thinking of....

how grateful i'm to have all my friends! :)

even though i knew some of them forgot, i didn't really mind. because it's the impending o's after all. exam stress is bound to get to the head. :) moreover, i did not give them any hint whatsoever. i'm so NOT egositic! hehe

well, this is mainly a reply to laura's wordy comment/ essay actually. (ps: I like this sentence, " The problem is, we are too vain to see ourselves living one life and dying one death, hence we turn to religion.")

But i also incorporated some of the ideas that sprouted from me after reading her immensely interesting and thougt-provoking entry...

(those in italics are her words)

On the point of your 'which came first? The chicken or the egg?'-esque query on whether the belief of God arose first, or the non-belief in God... Well, wouldn't the idea of God have to exist before it can be rejected?

Oh! My mistake! I phrased it wrongly.

I actually meant it as are we born with an inner knowledge and awareness of the presence of God or did we have to come under influences to conceive such an idea of ‘God’. Therefore the statement of whether God came first or non-God, rephrasing it would be was the idea of God natural occurring or was it human induced?

I disagree that worship was created by man. If there is a God, then worship would be how he/she dictated or passed instructions to his/her followers, from the birth of religion. Much like the Ten commandments?

Somehow I disagree. You see, the practice or process of worship does not have to be dictated by God. Technically, any practice or worship can be made up/ formed by humans. One simple example; how come religions have a common place of congregation. The mosque, the church, the temple, don’t you see a repetition of ideas, the concept of kneeling down to pray in almost every religion… you have the crucifix, you have the ‘hu sheng fu’ (literally: protection charm). You have the blessed food for Taoists and Buddhists and you have the holy water and bread for Catholics. All this examples are present. Of course, one might argue that it is that deemed as evidence that one God lives since all religions still have their common grounds and practices. But why not look at it in this manner, these similar practices are perpetuated in most religions in one way or another merely because humans are alike in some points or another despite different backgrounds. In order to support this point, I would like to state that drawings found on caves walls by primitives and the 'gods'/'symbols' primitives worshipped were similar, eg. the fire, the sun, things to do with nature. Even though these caves were scattered around places that were so far apart that it was inconceivable for the primitives to communicate, the drawings were similar in nature. Thus showing that human perspective and traits at the most basic level are the same.

Then if that's the case, why not religion?

The last thing I want to say on this subject is, I bet all of you realize that the basic principles governing any religion are around the same themes. Loving others, attaining internal peace, to commit no sin, to seek forgiveness and enlightenment… it goes on and on. Also you realize the concept revolves around how to be a good person, teaching us morals and nuggets of wisdom.

Now I ask you why?

After all what religion seems to promote is how to be a ‘good’ person in human context.

To give you an extreme example, if you were a child and you were not told that dying or killing was a bad thing and you witnessed someone getting shot, you would have probably flinched, but not the sight of death, but at the deafening sound emitted by the gunfire.

When we are born, I believe there is no innate concept of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in us. Instead we are molded by our surroundings and their influence. Take the cannibals, to us they are uncivilized barbarians but to them it is perhaps survival and a natural way of life.

Talking about cannibals/aboriginals/natives, I would like to support my stand again by drawing attention to their practice of worshipping God (their God). They do tribal dances, hold festive ceremonies; this is widespread among these communities. Can you see the trend now? Religion/worship of a God really depends on where you are living, if you are in civilized surroundings, there will probably be a building for you to carry out your worship, a cell to carry out some study regarding the religion. However if you are in a jungle, somewhere in the outback, you dance, whoop and offer sacrifices to God. This difference the manner of worship is directly linked to physical surroundings, thus worship must be man-made.

Just a final query - Is God male or female? And why is God usually portrayed as male? A remnant of prehistoric chauvanism, foisted by males onto the concept of religion? Hmm... ;p

Correct me if I am wrong :)

But wasn’t women the more respected gender in the prehistoric times? After all they were regarded as the ‘bearer of life’ and literally the ‘mother of humanity’.

The gender of God? How about androgynous? :P


Just a query, do you notice the different Gods people worship?

There are countless ‘Gods’ around.

My thoughts: I think there is a God for everyone. After all, the concept of God is perceived differently by everyone so I still ‘God’ as an extension of our so-called ‘soul’.