Beyond Godlike ?

Ah, its been such a long time since I typed something here. For a change, I thought I'd share my views on something more non-crappy :D Before you brutally, verbally accuse/tarnish/laugh at/scorn/may be support me, remember that these are my views on a very-delicate-topic which is God & Religion. I am no historian or scholar to know how exactly religion came up, or the differences in the preachings of various religions. And also, I have nothing against Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, ABCism, etc. Reader discretion is advised :P
So, what do you classify yourself as? Extremely pious? Atheist? Agnostic? Unsure? Well, I'd classify myself as 'unsure'. Call me dumb or scared, I tend to believe in God more for the "If I don't believe, I might be in his 'not-so-nice' list and that may screw up my life". What do I mean? Well, look at it this way. If there was God, and I still questioned His being, He would know that I'm faking my belief in Him during prayer (He being All Powerful!). Else, if He allowed the freedom of thought, then He wouldn't mind my questioning His existence. Anyways, why take the chance?? (Technically speaking, I just proved that either way, I need not worry about being in His not-so-nice list!). So, what I'm saying is that I pray occasionally because I am afraid more than anything else. Anyways, lemme move on :D

Sometimes, when everything is going right, you really (at least I do..) tend to question the divine being called GOD. And when things go wrong, you feel hopeless and resort to Him at times. I feel all these things are more 'mental' than anything else. Its got to do more with the mind than anything else. I firmly believe in the 'Mind Over Matter' frame of thought. If you can convince yourself that everything will be fine without resorting to The Almighty, then that means you have a strong mind. Most of the impossible stuff are achieved because of 'Will Power' more than anything else. You basically convince yourself you can go one step higher each time and finally, after all the beating, you succeed in your endeavor.

I feel that words such as 'Fate' ( :D that reminds me of fAtA1itY :P ), 'Destiny' are linked to belief in God. Some people believe that their whole life is written on the forehead (literal translation) and so they are like some puppet executing their life code. I used to believe in 'Whatever happens, happens for your best'. But really, isn't that like some joke? I mean, your trying to convince yourself (generally, its a failed attempt that you end up using this quote for) that things did not go your way because that was not the best thing for you. You could really conclude that only if you experienced life without the failure. When I got an admit to Goa and not Pilani, I used to use this line. Sure, I had a great time at Goa :D. But, how can I know what my life would have been like at Pilani?! All this is a dumb way (which is used by us :D ) to convince ourselves and move on. Period.
I might not believe too much in palm reading/gem stones/weird_stuff_:D , but then thats who I am. You could always have your own reasons to believe in such stuff and I ain't gonna say a thing about it.

The concept of God/Religion is historical in my honest opinion. This 'God thing' has always been something mystical to all of us. Right from a baby, we (at least majority) have been taught slokas/prayers submitting ourselves to God and thanking Him for all the blessings in life. This has been going on for ages and ages. Before I start rambling along, have you watched the documentary "Zeitgeist"? If you have, then you'd have an idea of what I'm talking about. Its not that this one documentary is like "The Truth". I liked the school of thought portrayed in it. In brief, they show that most religions (I did not want to use the aggressive word 'all religions' here) are more to do with looking at the sky than anything else! I don't want to base this post on that video, and so if you want to check out that video , use you tube :D [Ain't I horribly intelligent to suggest that? :P ]

Lets travel to the extremely distant past for a while, shall we? Imagine what people would have done for time pass? One of the most obvious things is to look at a star lit sky! What could be more beautiful and romantic than lying down watching a zillion stars and the cute moon? Hmm, just a minor deviation. I wonder if ozone layer depletion has anything to do with not being able to view the sky clearly from certain places [especially bangalore :-( , or is it just the dumb clouds hovering above this city?. In case you know something on this, please do comment!] Ok, so coming back. Imagine doing this often, may be looking closely at a few stars and then tracking their path. Well, again before I continue, there are always two sides to a coin. What I'm talking about here is one side and might be totally against your view. Be rational, and read through the whole thing and then give me your view on the same. I'd be glad to see if that could change my current picture :-)
So, some writer (lets assume we had parchments :D) jotted down all he/she observed. People added more masala to this and basically, many religions and stories of 'their Gods birth/d3ath' have made their way. This is very much similar to birth of Gods such as Jesus, Krishna and many others. This is what the first part of Zeitgeist shows, that religion is more to do with astrology than anything else! Just imagine a story travelling through some 1000 years!! It would have gathered all the modifications and spice possible, making it totally alien to what the real, original story was. And that is what we see today in various forms.

From my amateur reading, I find one 'Emperor Constantine' a major masala-adder to this. Somehow through his childhood, he got this urge to be a great king and have all the land under his command. Instead of bloodshed alone, he chose to base his expansion and unification on a religion. I reiterate I have nothing against Christ/Allah/Krishna/Any_God ! So, just imagine, a school of thought being 'forced' on every human via his parents/teachers/society. This is something like a n-ary tree in computer data structures, with a beginning somwhere and the present state we see today. Trillions of dollars (damn, I hate using dollar as an international currency standard! A post on this mebbe in the near future :-D ) have been invested in 'cementing' a belief through buildings called temples, churches, mosques. During my sophomore year, I thought I'd try reading the Gita. So, I bought the book, and started reading, hoping to make myself a little more wiser. In a few pages, I came to know that to appreciate and really understand the meaning of the Gita, it was mandatory that 'I believe in Lord Krishna, His very existence and not question that'. Well, I thought 'okay, I'll try' (call me stubborn/arrogant/some_complex_word_you_learned_through_gre/cat), but everytime my mind used to think and question that line. I gave up reading it because of that and an addiction called Gaming, but nevertheless, I tried and failed.

Okay, that's enough history for a day! When I look at religion/myth, I stand in awe of the authors of this beautiful tale. They've got to be the most amazingly creative people to come up with such stories! And amazingly many such stories have been written in jail/confinement/solidarity, wherein you don't have much to distract your attention. So, why do you goto the temples/mosques/churches? Is it because thats the way your family did it? Or is it because you feel 'If I do not do it, I'm risking my future'? Or may be because so many others are doing it? Or is it because you don't lose anything by doing it? Lets be very reasonable here. I understand that belief and faith are an individuals independent understanding of 'something', and should not be scorned at. But try to make a conscious effort to answer it. When I look at the Hindu temples, I am spellbound by the architecture. So many carvings of so many god(s/esses)!! Especially animals such as the elephant and the cow. You'd find them everywhere in the carvings. Imagine, long long ago, one fine day, a lucky human wandering in a forest to get some wood for his fire, sees this creature we call today as 'elephant'. To him, it would have been like the greatest discovery ever! He calls his friends/tribe/family and they are awe struck by its beauty. So, they want to draw/depict it in art. I kind of feel this is where it all started! Somehow, cows and elephants became holy creatures and we find them engraved everywhere. Many Hindus use 'vibuthi' on their forehead, and sometimes put a little into their mouth. I used to absolutely love eating vibuthi when I was a small kid. One fine day, my cousin comes and tells me 'you know how that's made right?'. Dried Cow Dung. I was like " :O Holy Shiiiiit! ". Talk about worshiping the cow!

I feel all religions are based on some 'one story' that originated somewhere and was retold in various civilizations.
When you think of religion and the wars that have been waged, especially between the Jews and Christians, Hindus and Muslims, you really feel "Do we need this religion as a separation?". Why can't we just do without it? Yeah, make a time machine, go into the past and set it right. In so many countries, school kids learn about their religion instead of learning stuff a normal school kid would learn. They are basically 'FORCED' to accept this dividing barrier called religion. Terrorists use 'Jihad' and spoil the name of the religion Islam. But then, really, did all these religions do anything good to the world? Why do we need a million buildings all over the maps? Some temples in India generate so much revenue that it can boost the economy of the country itself. People contribute selflessly to attain a 'self-satisfaction'. Thats all this is about, isn't it? Self-satisfaction? Just because others should not question your belief, you go ahead and do what you feel like. Hell, even I went to a temple and put some money into the hundi on my birthday. I'm a living example of what I'm talking about.

But then, when we are hopelessly down, there seems nothing better than praying to God. Imagine your loved one hit in an accident. The first thing you do is pray for his/her health. Why is it that how much ever I question the existense of God, I fall back to him in times of despair? Does this have to something with society and my up bringing? I really feel that is it. Its just the way you have been brought up. Child terrorists in Africa have no clue that killing others mercilessly is inhuman. Basically, they have been brainwashed. Its all a state of the mind, something you can't change in a few weeks or months. There is another word called Luck. I really don't understand how Jupiter or Saturn or Mars being in a straight line with the Sun and Earth is going to affect what I do. Seems pretty childish and dumb. But then, there are these people who can predict the future to a certain extent, something you feel should require divine powers. When you see predictions of Nostradamus being so close to reality, you feel you are just another fool questioning this Divine Being. When I was in Pondicherry, there was a temple built by a person after he got a dream that involved God. If you think a lot about God, you should definitely find him featuring in your dreams. Come on! I have got numerous dreams of Dota and Counter Strike after playing them for hours together before sleep :D

Hmm, this post has gotten pretty long! I guess I haven't concluded anything concrete, but left lots to ponder upon. I'm sure that people are gonna quote a lot of references/citations against what I've said.. but then, it isn't everyday that you openly discuss these kind of topics.