ஏனைய பதிவுகள்:
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LINKS TO POSTS ON - MY RELIGIOUS TURNING POINT
We inherit our religion from our parents. May be there are
some exceptions. But normally this is true - religion is birth or family-related
or inherited. Therefore, we imbibe the religious faith and rituals from very
early age. Normally what is imposed by the family and the background gets deep
into our mind as very strong and unquestionable faith. As I said earlier, even
questioning this faith is normally considered very uncouth and unnecessary.
Normally people do not dare to do it. They
always walk on the well-trodden good old path never wave from it. It was so for
me too, but only in the beginning.
When I started questioning my own faith, it was after a long
struggle with my internal force. I thought in those days how come a very normal
guy like me can question the Christian faith while I see day in and day out so
many scholastic theologians. When those knowledgeable persons accept faith so
completely, how can I refute the faith? It was very hard to come over this
stumbling block. But when I started questioning and finding my own truth,
things started becoming brighter and easier. The very first question was about
the free will of man and the will of god. I could find the incongruity of both
of these going together. I, though very
hard in the beginning, accepted my conclusions on free will as stated earlier
(in previous post). Then came the second important question. Christians always
have a very strong conviction that prayer can make them achieve their wishes /
desire.. Prayer was considered as a powerful tool. I questioned that. I found
prayer and predeterminism of god were
again incongruous with each other. I found prayer only as a psychotherapy and
not more than that. It may give solace and some peace to human mind. There it
stops. Contrary to what Christians believed
prayer may not be a successful tool.
After I crossed over those first two
hurdles, I overcame the usual reluctance to probe further. Rather I became more
emboldened to question anything in religion. It became an academic interest. All
inhibitions disappeared which I had in the initial stages. During this time, I
set my own "Ten Commandments" as my disciplinary code. Of these ten,
the second commandment was: "YOU OPEN YOUR
OWN EYES". This commandment gave me the strength and guidance. I made up
my mind: anything can be questioned; better I open my own eyes and start seeing
things in that new light. These ideas filled my questioning, hungry mind.
One thing became very certain.
Whatever may be the religion, a person born and brought up in that religion
always strongly feels that his religion is the TRUE religion and starts to look
down upon the other religions. This animosity for other religions is widely
prevalent in the three Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
These three religions strongly emphasize this superiority and the people in
these religions grow with this idea strongly rooted in their minds. They always
keep their chins up thinking
their religion is the true religion and their god is the only true god. They never
think twice before insulting other religions. They call all the other religions
as pagan religions. Quotes to prove this:
Isaiah 46:9
remember the former things of
old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
1 Timothy
6:3-4.
If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound
words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid
interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which
arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions . . .
Matthew 7:26
But everyone who hears
these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
This continuous search made me form a hypothesis: It is
perfectly correct if a person says that his mother is a good cook; but if he
says that his mother is the ONLY good cook … well, then he has to be vehemently
protested and corrected. This same feeling persists among the highly religious
people: they claim only their religion is true; and their god is only true
god. They never hesitate to insult or
degrade other religious faiths. We love our parents. We love them despite their
shortcomings because they are our parents. This should be the mentality
regarding our religions too. Your religion is good since you were brought up in
it. In the same way for others their religion is good. This should be the real
spirit of religious acceptance. This is much better than the often much used
term, "religious tolerance". But in fact most of us are unable to see
beyond our religions and faith. We are simply taught that religions other than
yours are false or wrong. In reality it
is very hard to come out of this entrenched concept and almost impossible to
have a proper religious tolerance and acceptance.
With this equanimity on different religions, I started to go
further in my search. The very first thing was the loss of faith in my
religion, Christianity. Christians attach so much importance to faith. The
religion itself never encourages "questioning" faith; it prefers
utmost faith, never questioning anything in the religious concepts, whether it
is the holy trinity, the birth of Jesus from a virgin, his crucifixion and
resurrection. Even the parables in Bible which were all praised so often became
highly questionable for me. I questioned even the very wisdom of those
parables. The countless 'miracles' postulated by Christianity became questions
to me. The list is long. Let us consider them one by one.
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