Rational thinking has never been refuted. Even religious people are soundly logical. But the rationality in not allowing the questioning of certain rationally unexplainable things is irrational. To put it simple, we are not allowed to question God (certain rationally unexplainable things). The genesis of atheism can be traced hence. My quest to understand God began.
Let’s assume for the time being that rational thinking is rational in the real sense. As such human have accepted rational thinking as logical and straight forward and this has been reasonable. With this assumption let’s take in what follows.
Man is a social animal having physiological and psychological needs. Physiological needs are simply satiated by the interaction of man with physical elements. (Man eats food when hungry). On the other hand, psychological needs are met only by other people having a similar deficiency. The worst thing is, just like physiological needs, psychological needs have to be replenished time and again.
When physiological needs are not met we die. And when psychological needs aren't met we make them to be met or others still live on dejected.
And for the second class of people God was born. An awe and a blind faith on which you can rely. You start believing that there is someone who is helping you. So you believe and it happens. This can’t be refuted because of Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can’t happen won’t happen.
Just think.
Blind faith is powerful. The very fact that there are diverse religions proves that it’s all about faith. There can’t be so many Gods. The one thing that’s common to all religion is that all the followers believe. One may argue that we give a form to God since He is invincible, so what. That’s the sole reason why I am claiming that it’s a concept when one person, one day, dejected of his psychological deficiency had this illusion of a great awe in a mountain where he decided to build something what we call as a temple to prove the point that there is something that can heal the deficiency.
Think a little bit further.
A friend of mine said that she is comforted by a stair. Don’t get confused. It’s the physical support that she has got that has lead to some gratification. While studying, try lean against a wall and study. You will find yourself studying for longer hours without distraction. So in that way, religion is a form of advanced stroking.
And so when a few people found that a super power existed, they convinced others too (who drew psychological strength from the aura) and so was born religion. And so was born my atheism.
And now not all people like all others. This disparity depending on physiological patterns (like eating habits) led to many religions.
And so if I can understand that the concept of blind faith is so powerful, then why am I not forsaking my silly rationality for better gains? I like the concept of God per se. Bhagavat Gita says that people who question God are Satans. And this Satan has understood God. The beauty of the concept of God lies in its 'awe' factor. And only inconceivable and non-understandable things are awe-inspiring. And now that I understand that all this is a fallacy (I respect others’ belief and I hope that I am not demeaning), I am unable to draw the same amount of inspiration as a blind believer.
And so logically I am helpless. My God is somewhere else. And now I want to become religious by the same above reasoning .
Rationality has its price.
I would love your comments. :)
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9 comments:
Just another point of view:
You say your God is somewhere else, that you are an atheist and you like the concept of God... Have you considered that if u gave your God a name or a place, you would've just started a new religion ... maybe not intentionally. There are path finders and path followers ... You found a way, not knowing u made one , not knowing that others might follow ... and still others may resent your religion ...
"Rationality" is the god he suggests... and religion is atheism.
Hope am not stepping to the shoes of siva...
For those interseted in principles of atheism, pls visit...
http://www.positiveatheism.org/
Many philosophers contend that "Religion is a necessary evil". Think of the things people would do if they knew that they would not have to face retribution for their actions. The crimes they would commit, the lives that they might tear apart, the damage that would be caused. In effect, these philosophers say, religion helps keep people sane by specifying a generally accepted set of rules and values. I have a slightly different view of religion. I look upon it as a repository of societal conscience. The values and moral edicts of a society are enshrined in its various religions. Remember when you were young and somebody told you to take your medicines or risk an injection? Religion is an instrument which can be used in a similar manner, only it is used on adults, and its rules are generally regarding socially acceptable behaviour. Now, you can put forth the argument that such a method is regressive, but what I would say is that for a majority of illiterate, and more importantly uneducated people, this is still the most efficient way of controlling behaviour. The problem begins when the behaviour demanded is not altruistic, but most religions expound only the "right" behaviours. Therefore, most of the problems with religion has got to do with interpretation. I know that this is not exactly regarding the topic discussed, but my point here is that there is no need to dispense with religion, only to use your "rationality" in following it.
Jenny.. Thnx for ur instantaneous response and I am stunned by your pointing out of a possible flaw in my reasoning..
Thanks da Kay.. Happy to find that you too think my way.. :)
thanks Karthik for your time in explaining your view. I like your way of taking a stand between atheism and religeous spirit. I must admit to the fact that I am a confused atheist. What you say appeals to all intuitions and I wholly accept it. But then, embrazing religion in the sense you have suggested may be a luxury today. Thanks for the ideas.
imo, God is a programmer. All entities in this world are executables, with predefined logic, operating limits, interfaces and exceptions. Everything follow's a pattern. Everything has to Generate, Operate, and gets Deleted (GOD). God doesnt worry every minute about how each and every program executes. But he does refer the log file of each executable once the program ends naturally or terminates abnormally. Though one can replicate god's pattern like cloning, genetic engineering or create an antiparticle, still we cannot claim man can do everything. Man is the AI like program created by GOD who we can learn and think, but we have our own limits. Now what is the incentive for GOD to be such a programmer? GOD only knows. Hope i made some sense..
Thanks Padu.. I am surely convinced that you r a hyper techie.. Nice way of putting it. But there are many assumptions in your reasoning.. I feel we gotto take things only at face value.. Thnx for your comments and your time for reading.. :)
Didn't have time to read all the comments. But yes, I do agree with your idea that the entity we termed God could be a figment of our imagination which drives us, controls us, supports us, justifies our actions and hence, justifies us.
Having sorted this out, should it not have given you enough to move on with life? :)
I know it's a little compulsion some of us have. We like mystery and when something like this or the origin of universe, or life at outer space, or supernatural stuff comes up we pounce on it like, in Scott Adams words, "pounce on it like a hungry squirrel fighting for the last nut on earth". But please don't misinterpret my comment as a discourager. It certainly is not meant to. I understand that the quest to understand the "mysterious" will lead to creativity and if it truly is so "mysterious" one might even end up cracking it. And so, although I tend to believe you have the answers to your question, I wish you good luck on your quest to find out whatever you think you're looking for. :)
And religion... Dude, it's like this. We know this concept of clubs, don't we? And I want to make sure I'm offending no one when I take comfort in interpreting religions as mega-scale clubs. Clubs are where people who share some degree of similarity or want to satisfy their need to be referred to some group/class of people conjoin(I doubt the use of this word here, but I hope you get what I'm saying!). Religions I believe aren't far from the idea. People who share similar views and want to share similar ways of life meet up and form "clubs". And life goes on with everyone being happy until "club"s fight over who's better, but that's not what we're discussing, are we?
There are so many schools of thought that give you a much more "rational" or acceptable explanations of the entity we have bee discussing. And to all those who are sensitive that is not meant to be demeaning. If you're really interested try these 3 books:
1) God's Debris - Scott Adams
2) Conversations with God - Neale Donald Walsch
3) (Yet to be released) The Strider Speaks - The Strider :)
And almost forgot. Ever considered the term Agnostic?
You're welcome! :)
Thanks Strider for taking time for reading n commenting.. :) Ur anology of religion with a club is very logical.. Ur take it easy attitude is a feel-good.. Sure I ll try reading the books..
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