To believe or not to believe...

The God DOGMA

Camerlengo: Do you believe in God, sir? Robert Langdon: Father, I simply believe that religion is.... Camerlengo: I did not ask if you believe what man says about God. I asked if you believe in God. These lines from the book, Angels and Demons, never fail to inspire me. The very subject is enough to instigate a very passionate debate. Sometimes belief becomes dogmas and much energy is spent in defending half baked notions and ideas passed on from generation to generation. Do we really understand the meaning of GOD? Is religion a belief system, a way of life, arcane and touchy where even angels fear to tread!! Have we ever stopped to think that the religions of this world that we follow so blindly are in fact made by us, humans? We are not trying to offend anyone but pragmatic reasoning dictates that Religion is flawed because man is flawed. God cant be equated with religion; its as simple as that. Religion was developed to unite large groups of people under a common spiritual figure, for them to look up to. It served to provide a common bond between thousands of unrelated individuals. Religion was something that lived within them. God, someone they could pay penance to. Prayer, to them, was therapeutic. Believing in a higher being, gave them an internal peace of mind. To them, it justified life and death, gave them a reason for simply being. Religion was meant to encourage spirituality. All major religious traditions carry basically the same message that is love, compassion and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. Religious texts shouldn't be over-interpreted, as they sometimes are. This generates incessant hostility among different groups and often leads to widespread violence. It is said that God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. Maybe the reason why we are so attached to religion is that it is comforting to be thought of as a part of something. Most would rather live their lives as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live their lives as if there isn't and die to find out there is. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither! Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. But weirdly, being attached to something whose existence you have no proof of, is deemed insane by most people. Then why should God be an exception? As Douglas Adams says, Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? In todays day and age everyone has the freedom to choose what to believe in and what not to believe in. more and more people are toying with the new ideas and concepts like: Atheism: This is simply the absence of belief that any God exists. Agnosticism: An agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God.

Omnism: One who follows their own path, doesn't follow a particular religion as he believes in all religions. Spirituality: It refers to belief in an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality, which enables a person to discover the essence of their being. Irreligion: It is an absence of, indifference towards, or hostility towards religion. Or just not defining what your beliefs are, how can we give a face to something that is supposed to be omnipresent. How can we have set rules and guidelines about what our hearts should believe in, if they want to believe at all? No ones asking you to stop being religious if you want to, but the reason behind your belief in a religion should be valid, shouldnt it? Just because you are born into something doesnt mean that its right for you does it? Getting prejudiced opinions about religion can be detrimental in shaping your individualistic beliefs. Especially for us teenagers it gets a little difficult to realize what our spiritualistic bent of mind is. Have your own belief system, why tread on someone else's resolute path and carry on the hand-me-down sheep herd mentality? Why accept any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with your morality? Maybe you want to believe in God because it gives you strength, gives you peace, its something to hold on to when everything seems to be falling apart, but you dont need religion for that !! Do you really need to visit your Place of worship to feel close to God? Is it really necessary to follow all the rules set by people eons ago? Can God really be used as an excuse for your misdeeds? Can performing all those rituals and abiding by the Laws really get you on the so called Good side of God? I dont think so. A faith of convenience is a hollow faith. And, needless to say, views about how the world works are very often central to the other aspects of religious belief. If you really believe in Heaven and Hell, youd be crazy not to let that belief influence your view of morality here on Earth. Spending hours with your head bent in front of an idol, and then going out into the world and indulging in corruption, violence, cruelty etc. do you really think God will be happy with this behavior? Does being religious save you from this dilemma? It's the same for most devotees- lying awake at night and asking themselves where exactly they have sinned but few get the true reply; that there list of sins is going to take more than just one night. The excuse of religious faith is most popular among terrorists. But if God really exists do you really think he sanctified females to be veiled and oppressed like the Taliban does. As Galileo has so rightly said," I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." It all narrows down to this-One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. For atheists,
religion is the ideal of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand, whereas for others prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth and God is the invincible creator of all. But in the end it's what you do in the real world that counts because you cannot believe in God until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are - not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within - that you can begin to take control.

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated Philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is Kindness. Dalai Lama By

Antara Bhowmick Prerna Kashyap Sakshi Sapru Vallari Suharsh