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Religion’s God & divine powers
On their idea of religion, there are 3 broad categories of people.
Believers have faith in a traditional religion & its idea of a divine power (God). They believe, all powerful God is watching every act of every human & he will reward the faithful, in the afterlife. Their faith gives his followers huge strength to face the challenges of life & stressful situations. Belief in a religion & God is never a problem so long as it is kept a personal matter and not used to create public nuisance or hatred of other faiths.
Atheists do not believe in the idea of traditional God but they do believe in ethics. Ancient Indian philosopher, Charvak was an atheist, he refused to do Shraddha ritual for his deceased father, though considered necessary for salvation of the soul by orthodox Hindus. Gautam Buddha was an atheist who rejected the idea of Brahminical Gods prevailing in India & associated rituals. He asked his followers to practice good-Karma (actions that require non-violence, honesty, kindness) to make one happy & warned of the perils of bad Karma that bring misery in the long run. After death of Buddha, his followers created a God out of him & started worshipping him! Hindus labelled him as the nineth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. It is a human weakness that they need a God to fall back on in times of crisis. Like Buddhism, Jainism also rejected the idea of God & supremacy of Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures.
Agnostics is a class that neither confirm nor reject the idea of God. An agnostic stand is that we humans do not know if there is a God or not there; there is no conclusive proof for either. Many of them play safe and follow a religion, just in case there is a God!
There is one more class which does not fall in any of the above three categories. These are thinkers who believe in possibility of a divine power but according to them, it is not likely to be the what religious scriptures tell us. So, what is this power & its role? It has created rules that apply to this everything in this universe. Humans are trying to learn those rules/ theories. These rules manifest not only as precise sciences of Physics, Chemistry, biology but also as many not so precise sciences like economics, chaos theory & ethics. For example, a rule in science of ethics says – an honest person is likely to have more peace of mind than a cheat or a hard-working person is likely to succeed than a lazy one in the long run. We may see exceptions to these rules because there are many unknown variables in these rules whose role is not easily predictable. In this new concept, the divine power does not keep a watch on us individuals to reward or punish us unlike what religion wants us to believe but its rules of ethics ensure the same, at least in the long run. For want of any suitable term, let us call this group Rationalist Believers. Einstein was such a rationalist believer; he did not believe in the God of the Bible, instead he believed in the God as defined by Spinoza, the 17 century European philosopher.
In an era, when human knowledge was limited, traditional religions played a role in regulating the society. However, vested interests distorted the religion to an extent that it lost its true purpose & became a tool for conflicts. Rationalist believers focus on rationality & positive values such as honesty, empathy, love, courage. They reject negative values of hatred, jealousy, greed. Their rational approach also builds scientific temper & thereby helps the society to develop & prosper faster.
One of the big differences between China & India in last 50 years has been that all Chinese leaders have systematically promoted rationalism in their population & rejected blind faith associated with traditional religions. Buddhist tradition may have also helped as it is relatively more rational among the major religions. This has helped China to achieve a rapid transformation towards developed society.
Currently atheism is the fastest growing religion in the world, particularly in Europe & China. It is likely to spread even in countries like India as we become better educated. Many of these Atheists are actually rationalist believers like Einstein or rationalist agnostics. Their prime characteristic is that they reject traditional religion, instead believe in power of ethics. The irony is that a lot of those who violate ethics regularly have a strong belief in their religion. They see religion as an easy escape to absolve them of their immoral, unethical acts. For them religion is not just a private affaire but a tool to achieve their vested interests.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.