Ramanisblog

Tag: God

  • Is Blind Faith in God and the Bible a Modern Invention?

    There is no such thing as Blind Faith.There is nothing like Rational Faith and Blind Faith.
    Faith is what you experience and not what you think.
    You feel the presence of Love,God, not think of them.
    Faith is of the heart not of the Head.
    Couple of points.
    1.Before trying to dissect the concept of GOD and trying to rationalise either to prove or disprove,first define ‘Mind’-then define thoughts.So far no body has defined mind but still use the term frequently as if it is the highest authority.
    Mind is not seen ,heard,smelt,felt,or tasted( the five senses);yet you say it exists.One might say it is because of the results,namely coordination of sense organs.This again is an assumption and not proven.
    You may also map the brain ,scan it, but still you can not say what the mind is.Can you declare that mind is not operative when brain is in coma?You do no know,that is the answer.
    2.How does one explain consciousness?Psychologists have a funny term’Unconscious’.If you are not conscious how come you know it?Again the result of consciousness is seen in day to day life.That is, you infer.
    Are all inferences correct?
    In logic, you take a particular instance,refer it to general statement,then arrive at a final statement.To explain;
    All men are mortal.
    X is a Man.
    Therefore X is mortal.
    Seems correct-Is it ?
    Before saying all men are mortal you should have verified all men living,dead and those who are yet to be born, know that those who are born die and then say all are mortal.
    Is this the case?
    We have not verified each case and also it is impossible to check each case.
    We do what we call an inductive leap and say and all are mortal.
    When your basic assumption itself is open to question/is wrong ,what about your conclusions?
    Nor are the senses reliable.
    You dip your hand in warm water and then keep it in cold water.Is the water cold
    immediately?
    If I am going to believe only what I am going to perceive by myself I will be a doodering idiot.I have not been to moon.I have heard of it.I believe it.What if people have have lied?
    Testimony is also open to question.
    If I were to follow what others tell me , then who has informed the first person on earth a thing is what it is?For example,I call rose a rose because it has been named thus.Who has informed the first human being thus?
    Again what is a thing we see or hear?
    I call rose a rose,because of certain qualities.say clolor,smell.If any thing smeels like rose shal I call it a rose.No.It may be a perfume.If it is because of color, there are many roses of the same color, but still we call a rose a rose.You strip a thing of its qualities;what does remain?
    Take a Man.Can you tell me what is common between yourself at 3 yrs and you at present and in between?
    I am totally different from what I was at various stages of my life when compared my present state.My physical details have changed,out look has changed.Yet I call myself the same.
    What is it by which I call ‘I’?
    These things call for introspection by the individual and no amount of writing shall solve the issue.
    Introspect and you shall know what you are.
    Both Theism and Atheism are set of principles that appeal to different groups.Let each believe what they want.
    What you want is not in Books;it is within you.
    Find it, for when you are about to die all this dissertations will be of no use, for that matter when you lie naked on the surgeon’s table for a procedure, these things will not help.
    Find the Truth in you.
    (By writing some controversial books ,people make money, Period.
    Story:
    A new book points out that the ancient Christians — and even early Americans — did not share the blind faith of today’s fundamentalists.
    If you open Karen Armstrong’s new book, The Case for God, expecting to find a list of mysterious cures, scientific curiosities, or certified miracles all pointing toward the physical presence of a divine influence in the world, you will be sorely disappointed. Armstrong has no interest in, and is in fact completely antithetical to, trying to prove God’s existence. Despite this, her book is positioned — both in marketing and from its opening pages — as a direct challenge to books like Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation, and Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. How can you make a defense of God if you’ve no interest in the existence of God? Quite well, actually, and if you do it as sharply as Armstrong, you can make hundreds of pages of what is basically theological analysis both entertaining and informative.

    Armstrong argues for an idea very similar to the “non-overlapping magisteria” that were put forward by evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould (and in fact, Gould gets several nice mentions in The Case for God). She refers frequently to the idea that, in the past, people tended to break arguments into two groups for which she uses the Greek terms logos and mythos. Logos reflects practical, immediate reasoning — how do we build that aqueduct, what can we make from this wood, which crop would grow best in that field? Mythos is more aimed at the why — what does it mean that my friend has died, how can I recapture the joy I felt in a moment of pure experience, how can I find meaning and peace among the world’s noise and violence? This sort of approach could easily fall into a gooey cheer for “being spiritual,” but Armstrong is not talking about having a nice little breathing session now and then. She focuses on the 3000 year history of monotheism and the great effort that was put into building flexible, thoughtful religions, on how those religions continue to have a meaningful role in the life of millions, and how the recent history of those religions has led to unfortunate developments that are unique over those three millennia.

    http://www.alternet.org/story/143844/is_blind_faith_in_god_and_the_bible_a_modern_invention?page=entire

  • Message for God.

    .”Lead us from Untruth to Truth;Lead us from Darkness to Light;Lead us from Death to Immortality.Lead us to be good human beings.Lead us to be worthy of you.”

  • Does God have Name and Form?

    One would find many Gods in Hinduism. We have Vishnu, Siva, Ganesha, Kaarthikeya, Saraswathi, Krishna, Rama et al. One who worships a particular God feels and is taught to believe that his God is superior. We also find clashes between Gods. How rational is this?
    It is not prevalent only in Hinduism. We have the same in Pagan worships in Europe, in Nordic mythology, in Maya civilization, in Greek civilization. In Christianity one worships Holy Father, His Messiah; In Islam, Allah and regards for Sal. Jainism and Buddhism deny the existence of God and condemn idol worship. Buddhists worship Lord Buddha and have erected statues. So is the case with Jainism. In Christianity, people worship, Jesus, Infant Jesus, Mary. In Islam we find people worshiping at Dargha though it is proscribed in Islam.
    Why so? To understand these phenomena, one has to understand the evolution of religion and also human psyche.
    Man started worshipping first what he could not understand, could not control. He saw lightening. He was scared. Saw rains, gale; fire; Deluge that he could not control. He ascribed powers to them which he did not possess. This was the beginning of belief in Supernatural. (In Hinduism, there is nothing Supernatural as such; every thing is Natural).These entities were given Name and Form. Man believed that these could alter their behavior that would be beneficial to Man. But this does not happen. The variations of behavior of these entities affect each individual differently. An umbrella manufacturer prays for rain; depending on the state of the crop, agriculturists do not want rain. (If it is harvest time.) Office goers prefer rains, after they have reached their offices or after they are ensconced safely at home in the evening. Based on the benefits one gets, the individual believes his prayers have been answered and his faith grows stronger. Others feel let down and some turn Agnostics or even Atheists. Nothing is farther from Truth.
    Elements behave the way they do according to Cosmic Principles, which we are trying to discover/decipher. Our Prayers/hopes/disappointments have no relevance. Then why worship at all?
    The Reality is The Principle. It is a teleological. It has no Name and no Form. We call it by different names and visualize by various Forms.
    Man, by nature is controlled by first and foremost by the instinct of survival. It is followed by thirst, hunger, gregariousness, and sex. When any thing happens that threatens the satisfaction that would he attain by satisfying these instincts, he becomes nervous. He starts believing in things that are beyond him. Hence he starts worshipping. At times when things happen the way he wants, he has his faith reinforced. But when it does not happen to his liking, he blames himself or assigns it to Fate. This is not correct at the macro level. When Prayers are to be answered it should have been answered for all those who pray. If not, and only prayers of a few are answered, God is unjust and He does not deserve to be called God. This again is incorrect understanding of God.
    God is a principle which has no name, no form, no likes, and no dislikes. Principles do not behave erratically; if they do so, they would not remain Principles.
    Why then we give name and form and worship? Human mind needs an anchor to cling to in times of desperation, especially when things go wrong for them. They need an explanation or excuses for things gone awry.They need some things to hang their boots on. It is a psychological necessity. So we believe in symbols and later in Human forms. (Why is it we describe God only as a Human Being? Is it because we are human beings and we feel we are superior to other living things on earth? If an ass were to conceive God, it would describe Him as a Superior Ass. Is there any thing wrong in this? As God, is common to all living things, why should He have only a Human Form? In fact, He is Nameless and Formless)
    And again each individual has emotional/sentimental attachment (many may deny; let them ask themselves whether they have sentiments/emotional attachments. fact is they do have. Let them know that it not unseemly to have sentiments and attachments).Some are attached to mother; some to father; yet some to friends; some to Beauty; some to valor. As many Gods are possible as there are likes in Humans. One finds easy to relate to them. We feel comfortable when we assign a Form and express ourselves to that Form.
    It has a healing touch when things go wrong. As one slowly develops this feeling of togetherness with the Form, one realizes gradually that he is a part of the Absolute Reality and one would not be disturbed when things go wrong. Again, when one whole- heartedly transferone’semotions/sentiments /problems to a Form, slowly the positive thought that he is only an instrument in the cosmic nature of things, will ensure that he attains what he yearns for and if he does not attain what he wants, he would have developed the fortitude to weather the problem. Remember, mind can not contemplate on ‘NOTHING’. It can not operate in a vacuum.
    This is the first step in Realization of Self. Though the Reality has no Name and Form, worshipping names/Forms (various Gods), leads one gradually to the realization that these names and forms do not really exist and that they are only one of the many processes to realize the Ultimate Principle.
    One may ask-why believe in something, which we are going to find out to be irrelevant at a later time? For any journey ,first step must be taken. After reaching the Destination, the First step may seem irrelevant. But it is essential. After attaining PhD, nursery class seems to be irrelevant. But without nursery class, one would not have obtained PhD.
    In a Nut-shell, God does not have Name and Form. But we need to have name and Form to Realize the Reality. So, different forms and names are best left to individuals as they know best what they like.
    How come .then God appears to People in the Form they worship?

  • Atheism-Not to be shunned and ridiculed.

    Atheism is a faith in itself.Just as Theists believe in God, they do not believe in God.There is no reason for one to be intolerant of them.
    Hinduism accords a a special place for Atheists .In Indian Philosophy, Atheist is not one who does not believe in God.Atheist is one who does not believe in the authenticity of the Vedas, the scripture of Hindus.One can be an atheist, yet accorded the respect due to his faith .In fact,Lord Rama,incarnation of God, discusses with Atheist monk Jabaali and imparts him Truth about Reality.He does not try to convert him to be a theist of the western sense ,that is believing in God.If one were to look into western history more harm has been done to society by the theists than the Atheists.Based on track record of Jews feud with Christians,Pagans with Christians and Jews,Crusades-all are the making of so called theists, not Atheists.Atheism, as said earlier, is a stand point.You either agree with it or do not agree with it. .Based on who has been harmful to society,it is the theists who should vacate.

  • On GOD.

    So long as the concept of God is limited one with attributes the controversy shall rage.Reality is something one seeks in Religion and Philosophy.God with Name and form is for those who are early seekers.Ultimate Reality is characterized by Being,Intelligence and Bliss(Sat,Chit,Aanandam) .It admits no plurality.It is the embodiment of of all things known, unknown and unknowable.It is reached by delving into and searching within oneself.
    Knowledge is from the external world.We gain knowledge through our senses and mind,intellect and Discriminating power.It is better to inquire into ourselves rather than going after multitude of things in the external world.This process involves application and practice.
    Who says all phenomena obey physical laws?(Known laws).Kindly go through Quantum Theory where you will find multi verses existing at different planes all at the same time and time recoils itself.