Prisoners of God

I'm relaxing at home in my bedroom-cum-office on a lazy Saturday morning, typing these lines and trying to figure out the blog topic for this week. I've been thinking a lot about religious people lately because as always, in Malaysia, religious sensitivity becomes an issue.

Why is religion so important to people? Let me discuss the pros and cons of both monotheistic and polytheistic religions. The belief in one God is, at least to the believer, is 'superior' to the worship or many gods or deities. Monotheists often look down on those 'superstitious' idol worshipers, who prostate before man-made statues made of stone or clay. What kind of ignorant fool would worship such objects and attribute special powers to them? Apparently, the same type of people who worship an invisible God, one which one has no proof of.

Arrogance, intellectual vanity and egoistic behaviour are natural tendencies of humans. We always want to acknowledge ourselves as smarter than others--often boasting about our own successes, vilifying people whom we look down on, criticising people in power for being stupid and incompetent. There may be some truth to some of these criticism, but an underlying motive behind such attacks is often the ego that seeks attention and praise.

By acknowledging that there's a superior God or gods, one at least puts a limit to selfish egoism. You surrender and worship a higher power who controls your fate. You obey Him and ascribe all sorts of superlative qualities to the Being--the most merciful, the unknowable, the fount of wisdom. Who are we mortals in the face of His Presence? We kowtow before the Lord, whose wrath we fear should we transgress from His Laws.

A God-fearing man, is a humble man, a moral, law-abiding person, who keeps his selfish wants in check, who tries hard to be a useful and helpful person in his community. What could be wrong in this? Nothing, as long as one understands the architectural principles behind the monotheistic model and its limits.

A polytheist believer has a slightly different architectural model--it's like a distributed system where you have many servers providing services everywhere versus a monolithic one. Polytheism is actually quite sophisticated but unfortunately its believers have a tendency to be superficial treating the deity whom they worship as the local gangster or Godfather whose protection they seek. Polytheism allows different individuals with different archetypal tendencies to worship a personal deity that resonates with the individual's nature, helping him to cultivate his strengths.

Both monotheists and polytheists, in their desire to strictly adhering to rules and rituals, have a tendency towards superstitious dogma. They disagree, fight and argue over the minutiae of religious practices, deeming some superior, and condemning others as heretical. 

Religious authorities who supposedly have an insight into the Truth get to declare what is right and wrong. When believers refuse to agree with their existing authority, they form new ones--a new school or sect is born. And when these new schools mix ideology with power and politics, bloody wars are fought to determine whose version of truth is the real one.

We are all so human when it comes to religious beliefs, mixing them with our petty fears and insecurities. When they get entangled with politics, they become an even more volatile mix. We take religion way too seriously, when the wiser approach would be to treat it like a soul-enriching hobby.

Religious texts, when interpreted by men of wisdom do inspire and enlighten the masses. However, they are often way over-valued. Some of our more modern spiritual writings and poetry contain equal if not better instructions for the seeker of Truth. The writings of some atheists are far more compassionate and lifting than the toxic hatred spewed by some of our firebrand preachers. 

We think that moral and social decay will set in if we do not strictly uphold the tenets of our religion. But the fact of the matter is that societies evolve; technology reshapes how we live our lives, amplifying both our good and bad natures; what used to work in providing social cohesion and stability are not adequate anymore. Being dogmatic about them does more harm than good.

Wisdom has to be cultivated from the inside. All the spiritual teachings accumulated over the ages can only provide the sunlight and soil for the cultivation of the divine soul within. If we are obsessed with outward appearances in the form of religious pedigrees and garbs, we'll never acquire the skill of inner awakening. 

We all have the godhead within that lies dormant like a seed. That's the one true god that we should seek. The God and gods that we all worship externally are nothing but shadows cast by this inner divine light.  Like Plato's prisoners in the allegory of the cave, we should all unshackle ourselves, and turn towards the light.