Rushil Week 12: Power of Religion
I was recently in a debate with my friend over the existence of God. I, a heavy believer in science, obviously claimed that God didn’t exist. He, on the other hand, contended that God did exist. Rather than have a healthy debate, my friend wouldn’t acknowledge my perspective and was adamant that God did exist. To be fair, he was raised in a religious household, and I wasn’t. My parents didn’t give religion much thought; we just held one celebration per year at my grandmother's request. Rather than foster some appreciation for religion, it created some resentment in me, and I became hell-bent on disproving the existence of God.
My dad was a heavy believer in science as well, but he never talked about the origins of Earth. I did my research, furthering my knowledge than just the simple recognition of the “big bang.” To keep it brief, according to UChicago, the Earth formed out of “a mixture of dust and gas” around the Sun. With this information, I simply could not believe anyone who said God exists. There are hundreds of religions on Earth, and most of them have a “supreme being” fueling their respective religious campaign. To me, that sounded like grown adults believing in childish stories.
However, I looked up the origins of religion, and most of it stems from scripture. My main argument in the debate against my friend was that the scripture could have been falsified. Not only were these scriptures written thousands of years ago, but they were also passed down for generations. This opens the entire foundation of religion to flaws, as anything could have occurred during that time. Now besides my tangent about my strong belief in science rather than a divine being, the power of religion is what fascinates me the most. In my culture, people’s lives are ruled by religion. They restrict their diets and their workout routines all to appease a God that might not even be real. While my belief in science remains steadfast, I still acknowledge the impact of religion on people’s daily lives. The debate I had with my friend opened my eyes, allowing me to embrace a certain respect for our diverse perspectives.
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Hi Rushil. I see that you took a hard stance on religion, and I have no intention to try to convince you that God is real, however, I think you bring up a good point about religion and the way that it impacts our perspectives. I am Catholic. I have been raised Catholic my entire life, and while I am definitely not the best Catholic with going to church and praying, I still believe in God. But, at the same time, my dad and my close friends are all agnostics or atheists. My mother’s family who taught me to believe in God was also quite liberal, and in the simplest terms, fostered an incredibly lenient, but healthy relationship when it came to religion and belief. I remember the first time I asked my dad or my friends if they believed in God, I was shocked that they didn’t, because at that point religion had been as constant in my life as my own parents. There are times when I also find it strange how deeply religion and belief is imbued into my mind. I have always thought myself to be quite a logical individual, and I see the merits in scientific discovery and explanation as well as the various other religions. I understand all of this yet, whenever I ask myself the question do I believe in God, the answer has always been and will most likely always be, yes. That is not to say that I don’t agree that there are some discrepancies between science and belief or that I don’t think that the bible has been edited in the hundreds of years that it has been around. But each time I truly ponder on my belief, it is the same answer: yes. Now this may seem like a logical fallacy, but this is also why I see no use in arguing the validity of religion. I think the best way to describe it is that as deeply as you believe in science, I believe in God. That is just how I was raised and now that I am older and able to think for myself, something in me remains adamant in that belief. Sometimes my own adamance in God’s existence is strange to myself, but I think an important thing to note is that religion is a deeply personal matter. There is no reason why our two separate perspectives cannot coexist because our beliefs (when not being abused by people like with religious wars or validating abuse because the scripture says so) doesn’t really impact how we interact. I think people can be quick to devalue another person’s perspective because they find it to be illogical or immoral, but I think in life, it is important to take caution in respecting people’s beliefs and just leave it at that. The number of times I have heard people harp on Christianity, not as an institution (church’s flaws), but as belief is disheartening. I have had friends seriously say to my face “God is stupid” or “I hate religion” when I genuinely believe in God and it is hurtful even when not directly towards you. Sorry, this was so long, but to close it off, why do I believe in God when it might not exist? I don’t know. I just do. That is the premise of belief.
ReplyDeleteHello Rushil! This is a very interesting topic that you've chosen to touch on. I used to find myself having these kinds of debates all the time when I was younger, but I couldn't figure out a way to prove what I thought without giving in to the opposition because that's just how much merit both sides of the argument had to me. I believe in God. Firmly. But what's different about how I believe in God is that I'm not as firm in my religion as I am in the belief of God. Religion is such a complicated subject and there are so many different ways that religion impacts lifestyle. To me, though, I only want religion impacting my lifestyle as much as I can allow with room to shape the rest of my life the way I want it. I'm a Sikh, but I'm not baptized. This means that, while technically, Sikhs aren't allowed to cut their hair, need to have their hair covered at all times, need to wake up every day between the hours of 2-5 and meditate on the name of God, I just believe in the stories, I believe in the power of God, I believe in the kindness that is preached and that's about it. You'll see me in school, hair cut, uncovered, and you'd never be able to guess that I was a Sikh. The thing is, for me, the belief is what builds foundation on religion. The rest of it came as guidelines for a lifestyle because civilizations didn't know what to rule their lives with. They needed something to set precedent for a "good life" and hence religious rules were formed. And I found myself battling with the topic of science and God for a lot of my life while I was younger. Perhaps I've stopped battling with it because I was so surrounded by spiritual and religious people growing up, but I've been in that position where it just didn't make sense how all this, the whole Earth, could be governed by a God and not by scientific forces. If there is a God, where is he? In my mind, though, I don't battle with this question because I simply don't mind it enough. I don't mind that there's no explanation for the universe. I don't mind that I don't know where anything comes from. To me, I need to just be a good person, meditate to calm down my nervous system, belief in God because there's someone judging my actions, and as for the world...maybe God is what caused those forces of dust and rock to come together and make the Earth...maybe not. Regardless, I don't mind not knowing. Great blog, beautifully written.
ReplyDeleteHi Rushil, I would have to side with you. While I did grow up in a religious household, I failed to see my family's views on some aspects of life. Now I do believe in heaven and hell in the afterlife, but the view that we have some higher being looking over us is just absurd to me. I just fail to see how some higher being controls our lives. But enough about my personal bias. Your scientific approach is thought-provoking. While I agree with some points, I do want to know what you think happens to us when we die? I believe religions are very interesting and a subject of debate. I've also wondered about if people who claim to have gotten a message or vision from God truly saw something or if they are just lying about it for power. Overall, your blog made me think about the basis of beliefs in terms of religion.
ReplyDeleteHey Rushil, I liked hearing your stance on religion. I was raised as a Catholic, however, as I got older I have become more and more Atheist. I believe my growing disbelief towards God stems from me growing up and thinking more logical. From the way I see religion, I think of it was a way for people to cope with the fact that humans do in fact die, so they manifest this belief that there is a life after our life on Earth. And I respect that belief, as being afraid of death is valid, I don't think that people should be bringing their religion into their politics. For example abortion, many people don't like abortion because people believe that the embryo has a soul. Or rights for gay people. Religion is a pretty taboo topic, so I'm glad that you have found the courage to write about it, and I'm glad I got to read about it.
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