An interesting discussion about religion on ABC’s Q&A show last week stoked my thoughts on the subject.
I do not have a relationship with God. When at a temple or a religious occasion, I bow my head and fold hands, more to blend in with the crowd than for anything else. Just in case God actually exists and listens to prayers, I occasionally ask for something, usually quite general and relating to the world at large, rather than to a specific individual.
I do not scoff at the possibility of God’s existence, for people far better than I are convinced of it. It is just that I do not find his existence necessary to explain anything that I have experienced to date.
The general tendency to externalize our problems, instead of looking for solutions within, has always been a bit puzzling to me. Isn’t one better of spending more time studying to clear an exam rather than visiting a temple to pray for a successful result?
Many people I know approach God to ask for favours – “please let me pass this exam”, “please let me get through this job”, “please let me win the lottery”, etc. Occasionally, they even offer God a bribe. “If you get me through this exam, I will break a coconut”. “If I get selected for this job, I will donate my first salary to the temple, etc”.
If God does exist, and these offers do work, I am not sure what to make of Him. In a normal human being, this would attract corruption charges.
God shows himself in mysterious ways. When I was an MBA student, idols of the Lord Ganesha started sucking up milk offered by devotees over a few days, unleashing a wave of religious hysteria across India. The country was divided in its explanations of the phenomenon, ranging from scientific theories such as capillary action, to sheer divine magic.
I wish He would show himself in some more obvious way, like a giant vision seen worldwide, putting all argument to rest and enabling people to get on with at least one big question in their lives resolved.
If God does not exist, he must surely be by far the most humungous scam perpetrated on mankind. Imagine the enormity of time and money spent on this fabrication over the ages.
If he exists, I am sorry for the skepticism, and wish to say Hello.
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Over the past few years, I've come to terms with the fact that I am somewhere between an agnostic, and an athiest. Some nights, when I look up at the sky and see hundreds of stars, I can't believe there isn't a God. Other days, when I hear about the terrible suffering of people in the world, I think -- there can't be a God. Because if there was, wouldn't he or she intervene?
ReplyDeleteSomewhere between agnostic and atheist describes me pretty well. But the point on "suffering" doesn't necessarily prove the absence of God. The "fairness" concept i.e. that happiness/suffering should somehow be equally distributed is a moral/political one, whereas God is a spiritual concept. Believers could argue that God does not operate under such man-made concepts of fairness, or even that he does, but in a way that is hard for us to see (for example, the total sum of happiness over our different lives is the same, etc).
ReplyDeleteMany believers in God, specifically Christians, DO believe that God is responsible for happiness/suffering.
ReplyDeleteMost Christians I know believe that God has a PLAN, and that this higher PLAN is the reason for certain events. God intervenes (whether positively or negatively) in human activity. When God does something negative, it is his way of showing displeasure with humans' lack of progress. This is why many people here don't believe in global warming -- the status of the earth is in God's hands.
I never felt this way about God... But it's a popular sentiment, particularly in Christian America.