Saturday, January 19, 2013

Living Life the Religious Way

Please click on the image below to Zoom it.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Vinu, Explanation and examples would be helpful to understand this flowchart :)
-Anonymous

Nandu said...

"No stance taken on the existence/non existence of any supreme being". Unless you take a stance you will never fix the issue. The idea of the supreme being was put forth by religion, it didn't come in your head on its own. So if you think that the Idea of the supreme being is ok, but religion is bad, things will remain the same. Because so long as you don't get rid of the Idea that sustains religion, religion is always going to make a come back, no matter how hard you try to get rid of religion. So either God exists and religion is ok or religion is bad and therefore god doesn't exist.

Nandu said...

The reason why we see a comeback of all the superstitions, religious/caste identity politics and conflicts in Kerala is because, all our progressive movements during the 20th century fought for equality of men irrespective of caste, fought for temple entry rights and right to worship, but forgot to teach the masses that, while everyone had a right to enter the temple, the very idea of the temple and God was irrational. And because the core idea was untouched, all the things that we managed to get rid off, is now making a back-door entry into our society.

Vinumon S said...

Abhinand, I knew u would give this comment :)

I agree that denying the existence of any supreme power would have completed the argument. The reason is ‘I am not yet there’

I chose not to use the word ‘God’ in the disclaimer – It is doubtless that there can’t be any God/super power the way religion projects it – a creationist or someone who sits up in the sky and keep judging people or who listens to prayer and expect offerings. My perception different- I feel that there is some order in what is happening around, whether it is natural processes or the way everyone’s life progresses (at least mine). There are quite a number of (unreasonable then) incidents which fall into place as I look back. Any third person can dismiss it as coincidences, but having gone through it, I find it tough to do the same. Also the attachment that you feel towards certain people, as if you have known them for a long time and you were meant to meet?. What is the rationale behind what people call the “call of heart” or “following your destiny”? Can we say that people are born with specific talents and would fare well when they align themselves to it?. Why does it happen that you feel like putting in your 100% effort on certain things unknowingly wherein you can’t do the same for everything how much ever you push yourselves? Not sure if science have answers to these and I am not well read to know those.

I feel the basic difference in approach between science and religion is that religion forces people to believe blindly and not question anything whereas science encourages to keep the mind open, question openly and find the answers. Taking a stance that there is no order in the universe or no power beyond our perception or everything that we see around is nothing but coincidence, I feel, is again blind faith. In that case I am required to turn a blind eye to my own perceptions. I would rather not take a stance at this point of time – neither deny the existence of any order nor approve of it. May be a few months down the lane when I am totally convinced, I will change my stance.

Fair enough ? :)

Nandu said...

I think you have already taken the right stance. So long as you inquire, so long as you doubt, you will always be walking away from religion. I understand that you are looking for the existence of a supreme being outside of all religions. I understand that the god you are looking for is not an anthropomorphic entity who listens to prayers. I feel your god is Spinoza's God or Einstein's God, which is more of a pantheistic god. But as Richard Dawkins puts it, Pantheism is sexed up atheism, because such a god is no god at all. Maybe we are stuck with the word God, we can't get rid of it. Science is looking for answers, science is trying to solve problems and it has made incredible achievements. And I feel religion should stand in awe before science. Religion should at least show some decency and admit that what science has discovered is much magnificent than what our prophets imagined, than what our scriptures taught us. But look what religion has done to humanity. It has stunted our growth. It came as an impediment in the path of science wherever it could. If it were not for religion our civilisation would have advanced by at least 1000 years. You must try and understand the implications. The damage is unfathomable. Many many generations of people have been deprived of basic human amenities. So strong was the influence of religion on man's growth that it might have even made genetic impact in the evolutionary process. So strong is it's social influence that we can't even get rid of our suicidal tendencies as a society. We don't even realise what is adversely affecting us and we will never realise it even after we commit a global suicide. So pathetic is our condition, we are made to believe in an after life and look for solutions there. And if only you try to identify your destiny with that of the humanity as a whole, would you realise that the imagined metaphysical influences in your personal life is nothing but coincidences, one in a million, when a huge majority of mankind throughout their history has suffered tremendous tragedies in life, even has gone to the brink of mass extinction, children, women and innocent men has suffered unimaginable pain and sufferings even at the hands of the so called religious men, the god which intervened in our personal life, had turned a blind eye towards all such unlucky people. It only takes the wisdom of a sane human being to know that a 4 year old girl shouldn't be allowed to be raped by her father, but the god of infinite knowledge doesn't give a damn. Therefore the reason why we are forced to take our personal experiences as evidence for the existence of god, is because of our ego, whereby we fail to see(knowingly or unknowingly) the happenings around us. But still I know that you are on the right path and so long as you hold onto your sense of justice (which I know you always will), you will be forced to come out of the mental prison which our forefathers have built for us.

Vinumon S said...

@Anonymous, thanks for the feedback, Will add explanations soon, caught up with some work :)

Steppenwolf said...

I could discuss Theology with you for ages (chanced upon your interesting blog for totally different reasons, though)

Vinumon S said...

Thanks for visiting my blog :)
Would definitely love to discuss, please feel free to add your thoughts :)

Steppenwolf said...

Commenting here would slow down what should be an engaging discussion.

Vinumon S said...

Ok :)

Please find me in Facebook, we can have a discussion