I'm going to try to write about religion in a hopefully non-controversial way because what I'm writing about is equally offensive to all religions, (but not that offensive). Many people say that all religions originated from the same roots. But that's not true to most people because if it was, all the religion-following people would be of one religion and live in peace.
What I find interesting about many religions is that the description "God-fearing" is supposed to be a good thing. Why is it good to fear what controls the universe or pervades the universe? That would mean you would have to live your life in fear. Or it just may mean that it's assumed you're going to do something wrong so you better be afraid of the implications. Why not put a positive spin on the "consequences of believing"?
Another common thread with all religions is that we must continually praise God and repeat God's name over and over. If God is so wise and powerful, does God really need affirmation from us? If I believe that God is great and that I am appreciative of God, wouldn't he know it? God is omnipotent after all. Why does anybody have to tell God overtly? These questions may have "by-the-book" answers, but I don't know enough about all the religions for a satisfactory answer. One other question for which no religion has given me a good answer is "why do babies die?" Every religion has its own excuse, but no justified explanation.
Some religions like to convert people to their way of thinking. I can understand that if you think your one way of worship is the right way, you want to share that with whoever you can. But what about all the people that existed before the religion did? Are they damned for not having known? And if not, then one would hope that a forgiving God wouldn't hold it against a person living today in the middle of a rainforest who hasn't learned about the one true way. The way I see it, if God wanted there to be one true way to believe, God would not have allowed all these other religions to exist. And shouldn't the first religion be the most valid? I would think that the direction to the one true faith would be obvious and heavily favored by events that occur courtesy of God.
The last area where I see religion pushing similar agendas is with their views on detachment from worldly possessions. If God put us on this worldly planet, why would he want us to detach ourselves from the nice things that are available to us? I guess you could say it's a test, but that's a bit mean. One theory I have on why religion tells us to detach ourselves from our things and money is so that the temple/church/mosque/synagogue and its clergy can have more of them at our expense. As far as I'm concerned, God doesn't need money because God already owns all the money and God should be able to move it around at will.
When people refer to God as "my God" or "our God", then they are supporting the idea that if I start a new religion tomorrow, that I will be creating a new God. That would mean that man created religion instead of God creating man. But then, who says there's only one God per religion? Monotheistic religions tend to look down upon the idea of polytheism. Perhaps it's because that concept does open the door to the creation of new religions and resulting new Gods.
Even though I'm a Hindu who's more philosophical than religious, these questions I have make me believe in religion with a grain of salt. I believe in God mostly because I feel this universe is too well thought out to be just random, and karma makes sense to me in the way it explains the balance of the universe. I apologize if I have offended anybody and I would hope that many people comment below so we can have some good philosophical discussion.
+ Atul
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