What is my identity? Do I need an identity? How can I get an identity if I am just a common man? Is identity just a social term or the society is identity based? Am I born with an identity or I will get my identity?
What is religion? Do we need one? Does being atheist can also be a form of religion? What is the purpose of having the religion? Can't I decide my own code of living after all I am a human being? Does religion protect us? But how? Or we protect the religion? But why?
As per the definition, Identity is considered as qualities that make people different than others; there may be many people in that category but not all. So except having one nose, one mouth, two ears, two eyes blah blah whatever you have gives you an identity. Religion is just the identity given to men by few other men to discriminate them from others. Identity is in fact a lucrative concept and so its protection becomes vital, this becomes even more important and sacred if one links the concept of god with religion. People can give up any thing just to protect their identity, the identity which does not come naturally, the identity which was given to make us insecure, the identity which was given to discriminate us, the identity which was given to rule over us.
I can hardly find any reason for anyone to support any organization for the protection of their religion. I don’t know how Muslims think that voting against non-BJP candidate will help them, we know that any agenda these traditional political parties have can be oversimplified as vote-politics. I don’t know from whom Hindus and Indian Muslims want protection? Do Hindus want protection from Muslims; who actually gave them identity of Hindu? Do The Muslims want protection from Hindus, who got their identity of Hindu from Muslims? The religion Hinduism, the so called oldest religion or way of living, got its name only when Islamic rulers came to India and to discriminate their men from the people of this side of river Sindhu (mispronounced as Hindu by Persians and Arabs) they gave us identity of Hindu. But for them the term Hindu just meant non-Islamic.
Why do we need the concept of God, people only need the concept of God but not the God, judge of our deeds and misdeeds? Can’t we act ethically and behave morally without any fear of some superpower watching us? Why do we need some Godly protection or believe that someone is looking after us? It’s better to face the harsh reality than the comfort of lie. Why we always manage to give some name to God and refuse to believe that it or he or she does not exist. Why we want to disgrace our self by believing that some superpower controls us by some mysterious means?
These are the questions which come to our mind consciously or sub-consciously. Most of the time we ignore them but they are strong enough to haunt us. The words here are very weak to mock the situation of our minds haunted with these questions. We do sin only when we ignore ourselves and the questions of our mind are the part of us.
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"Can’t we act ethically and behave morally without any fear of some superpower watching us?"
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly the problem. Maybe you and I can, but most cannot. Most simply find it easy if a set of rules are laid out in front of them to obey; and what better higher power than "God" and the associated religion to make sure people behave as they "should"? So, in a way, religion is practical but sadly we find many people so engrossed in obeying/following these rules that they forget they should be regarded merely as guidelines than anything.
I think its not so easy to ignore th concept of GOD. And, frankly if we can't prove the existence of GOD them we also cannot answer the many mysteries of our life and this world.
ReplyDelete@ Ravi...Don't over-estimate yourself and your friend. I believe everyone needs GOD to resolve the clash between Id an Super ego going on in each person's mind. Without God, the person will definitely follow his Id.
Try Googling Id and Super Ego... :P
Dont you think you are oversimplifying the case by insinuating that a religious person is incapable of thinking rationally?A person who believes that a Superpower is regulating his/her daily affairs is entitled to his belief as long as it is not disrupting the lives of any one else.And its fortunate that neither Hinduism or Islam dictates that the others should be coerced into following a particular religion( I dont know much about Christianity).So essentially the problem with religious identity has less to do with the religion itself rather it is the politicization of religion which is to be blamed for.Of course there are sects within a religion which would denounce the existence of others,but then technically they are heretics to their "own " religion itself.A truly orthodox Muslim would not be the one blowing up buses in London because his religion would have taught him about the importance of a human life and vice-versa.Hence what religious tensions we find in the society,in my opinion,is due to the perverse interpretation of religion for material gains and illiteracy of the masses who with no exposure to the real religion become hostage to their wily leaders.Dont hate the game,hate the players.
ReplyDelete@ Ravi - dude we r no different, its just tht we got the opportunity to get the right kind of education
ReplyDelete@ Akanshu - yaa its not easy to ignore the concept of god but it does not help us understanding the mysteries; it just give us a lame reason for not understanding them
@ Ranurgha - no em not saying tht whoever is religious cant think rationally. We are different u think dont hate the game but hate the players but I dont believe in hating.
i believe that among the people who are creating communal tension or terror, most of them are good but they are misguided and not to say religious education they are getting is the reason... people have always used religion for bad, they created it to rule, to discriminate, to divide, to impose unnecessary laws.
What UNITES also DIVIDES. What EXPANDS our minds also LIMITS us by coercing us to deny anything but our experience. This is the duality that any human is subject to, a duality that appears a contradiction to your LOGICAL mind. I believe that Living gracefully with this DUALITY is the art of life. Things like tolerance, patience, respect for anothers views, value for another's life, and LOVE-especially LOVE-are the ones that help us live in peace and harmony with this DUALITY so characteristic of life. Logic might win you and argument, but you will lose a friend in the process. I am not saying hold on to the friend and lose the argument. I am saying: turn that argument into a DISCUSSION by accepting change more readily(keeping in mind the DUALITY), by being more loving and by DESIRING peace!
ReplyDelete@ Manoj - thanks a lot for giving me a new perspective; it never came to mind before. Even though u r antagonist (em assuming myself as protagonist :D) but em agreeing with u becoz thr is something common we share. We both believe in love and not hatred as cure (PS- read my comment just above urs)
ReplyDelete@Freedom,
ReplyDeleteso finally whats your point? I am confused.
@ Dibakar - Some confusion is always good
ReplyDeleteI believe religion is dreadful and manoj's idea of duality impressed me and I agreed with him. But I also believe that there is no balance possible and religious harmony can't be established as many people are there just to use it for their ill-purposes and I also believe that religions were not the result of noble reasons.
This post is more like a question and do not contain your views. It is not concise either. The topic is very broad. There are so many prejudices in this post. I think you should remember that everyone is not like you and is not gone through the kind of education you had or seen the lifestyle that you have. People have a habit of making others like him. You are doing that.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact, following a religion does help (to some people). Not everyone is strong enough to face the -ve aspects of the society. People do all kinds of things for calm feeling. They do yoga. Some drink & smoke.
And yes there is a name for people who refuse to follow the religion. Even I am one of them. It is Atheist.
Yes!! Politicians misuse religion feelings. But you can’t criticize whole religion just for that.
@Freedom,
ReplyDeleteBy your logic,
1.Ultrasonic technology itself is to be blamed for the skewed sex ratio due to wide spread female infanticide in North India and not the people who use it for nefarious designs.
2.Shockley,Bardeen etal who invented the transistor are responsible for the deaths of the thousands of Iraqis who died from the missiles using semiconductor technolgy.
3.Marconi is responsible for paving the way to the mobile triggered blasts all over the world.
What I want to say is people need a reason to fight against each other and religion just happens to be one of the widely used ones.The Cold war was not about religion,not the Vietnam war,the Rwandan civil war.Tamerlane not only massacred the Hindus in Delhi but he also ransacked Baghdad and killed its 20,000 inhabitants which included muslims.
Its not surprising that balance is not possible ,after all about 20% of the country live under poverty line(no economic balance),the Raj Thakrey fiasco(language and racial intolerance).Why blame religion for people's greed?
@ Sourabh
ReplyDeleteyaa nice observation that they are questions rather than my views, so how can I make people like me just by asking questions, please forgive me but I am not trying to impose anything on others.
@ Dibakar
We think differently, in fact in opposite direction. I believe that most of the people dont want to fight they want harmony, but they are misguided by the few.
i think it's not the ultrasonic technology nor the people responsible for that, its the social structure and illiteracy in north India responsible for that.
BTW
ReplyDeleteIts the privileged ones who go for sex determination in embryos.The poor people cant afford that.And again the rich people are generally the literate ones
@Akanshu:
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you think that we beings on Earth are even meant to unravel the mysteries of the Universe? Our understanding stops after a certain extent, so we label the residual haze as God. Thousands of years ago, early man's understanding was so little that he needed a God for Rain, Lightning,etc because he could not explain anything. We are slowly improving... Doesn't that give u the idea that maybe, just maybe, we can do away with the concept? Not now but a few thousands of years ahead? Oh, and do spare me the sermon. U think God is the only way to ensure man doesn't follow his id? That's is what u seem to suggest.