Religion: Belief or Disbelief?
Given my family background and approach towards religious debates as well as my practices one might easily assume I am a religious man. Even though this is the notion about my beliefs I would like other people to believe in . But then again my approach towards certain things might also give the notion that I am an atheist. To me the argument itself seems rather illogical because the means we do follow to solve the questions are in most cases pseudoscience. And we often find that the view towards these subject matter cannot be change once a man reaches certain phase in life. But the argument is still necessary since the society we live in are obsessed about this matter.
Now to argue about this matter the main question is do you believe in god and why do you follow certain religious practices? Even though the answers should be pretty straight forward such as yes and no .And for the second question the answer should be because this is the only truth I believe in. But i do find the idea of putting myself to be labeled as atheist or theist rather disconcerting.
Do I Believe in God?
If anyone ask me I would certainly answer yes. But it is not easy as to believe in something absolute. I grew up in a very religious family and even to think or question about the idea about the existence of god would create panic among my parents. Even though there was influence of my uncle and cousin who are atheist . But the majority of my family is religious. Even though the arguments the atheist and less practicing among my family is rather illogical .Cause in most cases it starts with because certain person said religion is not scientific. But since the entire argument is not valid since there is no actual scientific way to proof such things. The reason why this is scientifically impossible is due to the way we picture god. The most valid argument to deny the idea of god is to go against the teleological arguments to prove that he exists. To prove the existence of god theologians often try to prove that religious doctrines in terms of scientific evidence.And large part of becoming religion is the religious doctrines .So we must assume that every word uttered in the scriptures are true and continuously ask ourselves “So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?” (Surah Ar-Rahman). Even though I would largely discuss the idea later but here I find the question about our understanding of religion. If the same scriptures can affect different person differently and as modern theologians also translate them in different ways so there is no proper way to neither deny nor confirm the teleological evidences.
So we must take the absolute fundamentals of the religion to be granted. And to discuss the absolute fundamental the first and foremost thing is how we picture god. The god is omnipotent and there is no other god. Now the conception of omnipotence is that we cannot think about it.It is out of human capability and that is the point. Even though picturing god in such a way in other religion may be tough since that would put many common ideas to the test. But in my religion this is the only way to go.
But as I cannot still judge the different evidences and one might argue the idea of omnipotent god in certain religion is not good enough argument to believe in existence of god , I find the Pascal’s wager to be the best solution to take such decision. Here the existence of god is not of concern but the main concern here is the fact that in which case I am most benefited. If the god does not exist the decision doesn’t matter at all. It only matter if he exists. And the best possible outcome is in believing in god.
So now comes the question is to what extent I believe in god and why do I follow certain religion and not other?
The Practice of Religion:
By birth I am Muslim. And as my parents are such pious people the practice should be very easy for me. But the problem comes when discussing the different aspects mentioned in scriptures. Such as in most cases I would have to deny evolution ,the idea that aliens might exist and I would have to believe in some context that to create something as majestic as universe the intervention of god is necessary in every step of the way.And the idea of free will and the causality of certain action also comes into question. Not to mention -do I have a soul or not and the idea of good and evil while believing in notion of god to being omnibenevolent. But to find the answer among these question I need to go through certain steps.
Firstly as I believe that god is omnipotent the notion of creating something in every step of the way is not correct. Just a wish to create the universe is good enough to create the universe. So the idea whether I believe certain particle is impossible or not should not get in the way of belief system. Now this idea also takes away our notion of free-will (Even though it was never a thought in our scriptures) . Now the notion of god being omnibenevolent came from the idea that whatever god creates will ultimately result in what is best for us. But that in my opinion also takes the idea of causality. In this case everyone would go to heaven and again there would be no sorrow even in the case of modern world. And the idea of many religious people suffering the most also is not helping the idea. But as far as my knowledge goes the idea of being extremely kind and generous is what I found not any term such as to believe in his omnibenvolence. So in this case the idea of causality, soul ,good and evil all can exist. This in my opinion is the most important axiom in order to believe in god. To believe that he is omnipotent, not omnibenevolent yet generous beyond our imagination.
So given the above statements are true here comes to what extent you practice your religion? And it still doesn’t solve if I believe in scientific truths to be true just because they are not justified by religion. Even though most of arguments against science by means of religion is hocus pocus and this is mostly due to the ignorance of the clerics about science. Because guess what no one ever said that we came from monkey. So don’t argue with the base such as “why didn’t the monkeys evolve”. Just because you don’t understand evolution does not mean that it is not valid. So does that mean religion is false? The adam and eve is false? Before answering this question we must ask how come reading the same scripture make a man a murdering psychopath and other man a kind down to earth man? The answer might be their ability to interpret the matter. Yes this does not solve the idea if it is true or false ? But again I am willing to take a pragmatic approach here. Since excluding certain ideas do not change the basis of few things that cannot be changed (Such as idea that we cannot get the idea of omnipotence) I think such practice should be okay .And here I have to rely on the idea that god is generous. And if he is not generous enough to leave certain things then we are all sinners beyond imagination.
But do you still have to say your prayers 5 times a day. And do you need to always act good to people. People such as Nietzsche didn’t believe in god and yet he thought that different ideas of religion might benefit society. Even though better understanding of philosophy and art might result in the same result. But to me that is also believing in some other type of cult which may also prove wrong in some context. So if there is chance to be proven wrong in other ideology as well as in terms if religion is it not better to put my bet on religion? The other question about saying prayers and certain rituals may go with answer such as “What would you rather do”. And at the same time since these are the best way of socializing you cannot completely deny it. Just as a atheist cannot stop enjoying Christmas rituals or Eid rituals. Even though at this moment true pious men would argue if I am agnostic since my action to perform certain rituals and prayers do not show me to be a religious man. But I do believe the if the basic truth are believed the rest can be justified.
Given my religious knowledge is still very premature level and much to be learned ,but it is proved by any source that compassion and kindness towards others will be awarded . Even though prayers and rituals have psychological importance but that is often not easy given certain condition.But we must also remember that refraining from bad habits have value in society as well as they go in the core practice of religion.So one must try to practice prayers and rituals and believe certain aspects (as long as they don’t hurt others) but the belief of the basics and the practice of the good deed should be the key of religion. Yes this is not a definite belief system and there is atleast a thousand questions that need to be answered to understand the practice of religion.But this might establish a baseline of thoughts.On might say that the system is based on moderate approach to every single idea but this seems the best choice given the arguments.
Shoummo
22/06/2020
