Anyone for opium?
We don’t know why we live, but while we are alive, there must be some valid reason for our life, an explanation for our successes and failures in life, and finally for our death. A reason came into being when the concept of God came into being. Since time immemorial, man has been worshipping some kind of deity or the other, primarily to explain the unexplained phenomenon of nature, and to provide a reason to live another day in our lives.
This could be something like what media provides us with. Daily soaps on the television provide us with a reason to live another day in our lives. They give us a reason to look forward to tomorrow. The concept of God and the reason to worship Him has provided us with a similar enthusiasm to live. Like everything in life, the concept of God has been challenged by everyone. Several arguments were devised by philosophers of the yesteryears put forth several arguments to explain the experience of the spiritual being we call God, there have seen variations in them down the centuries.
These variations and differences have to be understood very carefully. The basic purpose of religion has to be digested by mankind. Religion evolved because if man is not given a deity to worship, he would kneel before celebrities, athletes, and even prostitutes. These have been a part of the human society since the dawn of civilisation, but they have been thrust to the forefront by the media in the contemporary society. The media has been instrumental in propelling some individuals to the fore with such zeal and enthusiasm that movie stars and sportspersons have come to be idealized and worshipped. A clear difference between the ideal and the real should be drawn, and this is where the media and parents could play a major role.
Religion is the most effective opium of the masses. It has the potential to intoxicate people and make them do things they would not normally do. Religion evolved as an explanation for the unknown, to explain the fears of mankind. All through the existence of mankind, and our being in the world, we have been confronted with several explanations giving a detailed account of the existence of things as we see them today. The phenomenon of life and our place in the universe has been tried to be understood at all levels through science. Religion has stepped in to explain the phenomenon left unexplained by modern science.
Modern science has very little room for religion and spirituality, and yet the truths of life can never be explained by scientific explanations alone. We need an agency stronger than the logical tenets of science to explain our existence. This is where spirituality with its set of values steps in.
Spirituality emerges as a set of values and beliefs that unite mankind with nature and the universe. Spirituality essentially involves a spiritual being or deity that has the power to bring about the union. It is all about submitting oneself to a higher authority that has power and might over and above all. It is all about discovering the connection between the world we live in, the world we come from, and the final destination of mankind. This could be achieved by meditation, supplicating before God, or by means of prayer.
Religion and spirituality play an important role in the lives of 80 per cent of the world’s population. Avenues of communication have brought religion to all the corners of the world, but religion has been confused with extremism in the contemporary world. It is being taken as an excuse for spreading terror and havoc in the minds of innocent laymen, while the basic purpose of religion is lost in the labyrinth of life in the modern world.
At the end of the day, all roads lead to Rome, or all religions lead to God, who alone can deliver us from our apathies.
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