THE NECESSITY OF BEING RELIGIOUS - :

GOUTHEM GEORGE

YUVA VIKAS

“God created men, men created religions and religions created gods” remains one of the
biggest ironies in the religious philosophies. It is an unquestionable fact that human beings are
social beings and cannot survive alone and when people started to live as a society there was a
need to control the actions of individuals. And one of the most effective ways to control the
society was the creation of some codes of conduct. Some termed it as religion and others gave it
different names. Religions originated as a tool to guide the society in morally right ways. As
time progressed and humanity spread across the globe and as society grew the number of
religions mounted. As of today there are innumerable religious believers. As for the question of
being religious, there cannot be a specific answer. It is because of the fact that religions have to
a great extent defined the world. As has other systems that have helped and held together the
societal structure. The world of today can be easily demarcated as religious blocks. In the past
there have been more than a thousand religious wars only to ascertain the importance of faith
and beliefs. There are many reasons as to why religions have been playing such dominant role
in the society.

The first being, the fact that the humans have not been able to define god. God to most
people is what their religion defines and it gives human beings an easy and more digestible
version of god. Hinduism, Christianity and Islam have given different explanations to god. It is
astounding that these interpretations have been accepted with great faith. The versions of
different religions about god have given the society strong pillars of moral conduct and it has to
a great extent helped in the modern day law in most countries. The best example to this is the
Middle East where religion is the deciding factor most of the time. In Saudi Arabia Islam is the
pinnacle of power and in such cases the necessity cannot be questioned.

Yet another reason for the dominance of religion is because of the necessity of a system
that controls the society. There can never be a free society only because we humans are week in
many ways. So in order to strengthen the society religious beliefs have played very pivotal role.
Religious beliefs have such power that people are sometimes blinded by such faith and this
may be dangerous. We should strive to strike a balance between religious faiths and human
capacities. Something that people should think about is the facts that when different religions
have given different views to the perception of god, all of them agree that there is only one god.
So then why are there so many religions? This is where most of the questions arise and where
most people do not have answers. This is also where people have manipulated the system of
religious thoughts to their benefit or let’s say misused it.

When we talk about religions we mostly think of god and Christianity and Islam and Buddhism
etc, but religions to their root is basically some thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. There are many
places in this world people live on rules defined by music and Dance and science and many
other systems. When people are ready to see the other side of the contemporary system of
religions the picture we see today would drastically change. It is people’s perception that have
defined and fueled religions and if we human beings are able to define and give such beliefs a
different yet believable and digestible explanation then it would become the next big change in
the history of mankind.

The underlying fact is that religions have been feeding on human incapacities and the
weakness of the human mind. If humans had better control over themselves there probably
wouldn’t have been any such religious school of thought. This is a time when a lot of questions
have been asked on all contemporary ideas and religions haven’t escaped this trend. Looking at
the developments we can assume that there would be a time when there would be no more
religions but instead there would be some different schools of thought and some different
systems that define the society

GOUTHEM GEORGE

YUVA VIKAS