Join my Scientific Religion
I personally feel that being in the community is very good for the person’s wellbeing. The community acts as the safety net and provides an important source of social support. There are many communities based on status, such as college, company, race, job role, etc. Religion allows us to be part of a community without considering status. There are many religions present in the world. Which one should I follow?
Every religion is centered on a particular version of god. I believe understanding about God is the first step. Different people have a different opinion about the existence of god.
First category of people is the Theist (any religion), who believes that God is all powerful and omnipresent. It is based on belief, there is no room for discussion or questions.
Second category of people is the Atheist, non-believer of god. They claim that there is no god. There is no room for discussions with this people also. There are few extreme comments from Atheist like Sam Harris.
“Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn’t care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely” — Sam Harris.
Third category of people is the enlightened guru. I tried asking many gurus, and they refused to answer the question because they think I do not have the capacity to understand the answer or they simply do not know. To satisfy my ego, I assumed they do not know.
Finally, I found a few people who were ready to accept that they also do not know. They are called Agnostic. This quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson summaries from everything that every agnostic wants to say.
I can’t gather around and talk about how much everybody in the room doesn’t believe in God. I just don’t — I don’t have the energy for that, and so I… Agnostic separates me from the conduct of atheists whether or not there is strong overlap between the two categories, and at the end of the day I’d rather not be any category at all — Neil deGrasse Tyson
I learnt to live with the fact that understanding God is beyond my current intellect. Without taking into consideration of god, Is Religion alone useful?
To some degree, it is useful. Religion brings people together around shared values. Religion educates and reminds us to be nice and kind, at least in source materials.
For great men, religion is a way of making friends; small people make religion a fighting tool — A P J Abdul Kalam
Despite religion's usefulness, I found three problems in religion:
- In religion, everything is written in stones. Everything is based on authority, thus no place for improvement.
- Religion divides people into different hierarchies. For example, Christianity and Islam had slavery. In Hindu religion, people are divided based on different castes.
- It makes moral code based on unproven theories. For example, if you do any crime, you will be punished in hell.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. — Seneca
In the past, religion might have used as the path to morally and socially align people. Now the government defines a proper set of rules for the citizen to follow. For example, if you do any crime, the law will punish you and put you in jail.
Usefulness of any religion scoped down to make every individual be at our best in any situation
To dig deeper, we often perceive a situation as good or bad at the first glance. Some examples are:
1. Winning a lottery — a good situation
2. Losing a job — a bad situation
3. Having a breakup — a bad situation
4. Gaining a big profit in stock — a good situation
Our perspective of the situations might change after some time. Consider the same examples:
- Winning a lottery leads to loss of peace because of unwanted trouble
- Losing a job leads to gaining a job with a better role and benefits
- Having a breakup leads to finding a partner with better qualities
- Gaining a big profit leads to invest more in wrong stocks and having a greater loss.
Here I introduce the new religion “Scientific religion” which tries to help you to be the best in every situation. I called it as scientific, as each commandment has a scientific explanation for it.
Six Commandments of Scientific Religion
1. Accept the situation & Give your best:
Divine reasoning: A child will not know what is best. Parents will give the best, even if the child does not desire or understand it. Similarly, god will always give what is best for us. Our duty is to do the best under given circumstances.
Scientific Reasoning: Even if you do not believe in god, we can not change the moment. Accepting and doing our best will always be a better option than crying or feeling depressed about it.
2. Feel Gratitude :
Divine reasoning: God has given us so much. Will we give our eyes or our child for 10 million dollars? Yet we complain about small things. Instead of praying to god for what you want, pray to god for what he has given. He would give more.
Scientific reasoning: Practicing gratitude increases your happiness by 25%. It improves your immune system, mental health, relationship and many more.
3. Show Forgiveness:
Divine reasoning: God has forgiven us for our mistakes. Can we do the same for other people?
Scientific reasoning: Practicing forgiveness has an overall positive impact on emotional health, well-being, and empathy for others.
4. Meditation habitually:
Divine reasoning: Meditation helps us to move closer to god.
Scientific reasoning: Practicing meditation has a lot of benefits such as improving self-awareness, lengthens attention span, fight addiction, etc
5. Exercise regularly:
Divine reasoning: God has given the body. The body should be treated as a temple and maintaining is our duty.
Scientific reasoning: Exercise regularly gives benefits such as an increase in energy levels, improve brain functionality, have better sleep quality, etc
6. Give to a Cause
Divine reasoning: Through serving the needy, you are serving the god directly.
Scientific reasoning: Volunteering or Donating to a cause reduce the blood pressure, gives greater satisfaction, etc
These commandments are not a full list. It should and will upgrade as we gain more knowledge.
P.S: This is an attempt to understand the god, religion, etc and to make a useful list for our well being. I ask for forgiveness if anyone is offended.
If you love superhero movies like me, read this blogs too
https://medium.com/@prabu_/list/understanding-the-heroes-abfe7f1a200d
