If god(s) meet a human, both would exclaim “Oh my creator”.
The world is full of interesting people. Each individual is unique, with their own set of values and belief systems evolving from their experiences, culture, religion, and environment. We have our opinions about people due to the differences in the way we live, our religion and our culture. We sometimes appreciate or mostly criticize other people’s behaviour depending on whether we align with their culture, and belief systems.
Our Belief System
The information we allow into our brains often results in strong beliefs, that condition ourselves and the rest of our generations. It is important to check, analyze and permit this information, which eventually becomes a part of our belief system. This belief system will drive our behaviour, habits and interactions.
Recently, in Delhi, I took an Uber for an airport drop. It was a 90 minutes drive and the taxi driver initiated a conversation. It was difficult for both of us to comprehend, as I managed with broken Hindi, and he did not understand English. However, I enjoyed the conversation.
Since it was election time, he started with politics and eventually moved to religion. He spoke like a seasoned godman, talking about the universe, planets, science and the creator. He articulated confidently because of his strong belief system.
My conversation with the taxi driver influenced me to write this blog. Imagine a discourse between a religious person and an atheist. How would it go? What would be their inner voice and what would they voice out? Would it be a healthy discussion or a heated argument?
The differences
Religious people often have a strong need to align with their respective groups.
Secularism is superficial, fanaticism is deep-rooted.
In most countries, governments are elected based on this deep-rooted alignment with religion. On the other hand, an atheist is mostly not confined to any group and their decisions are often individualistic. They like challenging religious rituals and traditions that are not based on logic or science.
The moral compass of a religious person is like this; “If you are a believer, you are a good person else you are not.” Don’t we have liars and jealous people among believers? No way! Religion clears them all. 85% of the people around the world are associated with a religion. They are all good people and the rest 15% are bad. (Sarcasm intended)
Religious Prohibitions
The food we eat and the clothes we wear can be a great topic of dissonance. Even within the same religion, this conflict occurs. I know musicians who do not use their musical instruments to play secular songs or music. It is considered a sin. I remember a guy grabbing his guitar from me while I was playing the chords of Hotel California, telling me that songs of this kind were prohibited from being played on it.
As we all know, all religions prohibit certain things, like watching movies, listening to music, having a TV at home, consuming specific foods etc. The fact is that there are people in this world doing all these prohibited things, and yet their life goes on fine.
Cause and Effect
For atheists, things don’t happen for a reason, they happen because of various causes. It is simple cause and effect. If they meet with a road accident, it is simply because the brakes were applied on a slippery road, or due to a careless person behind the wheel, road rage, excess speed or any other million causes. The effect is the accident.
If a religious person meets with an accident, they would argue that it was a test by god. If they survive with fewer bruises, then the god is kind. God saved them. If they happen to die, then the same god was so kind that they were taken earlier from this world and their relatives would thank god for their time on this earth.
If an atheist questions a religious person about the latter’s belief system, what follows would be the thumping of quotes from the scriptures and clichés like; You are too small in front of god, You will not understand god with human intellect and so on. It becomes challenging to have a healthy and logical conversation. An atheist does not have a scripture, an image of god or a place of worship to lean on. They have strong belief systems supported by reason and logic.
What are you?
We are all critical thinkers except when it comes to our religion and our belief system. One would question the scriptures and rituals of other faiths while accepting their own with no application of critical thinking. Is it good to have such a strong religious belief system? If your belief system is built based on science and logic, then it is left otherwise it is right. What is your belief system, left or right?
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