Day 4: My views on religion

Difficult topic.

I was born as a Hindu. I believe in God. I believe that there is only one God.  I think, religion is a regime that is supposed to set us a guideline on being a good, useful man. But, what is good and what is bad? That depends on the circumstances that we live in. That depends on the culture we have been brought up in. I strongly believe that living things strive to propagate and to satisfy hunger, by means of aggression.  Sex, food and power. I believe, religion is not a sudden concept that came down in a spectrum of lights through neither, the fluffy clouds nor a thunderstorm. I believe, religion is an idea created by humans for humans. Religion was/is a theory to bring people together and to gain power. The battalion that has the larger strength reins the world. Every new sovereign brings new ministers. That alters the principles of religion, from being a guideline that illuminates life to just a list of Machiavellian techniques that teaches to dominate

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Being born in Malaysia and in a conservative family, the idea of God was ingrained to me even before birth, I suppose. So, there was never a need to understand what the word ‘god’ means, because the God-concept was there all the time. Simple analogy, there was never a need to understand what ‘mom’ means because mom has been there all the time. I started to discover the probability of the existence of a supreme power when I was in my secondary school, thanks to Biology classes. Mitosis, fertilization, sun, stars, animal kingdom, botany. How can I run away from admiring all these creations without coming across the probability of a creator? The births and deaths I faced in medical school just strengthened that idea. So, there, I believe in God.

A point worth to be noted here, Dan Brown played a huge role in my discovery about God. His Da Vinci’s code spoke a lot about the proportions in nature, the proportions in a human being, which made me wonder, is this how God created people? By setting a formula and assigning it to create mankind, creating little variations that makes you different from me. Probably, I don’t know.  Dan Brown, many books, and my friend, Sharon Rohini, taught me a lot about Christianity and I am sure there are still more about it that I should learn. With all respect and more curiosity, I often think that Lord Jesus is a white-man’s God. My ex-roommate had pictures of Lord Jesus mounted on the walls of our room, and I saw, a Caucasoid man, with strawberry-blonde wavy hair, piercing blue eyes, shining the world with his silent smile. So, that makes me wonder, is God a Caucasian? Is God a male?  Same goes to the primal polytheism belief that many Indians are strongly founded upon. There are so many Gods, each with their own superpowers and multiple tools. Is there a committee of Gods taking different roles to safeguard the universe?  I live in a community filled with Muslims and I can’t run away from seeing how they pray, their teachings and their approach to religion. The thing that upsets me, and keeps me thinking over and over again, is the fanaticism Muslims have in upholding Islam plus the extreme unlimited power it gives to males. By fanaticism, I mean, how everyone around me is trying to convert me into a Muslim. By fanaticism, I mean, all the preaches I have been getting to prove that Islam is the sole and only religion that should stand. I don’t get it. Why there is a need to prove which religion is right when a religion’s purpose is to guide me to be a better human?

I don’t know. This topic is truly difficult. I think for now or forever, I would like to believe, there is God and God watches the world so that it runs smoothly. I am a Hindu by my certificate and I would probably die as one.

Exactly, my point!