Is religion antiquated? Is it? As far as i am concerned it has been for a long time. Religion as we all memorized in school is a collection of beliefs with associated rituals. Don't get me wrong here, there was a time when i held religion and philosophy in high regard...just thought that i should say that.. lest the blogosphere think that i am one of those moronic atheists that say they don't believe in religion and go on to say that they are die hard fans of Scandinavian satanic death metal. :p
AS far as i am concerned religion, philosophy. morality etc etc. all stem from a certain evolutionary necessity. Neither are true nor accurate in an absolute sense. Its all just made up, in an attempt to make sense of the chaos that we live in day in, day out.
Am not trying to say that all of this is a load of worthless crap either, believe in your religions if you want to... you'll probably be better off for it. But believe for the right reasons. Do not believe because you think that it is the absolute truth.
When i was a 11 year old in grade six, i remember asking the monk that was teaching us Buddhism, if Buddhists, Christians and Muslims all went to the same hell? I remember that he said no.. there can only be one truth. This puzzled me, if everyone didn't believe in the same thing, then inadvertently some us are believing in something that is wrong. Who are we to decide who is right and who is wrong? For this reason i became disillusioned with religion at the very tender age of 11.
Later on after reading through my father's stash of philosophy books i began realize, that religion is the subtle art of making things up and getting people to believe it. Not that i am opposed to it, i don't believe for a second that those that made things up did so with any degree of malice.
They probably did so for the greater good, whether or not it actually achieved the goodness it was intended for is debatable. Anyhow departing from that detached tangent, the crux of the matter is whether humanity as out-grown the fantastical bedtime tale that is religion.
Religion and philosophy all try to explain things that we cannot understand. The difference between the two is that while religion concots stories that are reassuring to the faithful, philosophy leaves you hanging like a date that never showed up at the restaurant.
Be what it may, it is all permeated by our desire to explain, an evolutionary by product of having a larger brain maybe. The truth is that neither is absolute and well in my best david duchovny voice - the truth is still out there.
Believe in yourself and treat others the way you want to be treated. You will not need a religion, which is like most things a business these days.
ReplyDeleteI am a Buddhist.
religion makes ppl feel good and give a purpose to live towards. I have little faith in humanity so if religion makes people act better, am all for it.
ReplyDeleteBawa >> Good post, you might wanna check out Secular Sri Lanka web site (http://www.secularsrilanka.com). We are not really talking the doctrine of religion but we are discussing the bad artifacts it has introduced. So if you can contribute to our website you are welcome.
ReplyDeleteDee >> Religion does not necessarily make people feel good or make people do good things. Lot of people think morality comes from religion. It’s not so, morality preceded religion. I recommended you to check these video clips on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=197140D82F477278). It’s a part of a discussion we had recently.
Anyhow if you (or anyone else) think they can’t be good or they don’t have a purpose in life without religion, then I wouldn’t do anything to take religion out from your lives.