sangom
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This thread is in GD section so people can talk freely.
The people who cling to religion the hardest are the poor, the oppressed, and the uneducated. Why do you think every third world county is so devout? It's the only way those kind of people can rationalize their condition. Instead of standing up and doing something or resigning themselves to the fact that **** happens for no reason other than cause and effect, they just cling to the belief that it's all some grand design of one god or another, and that someday they'll zoom up to Heaven and all the people who did them wrong will go to Hell.
You must shake off the religious indoctrination of your youth. Enjoy the rest of your life knowing that great things are going to happen and horrible things are going to happen, but there's no grand scheme and no god trying to teach you something. Knowing that this is it, that this is our Karma.
The other use of religion is to control and exert power like the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church (LDS), the Baptist Church, Islam, Hindu cults, etc. All run by egomaniacal, megalomaniacal, misogynistic men.
I do not feel I am a religious person but more of a spiritual person. I believe in Brahman, mainly through all the experiences that I have had in my life. People are not rewarded nor punished in life, however a law of the Universe karma, is valid. So if you are good, good things will come your way, if you are not then other things will come your way, this is all to teach us the best way. You do not go to heaven or hell. There is no God sitting in judgement. There is no God asking you to praise him and asks you to beg for mercy.
We are so trained to bribe and get freebies from our leaders, that we have identified our gods with the same corrupt qualities. If God can change our Karmas with our prayers, Bhagavat Gita is total lie. Krishna should have advised Arjuna to do bhajans.
Prasad Sir,
A very useful subject for discussion, I feel.
The word 'religion' comes from the Latin root religare which means 'to bind'. Thus, the main objective of all religions is to bind people into groups, cults, sects, etc., based on one kind of belief about the world, its creator god, etc. Religions, cults and sects/schisms have been carrying out this duty eminently through times immemorial!
Do we need religion? and if yes, why?
The Indian people are very much pre-occupied with their religion, may be because, as the OP says, a good percentage of the people are poor and uneducated. Even people like Shri Kaliraj (whose letter Shri Jeyamohan answers, in his own way, here) who did not have a religiosity kind of life-style, have now taken to the mainstream Hinduism and its gods, etc. Though Shri Jeyamohan tries to justify this by arguing that all those who were not non-hindus, were hindus in a way, I do not think this kind of 'polishing' is honest.
If only our people, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, begin being honest and hardworking instead of being religious but hypocritical, if nevessary, this country will progress very well even within the foreseeable future. But the trillion dollar question is whether the accumulated collective Karma of this population, will allow this to happen or whether it will make this a "karmabhumi" meaning a place where births will take place in order to experience the phalas of all the bad karmas committed for millennia, in the name of religion! People who have got a chance to go settle in US and other developed countries are, imo, people with a lot of good karmic load who can experience the good results of their past karmas only in those places and not in India.
Note: I know there are people here who will jump at my post and badmouth everything western and say that emigration to US is like committing the biggest sin. I will request them to show some restraint and see why most people do not like to return to India.