Whether you are on the atheist side or the theist side, you are wrong! The age old debate of science vs religion is still hot, and we all have faced it some day or another, here is my take on it in a dialogue form as a conversation between the students and teacher of a classroom:
Teacher: Good morning students!
Students: Good morning teacher!
Teacher: Let’s start the day with a prayer. Come on everyone! Join your hands, close your eyes and start repeating after me!
(A student named Rohan is not praying along with others)
Teacher: Rohan! I said close your eyes and join your hands and repeat after me! Don’t you understand simple instructions?
Rohan: Sorry teacher! But I don’t like praying to God.
(There was sudden silence in the class)
Isha (another student, sarcastically): Why? Are you God yourself? Or do you think of yourself above God?
(Students laughing)
Rohan: See? That’s what I don’t like about God or religion in general, be it any religion. Why does everyone keep on telling us to follow religion or pray to God. There is no logic to it! Has anyone seen God? No! They are just blindly following what their elders taught them and now they expect us to blindly follow them!
(There was a pause. Another student named Jay interrupted)
Jay: What are you saying? Are you out of your mind? You are talking about God here! At least show some respect!
Rohan: Well I can’t show respect to someone whom I have never seen or met.
(The teacher was silent meanwhile and finally spoke)
Teacher: Okay guys! Silence! This is a classroom! Okay Rohan, you are an atheist. Atheists are the people who do not believe in God or religion. And Jay, as far as I understand, you are a theist. That’s the opposite of atheist, i.e. they believe in the existence of God and follow all religious practices.
A lot of theists ridicule atheists just to express their views, and vice versa, the atheists mock the theists to blindly follow religion without knowing what and why they are doing.
So let’s do something different today, you guys can ask any questions you have about religion or God or anything related to that and I will try to answer them, let’s make this a healthy debate, shall we? Okay, let’s begin with Rohan, you can ask any question you want, you do not need to worry about anything, just ask. And let me make one thing clear, atheists are very logical people that think the correct way and ask the correct questions, it’s just that it is a very sensitive topic they talk about and hence a lot of people get offended by it. Okay Rohan, go on.
Rohan: Why do I pray to god, who is he, isn’t it senseless to dedicate your entire life to someone you don’t even know or haven’t even met once?
Teacher: That is a very valid and logical question. I would say just keep this religion/God debate aside, just think of everyday situations you face, a very real scenario, let’s say you, despite all the efforts you made, failed an exam. You are very upset, your parents, teachers are scolding you. You need someone to talk to, whom do you go to?
Rohan: A friend. Or write it in my diary.
Teacher: Yes, exactly! Is it necessary that the person you need, should be a real person? I don’t think so.
Let’s consider another scenario, let’s say there are 2 people, person A and person B. Both of them are very intelligent and score great marks, they grow very successful in their career. But person A is very religious. He thinks that all his accomplishments are by God’s grace, he does not take credit for any of his achievements, on the other hand, person B is proud of his achievements and is rightly so. He should be proud, but that has lead to something that is not good. He has developed ego in his mind. He thinks that he is the smartest person and can accomplish anything, and that is dangerous. So faith in God helped person A to be humble. A lot of people think, “I cannot get overconfident or egoistic”, but I’ll tell you, seeing a lot of success and not developing an ego is the hardest task in the world! You at such a young age might feel that this is all rubbish, how can ego come into me, but that is what it is.
So, the point is, if you don’t want to believe in God, that’s okay, but then you will need to find another way of coping with these vices of the mind, be it depression, anxiety, sadness, or the ‘I am on the top of the world’ feeling. It’s just that believing in God, for a lot of people, is an easy way out to cope with these problems.
Rohan: Okay, accepted, you can believe in God, but there are so many other things that come with it that are so illogical and senseless.
Teacher: Like?
Rohan: Like the whole “paap” (sin) and “punya” (virtue) concept.
(Bell rings)
Teacher: Oh! The lecture time is over, okay, let’s continue this discussion in the next lecture, I will surely answer your question then!
So this was the part 1 of the ‘You Are WRONG About Religion’, the slightly clickbait-y name aside, if you have reached to the end of this blog, you should surely checkout the next one, part-2. Please make sure to check that out if you enjoyed this one!