Who? Me??

The recent news of the Ayodhya verdict have started a spate of debates across all media (from NDTV to Facebook!).

That apart, so many discussions wherein people end up confusing religion and god. I thought it was high time I pen down my thoughts on the difference between the two and whenever such a discussion occurs, I’ll proceed to give the link instead of going into the details of explaining the difference (funda re-use!!).

All religions have been started by men in order to lay down a set of agreed upon rules and norms for their community. This community could be brought together through mutual agreement (pagans, hindus, etc) or by instilling fear. Fear of being a heretic (islam, christianity, etc). The details are irrelevant, since in either case one thing rings true – its a social construct.

A social construct which generally pre-supposes the presence of a superbeing to keep all the community within line of the norms. If you break the norms, your soul will rot in eternal hell/netherworld/underworld/etc. If you follow all the norms like a good little boy, then you have chance to enter heaven/valhalla/olympus/etc. All these created craftily to breed only one type of behavior from the masses -

Compliance.

Now this superbeing, is usually god (sometimes it is the devil), but most of the times; it is god.

You take away all these rules and faff (the stuff I generally call as कर्मकांड), and you are still left with god. So what good is god without religion.

A lot. The idea of god, gives us faith, the faith that even if one fails, by some miracle (and these do happen ), the intended outcome will be met. God is faith, and that’s precisely why atheists and theists will keep on arguing about God … because each will not let go of their faith.

So for god’s sake don’t waste time on religion, but still keep the faith

I am fascinated with God. Obsessed even. That’s precisely why I have jumped out of bed at midnight and started writing this post. This post came to me as an epiphany (yes, even I have those  every now and then).

God is a concept people made to turn internalists into externalists. The concept turns them from someone who believes that his outcome/success is in his own hands to someone who believes that there is a supernatural force who is acting in his/her divine wisdom. It’s a concept which turns lions to lambs.

This to a confirmed pro-theist, is kind of an eye opener. An atheist friend of mine will be more than happy to say, “Gee, Kida, I told you so. I was right.”

But I still have faith. I still believe in god, not as an excuse to turn into an externalist, but simply for the purpose of having and nurturing faith. Believe in god, but not for the sake of that exam/interview/proposal, etc. All those things are purely in your own hands, and if you don’t move your lazy arse on the hard work required, then trust me, no god will be able to help. Chance, perhaps, god … no.