My essay will also elucidate as to what extent this statement applies to the areas of knowledge – math, the natural science, history, art, religion etc.
I will particularly concentrate on the two areas of knowledge namely religion and natural sciences as these areas touch our lives at every turn and corner.
“Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.”
- Issac Bashevis
We are living in a modern world – a world shaped by science. The modern technology has put everything under the anvil of proof and evidence. We have answers for everything happening around. Science has solution to everything but it too has not been able to penetrate the mysteries of religion, or establish the existence of god. Does god really exist? If yes, how – as a thing, or a force, or in an entirely different way?
It is religion that secerns man from animals. Religion is not only about the existence of god, it is claimed to be associated with values, virtues and righteousness also. 84% of the total population of the world (7 billion) is under the sway of religion. Religion is the way to seek God. Every religion has its own dogmas and convictions. Different religions have different views about such things as the nature of god, what happens when we die, and which prophets and holy books contain the absolute truth. But is there any evidence which religion is true?
As per Genesis, god created the earth out of chaos in 7 days. He created Adam and Eve in his own image. We all have descended from Adam and Eve. God gave man free will and reason to distinguish himself from fish and fowl. God is described as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and omni amorous. The god is described as anthropomorphic. The famous Greek philosopher Xenophanes claimed that if Oxen or Horses or Lions could draw they would give their gods the same bodily shapes as themselves. Did god create man in his own image, or man created Him in his own image?
The existence of God has been doubted from time immemorial. The definition of god runs into many kinds of paradoxes when tested on touch stone. Shelley in his Ode to Liberty calls religion a pest. According to him the word religion or god was coined by priests in order to exploit and dominate the public.
“Like one fierce cloud over a waste of waves,
Hung Tyranny; beneath, sate deified
The sister-pest, congregator of slaves;
Into the shadow of her pinions wide
Anarchs and priests, who feed on gold and blood”
- P.B. Shelley
The people of my country are highly religious. My country, India, is inhabited by people from all walks of life – Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. The people are obsessed with god to such an extent that many birds, animals and plants are considered as embodiment of god. Priests play with their religious sentiments even at the expense of their lives. There are almost 330 million reincarnations of god. The people have become so superstitious that even an anomalous birth is claimed to have a reincarnation of god,
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
by
sc_rahulgrah (student)
