I wanted all things
To seem to make some sense
So we all could be happy, yes, instead of tense.
And I made up lies
So that they fit nice,
And I made this sad world a par-a-dise.
- Calypso from the Books of Bokonon
Well, Avik got me into this Bokononist thing. Been wondering for a while what it is all about and today i finally gave in and did some research on it over the web. Liked what i saw so far, Bokononism is some fictional religion, described in a book, which attempts to make sense of life, the universe and everything else by making up foma or harmless lies. Hmm.. isn't this what our current religions also attempt to do ?
As a kid i used to go to temples, pray, chant mugged up mantras, ask god to make wishes come true (esp during exam times) etc. And as i grew up, it sorta became harder and harder for me to believe in the existence of a see all, know all, do all supernatural being aka god, who created this earth, the universe and everything that exists around us. So the question here is, do you believe in religion and in god ??
Now that i've (almost) grown up, i can say for sure that No i don't believe in god, but i could believe in the idea of religion. Religion for me is just a set of guiding principles put forth by our ancestors for us to follow and to lead a fulfilling life. And in order for the message to have more impact, god was invented to deliver it. I think we humans have always been pre-occupied with the thought of our
own mortality and have been trying to make sense of our puny existence
here on earth. And a spiritual answer to this question is generally much
easier to accept than the logical/scientific answer (42 ??). And who better illogical to answer all our questions than the supreme, unquestionable, unaccountable god.
Another of my wacky theory influenced obviously by Sci-Fi fantasies like Star Trek is that God could've been an alien. Think about it, turn back the clock some thousand or even just a couple of hundred years back. Imagine a alien space ship landing on earth and the aliens obviously with their seemingly super human powers would've appeared like gods to our puzzled ancestors. Even now, if a technologically superior, philosophical, preachy bunch of aliens land here on earth, most of our planet would be worshiping them as gods and the remaining trying to nuke them off the face of the earth :)
Hmm.. finally do you think that we'll all be better off without religion ?. I once read somewhere that religion is the root of all evils here or earth. More wars have been fought, more people have died in the name of religion than anything else in our history and the trend doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.
