I believe in a God but not in a Religion.In this society where God and Religion are so entwined with each other, people find it hard to imagine a God without a religion. A God (or a supreme being) is someone who we see as the pinnacle of perfection. A religion is a set of actions (or habits) meant to "praise" or honor the God. As a friend of mine said: "Because God is the pinnacle of perfection, we use him/her/it as a model; someone/something that we, as humans, aim to be." and I completely agree.
There's no God. Or more correctly, we have no proof of a God. It's just this human desire to be perfect that makes the idea of a God a lot more feasible. I guess having a God is also a good thing because it reminds us that we are not the nature's pinnacle of creation and that we are humbled that someone/something else is up there. It makes us however feel helpless about things and produce this tendency to leave it up to this Supreme Being. ("Bahala na")
However, Religion is man-made. There are no writings that came down from heaven (or the equivalent). There really are no stone tablets. They're just a pigment of our (or our ancestors) imagination or "Divine Inspiration", as some of us would like to call it. That's why religion has their flaws and weaknesses; because we're humans and we're not perfect. Religions are just collections of principles and philosophies, enhanced with rituals and symbolisms to accommodate grandeur that we humans like to brandish; but they're essentially principles and philosophies. These rituals and symbolisms may be rigid or flexible, but nonetheless, they are fundamentally unnecessary.
In this modern times, religion has become "convenient" and our view of a God became the same. Don't you think that we're better off without religion and just take with us the philosophies and principles? I do; because religions are principally the same if you look at their principles. It's just the rituals and symbolisms that are different. Additionally, if there is a God, I'm sure s/he/it wouldn't mind whichever way we choose to praise him/her/it, as long as it's aimed towards goodness. Who do you think would God be happy about, someone who just prays or someone who goes out and does good deeds?
If he really is the pinnacle of perfection (which is, I noticed, a redundant statement), I'm sure s/he/it wouldn't mind. If there isn't, then you just did things out of your goodwill. Be happy.. you just acted God.
Notes: I refer to God with the 3 genders because we do not really know what s/he/it is. We are even unsure if (a) God(s) really exists. Most of my views of God and religion has a Catholic background because I was raised in a catholic family and went to a catholic school and I would like to apologize for any biases.
1 comment:
Well, that's the point of all religion, isn't it? To get people to act nice?
Or were all religions just founded to gain control and influence over fellow human beings?
I tend to believe in the former, as the latter would be far too depressive. ^_^
And as for "pinnacle of perfection" being pleonastic, I completely agree - though I must say that I haven't seen that term very often, if at all (excluding your newest blog entry, of course). I tend to use the expression "pinnacle of creation". It just seems to make more sense. To me.
But I'm rambling again. ^_^ Good entry, it's food for thought indeed.
Post a Comment