Redefining Religion

A well known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how sun, in turn , orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. There was this old lady who turned outrageous and at the end of the lecture she got up and said that the scientist was talking gibberish. She said that the world is a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise. The scientist gave a haughty smile and replied “What is the tortoise standing on?” The old lady replied-“You’re really clever, but it’s the turtles all the way down!”

I read this story in the science epic-“A brief history of time”. Stephen Hawking illustrated this story to demonstrate the ridiculous mind set of people. This story also reveals how dogmatic people are regarding their “religion” and unfortunately to many people, religion is the traditional belief and the roots in which they were brought up. No matter how much the scientist tried to make the lady understand about the universe, the lady was stubborn with her idea. She stuck with what her parents had told her or perhaps her Grandparents and then, quite stubbornly her mind rejected the idea that was being injected to her by a man who was so young!!!
The point is – We have developed this tendency of rejecting new ideas like our body rejects foreign particles. In other words, we develop allergy towards new ideas. For centuries we have continued to follow quite mechanically the same rituals and tradition without having the slightest idea of how they originated or what is the benefit of following them. Even today, I see my peers bowing their head and closing their eyes (into transcendental vision!!??) and murmuring their prayers just before they are distributed with their Exam Questionnaire. People still summon the so-called “Holy Brahmin” to enchant the incomprehensible mantras. And what’s more? Our parents (not all of them) want a bride who is of out caste and creed!!! And when asked about these practices, we blame the religion. And despite all this, we all know deep down that no matter how much we pray we aren’t going to get good score if we don’t study. And our parents also know deep down inside that it’s the behavioral qualifications and the educational qualifications that are more important than anything? And even the Brahmin knows that he is enchanting something that he doesn’t understand completely. Then, why are we blindfolded regarding ourselves? I have no objection with the old lady of the story above who perhaps wasn’t fortunate like us to study and understand the “miracles” of science but what about us, or our educated parents? Are we all hypocrites??

I am not pleading everyone to be an atheist. But you are reading this thing; I want you to think about this question- What is religion? Is it going to prayers frequently? Or is it following the orthodox ideas and conventional beliefs?

And if you think that religion is practicing moral values (which is what I think), then I am afraid that most of us are blasphemous because we don’t practice “religion”. How many of us prefer to leave seats in a public bus and stand for an old man or how many times have we fed a hungry stray dog? Please think about it and leave me your comments!!!