Why Religion Should Not Be Downplayed

When you were a child and your parents told you stories about god, you listened to that with great curiosity and excitement, but as you grow older and started seeing everything with the rational eye of science, you realise that it was a lie, and so every religious event and ritual appears to you as an act of stupidity. Still, you keep worshipping the men or women whom you were told to worship as Gods. Why? Have you considered what is the significance of religion?

Religion teaches us that God has created this universe and he is running it in his own way. The Sun, The Moon, Stars, Planets, Living creatures — bacteria, viruses, plants, animals, humans are all the creation of God. We are just doing things ordained by him. It may appear that we are influencing things, but the reality is we, ourselves, are influenced by some heavenly forces.

Indians, especially Hindus, are obsessed with rituals and other religious activities like holding fast and going to temple. Some of our rituals are too obsolete and every day they are being replaced by its alternatives. Also, some of our temples are so much hyped that thousands of people visit that temples every day. But, they visit because they've faith and we should not question the faith of an individual, especially when religion is concerned.

Nobody knows the gospel truth of religion. It has always been a grey area for us. After human civilization, development and advancement of Science, our attitude towards religion has been drastically affected. We started looking things by "logic" and raising questions on religious beliefs. There has always been a conflict between religion and science. But both are indispensable as Einstein said: “Religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame”. Remember, it is the science that gave us destructive nuclear weapons that we use for self-destruction.

Religion has multiple benefits in our life. It has a great psychological impact on us. If a human life is full of joy and happiness, it has tragedy and sorrow too. By believing in God, it gives us the strength to face challenging situations and to make a bold decision. It is a 'ray of hope' for a better tomorrow.

There is no physical proof whether God — Bhagwan, Allah, Jesus, etc, etc— really existed or still exists despite innumerable stories around him. It may be possible that whom we worship today as the god might have been just an ordinary extraordinary human. After all, human worships human is not just a theory.

Humans, by default, have the nature of developing arrogance after getting something that they desire and we are extremely vulnerable to it. By believing in god, we assume that, despite being the dominant species, we are nothing but advanced robots programmed to do tasks of god. In other words, we minimize the chances of developing arrogance. And where arrogance is less, the soul is pure.

There are many reasons to believe in god. The origin of the universe is not known to us despite the advancement in the so-called "Science & Technology". Just like humans provide their children toys to play with, it may be possible that God has provided us with the toy that we call Science & Technology, who knows? But, it's all wild guesses and religious literature is full of it.

Having said all the positive points of religion, it should be mentioned that religion is increasingly becoming a business just for monetary gains. And, that is one of the principal reason why the faith of people deviates from their religion. But, never stop believing in god or following your religion and do it in the way that gives you inner happiness and peace of mind. Rituals are not important but faith is, and that is why it keeps changing.