What is your religion?

We live in a funny world. A world full of hypocrites. How else would you explain the barbaric wars/violence that we have when there are so many places of worship? We consider ourselves very pious, religious, noble and good-hearted, but continue to lead our fanatic life throwing tolerance out of our window.

We have so many religions fighting with each other to claim supremacy with religious leaders leading the crusade. But do we understand why we have religion in the first place? We are too much bothered in finding and establishing which one is better before
realizing the need for a religion.

First, let us try to figure out what God is all about. In some religion, god is a mythological character with divine power of creating, maintaining and destroying lives. Other religions talk about individuals who had lived in the earth propagating their philosophies and ways of living. Science and religion do not go well together. Science is about logic and religion is about faith. Some people get caught between the two and get confused. How and why did man make God? The answer is simple. God was created to tame men. He was born wild. Men needed a force to be guided in the right direction. He needs to be told what is good and what is right. So fear has to be injected in him early in his life so that the mind accepts before it starts challenging. Once this idea is deep-rooted, the mind loses the power to question. Men also required an external source to keep him going. A shoulder a cry on. A force to get inspiration from and gain psychological strength. An external peace. Early men thought these two needs namely creating fear and providing peace could be achieved by a force called God. In simple terms, "god" is the result of the need for creating fear and acquiring mental strength. The next step is to come up with doctrines, code of living, scriptures, stories, leaders etc to propagate this theory. Men succeeded in doing all the above through a variety of means. These "means" later came to be called "religion".

Thus, we have a legacy of religious leaders, temples, churches and mosques. All these are always crowded. Does this mean we are religious? No. We go to the so called places of worship after committing serious crimes to fellow human beings and/or continue to do the same after we come out of the places of worship. True religion is all about being tolerant to others' views, ideas and ways of living. Who cares what you eat or how you celebrate or what rituals you follow? Are you good at heart? That is more important than
following a tradition that is considered "sacred". Religion is supposed to be a personal thing. Yes, when you are alone. When your religious faith or belief clashes with the person sitting next to you, it is no more a personal thing. In the name of religion, we give more impetus to what was said earlier by our religions leaders, rituals and traditions and fail to listen to the hearts of fellow human beings.
There is so much animosity, hatredness one-upmanship and violence. This is not what your religion is all about. This is not what your so called "god" preached. The intention during the early days of forming religions may have been good, but all the current religions today have lost its power or the sight of its true goals thanks to the interpreters who came along the way. The result is, the current generation is perplexed.

We humans spend too much time unnecessarily on trivial issues trying to find out too much. We have an earth today with a place to live, work, make a life. Why bother about how the earth came into being, who created it, which came first etc. Accept, enjoy and love nature. Do something to protect it. You don't have to pray and perform rituals. Whom are you trying to impress? Are you true to yourself? Lead a good life. Think and be good. Do good things. You don't need any "religion". Don't harm others. Don't harm yourself. Help as much as possible. When you do it, you are god to the receiver. You are a grown up adult. You have the power to think on your own. You could be good at differentiating the bad from the good. You can make your own choices. You can have a mind that is clear. Why do you need "god" and "religion"? You are a god and if you lead a life as above, that is your religion.