/affected you? Do you disagree with anything we said here? Leave a comment on your experience with religion. We will see you with our next post.
Spread love
Hariesh and Mozhi, (June 29, 2021)
But every child must read the bible though......there so many awesome verses that impressed me as a kid......i will just quote one verse here which i really liked as a kid......
ReplyDeleteEzekiel 23:19-20
"Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their genitals – as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions."
And i forever been wondering how did they know how strong the ejaculation of a horse was