Faith, Beliefs and Religion .
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Since times immemorial, mankind has been struggling to find out a harmony that could help it living in peace lasting, but the very notions about Faith, Beliefs and Religion, have been so diverse and divergent, even contradictory that caused more and more doubts and confusions.
Let us start from the very beginning. Not in the historical only, but also with reference to the contemporary and for all coming times as well.
Our collective attitude towards these 3 things, namely Faith, Beliefs and Religion has been very erroneous and irrational.
Religion in the broader sense means a way of performing and following some rituals one feels and believes to be helpful for the good of oneself and the society / people. This may be based on different beliefs which are not though well-defined, yet appeal to the mind of that particular group of people.
They just feel happy and a sense of satisfaction true or false for another such group of people.
Thus bowing before an idol or an object, worship in the prescribed way learned from the elders is part of the religious sentiments, which some do just for feeling safe, comfortable, relief, secure and as a way to connect to other people of their own kind.
Faith on the other hand may or may not be there in performing the above-said religious kind of rituals. These rituals could mean different things to different individuals. Their justifications may be different, but the minimum requirement is they appeal to them.
A ritual could be viewed as a very clearly defined 'practice'.
We often say : 'practicing the religion...' .
We don't 'practice' a faith. The simple reason is :
A faith is and perhaps could not be as much well-defined as any 'ritual'.
We just don't know what exactly we mean by 'God' / 'Creator', which some theists say they believe in. And then their 'Gods' are so different from the others' of their own kind that there is a disagreement among them. Just because they themselves don't know.
We seek the support of beliefs because of some kind of hope, fear or compulsion. A set of certain beliefs forms a so-called 'faith'. And one keeps 'auto-suggesting' oneself for this set of beliefs is 'Truth' / 'The only truth' for him. One keeps glorifying perpetuating his confidence, which needs to be strengthened every moment. Lest it may just die away.
It is in the very nature of a belief that when scrutinized, either it gets just dissolved / annihilated / turns into an absurdity, or is just seen as 'truth'. But even then, if it is a 'truth' for one, he is unable to convince others so long as they are not willing / interested / feeling like finding out themselves.
As humankind we can see very clearly that every-one has to follow his 'faith' inherent in him, and to accept and go through the way that appeals to his conscience, and no one should 'force' others to follow what is 'truth' for himself only.
We can transform 'religion' into a thing of 'tourism' that appeals to every-one according to his 'faith' only, and not just because it has been 'practiced' by his parents and grant-parents.
Thus we can assimilate people of all different kinds of ethnicities and live in optimal harmony.
A division of humankind in classes based upon 'religion' as we see presently, where people join together and unite in the name of a 'religion' has proved very harmful to all of us. Be that Catholic, Islam, Hindu, Christian, Jew or any other. And there is one more concrete reason for this. Every individual has his own 'set of beliefs' alias 'faith' which is very different from that of any other individual. And we see this every-day and every-where. Even in every so-called religion, or between atheists / agnostics / skeptics / non-believers. Just because a 'belief' is never and could not be even well-defined, if not at least well-perceived. All beliefs are subject to scrutiny, doubt and there is always some-one who would challenge to.
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--
Since times immemorial, mankind has been struggling to find out a harmony that could help it living in peace lasting, but the very notions about Faith, Beliefs and Religion, have been so diverse and divergent, even contradictory that caused more and more doubts and confusions.
Let us start from the very beginning. Not in the historical only, but also with reference to the contemporary and for all coming times as well.
Our collective attitude towards these 3 things, namely Faith, Beliefs and Religion has been very erroneous and irrational.
Religion in the broader sense means a way of performing and following some rituals one feels and believes to be helpful for the good of oneself and the society / people. This may be based on different beliefs which are not though well-defined, yet appeal to the mind of that particular group of people.
They just feel happy and a sense of satisfaction true or false for another such group of people.
Thus bowing before an idol or an object, worship in the prescribed way learned from the elders is part of the religious sentiments, which some do just for feeling safe, comfortable, relief, secure and as a way to connect to other people of their own kind.
Faith on the other hand may or may not be there in performing the above-said religious kind of rituals. These rituals could mean different things to different individuals. Their justifications may be different, but the minimum requirement is they appeal to them.
A ritual could be viewed as a very clearly defined 'practice'.
We often say : 'practicing the religion...' .
We don't 'practice' a faith. The simple reason is :
A faith is and perhaps could not be as much well-defined as any 'ritual'.
We just don't know what exactly we mean by 'God' / 'Creator', which some theists say they believe in. And then their 'Gods' are so different from the others' of their own kind that there is a disagreement among them. Just because they themselves don't know.
We seek the support of beliefs because of some kind of hope, fear or compulsion. A set of certain beliefs forms a so-called 'faith'. And one keeps 'auto-suggesting' oneself for this set of beliefs is 'Truth' / 'The only truth' for him. One keeps glorifying perpetuating his confidence, which needs to be strengthened every moment. Lest it may just die away.
It is in the very nature of a belief that when scrutinized, either it gets just dissolved / annihilated / turns into an absurdity, or is just seen as 'truth'. But even then, if it is a 'truth' for one, he is unable to convince others so long as they are not willing / interested / feeling like finding out themselves.
As humankind we can see very clearly that every-one has to follow his 'faith' inherent in him, and to accept and go through the way that appeals to his conscience, and no one should 'force' others to follow what is 'truth' for himself only.
We can transform 'religion' into a thing of 'tourism' that appeals to every-one according to his 'faith' only, and not just because it has been 'practiced' by his parents and grant-parents.
Thus we can assimilate people of all different kinds of ethnicities and live in optimal harmony.
A division of humankind in classes based upon 'religion' as we see presently, where people join together and unite in the name of a 'religion' has proved very harmful to all of us. Be that Catholic, Islam, Hindu, Christian, Jew or any other. And there is one more concrete reason for this. Every individual has his own 'set of beliefs' alias 'faith' which is very different from that of any other individual. And we see this every-day and every-where. Even in every so-called religion, or between atheists / agnostics / skeptics / non-believers. Just because a 'belief' is never and could not be even well-defined, if not at least well-perceived. All beliefs are subject to scrutiny, doubt and there is always some-one who would challenge to.
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