Chances are that you believe in a deity. But which one? And how come you believe in that particular deity. most likely you were indoctrinated (I doubt the deity contacted you itself.) Maybe by your parents. And this is probably because they feel that you need to believe in a deity. But why? There have been thousands of deities through history, which one should you choose? If this is the single most important decision of your life, then you want to make an informed decision.
So do you need a religion or should you subscribe to one? Why should you? Well first of all, some would say the world was created by God. okay. So what? Even if the world was created by God why should I worship him and do what he wants? then they will say that it is because he loves us, and you can say so what if he loves me? why should I love him back, and Then they will say that this is because it is the ultimate goal of life. It is what God wants us to do and what he has created us for. And then you can say, so why should I do what God wants us to do? I can create my own goal in life And then they will say because if you do not worship him then he will punish you with eternal damnation, and if you do worship him then he will reward you with eternal bliss. Now of course you do not want eternal damnation, so you want to believe in and worship a deity. Notice how eternal damnation is the final answer to the question. Love, created the world, etc don’t cut it. So if you are choosing a deity, then it is basically because you want to go to heaven/do not want to go hell.
Apart from eternal damnation, it is also often conceived that God can better our living situations if we ask favors from him, so it is better you pally up with him so he can be on your side. This is like the bonus that comes with not choosing eternal damnation. And how can you do this if you do not believe in him in the first place? The problem with this is that every sect of every religion claims to be pals with God so going by testimony alone, one cannot conclude which deity to choose. However from the amount of suffering and pain in the world, we can easily logically conclude that God does not interfere with human activities. At least if we categorically state that he prevents tragedies through sincere prayers then we must also conclude that all the tragedies in the world that have ever occurred (think world war 1, world war 2, 9/11, etc) and all the people that have ever died from (or prayed against) such were not sincere enough, because I am pretty sure they prayed. No sane person would want to claim such. So If God does not interfere in some situations, then why would he interfere in some? And why would we think that we can influence which ones he chooses to interfere with by praying? For example, why do people think that God interfered to enable them get a job, visa or prevent an accident etc but that he would not interfere to prevent people from dying in the 9/11 attacks, or other terrorist attacks and natural disasters? What about people who didn’t get the jobs/visas or those who died from accidents? i am pretty sure they prayed too and those who succeeded did nothing different. Clearly, at least in my opinion, god does not interfere with human activities, or we cannot influence his choice to do so. If he chooses to do so erratically, then that reduces God from a conscious being to the roll of a dice. Then since we cannot influence him intervening on us, why should we bother to worship or pray?
It is impossible that all religions are correct in their own way. Because of the inherent contradictions. So it is most likely that one(maybe some) religion is the true religion, and the other religions are false religion. In fact most religions have sects which are basically different religions, then that localizes the problem to what sect is the real sect? is there one sect in one religion that has gotten it right, where all other sects and other religions are doomed to eternal damnation.? (the ultimate punishment for not believing in a deity or subscribing to a religion). Today, different religions herald different deities. The question is, should you subscribe to a religion and believe in a deity? Or should you stay non-partisan in religious matters? Let us examine.
You can imagine how much confusion it would be for a man, who hypothetically has not been indoctrinated into any religion since birth until maturity to choose a religion from today’s religions. And if he were to, he would examine the situation rationally and realize that if there are N number of religions in the world today, and since he has no way of confirming which religion is legitimate, and since he was not afforded the luxury of being indoctrinated (by birth for example) if he really wants to go to heaven, he should choose to practice all religions at the same time, so he is a member of all the sets. This gives him a probability of 1 of going to heaven, meaning that he is certain to go to heaven. And then which ever is right would take him to heaven. However, Somewhere, there is an unwritten rule, which forces this man to gamble and choose only one religion. Then he realizes that if he chooses any one religion, the probability that he is going to heaven after death is 1/N. As only one religion is right. Ofcourse this Is still better than a person who has chosen 0 religions. As 1/N is still larger than zero. Or so it seems
What is the prerequisite that says that a person must believe in only one of these religions. Or one deity. Mathematically speaking. If there are N deities, then an atheist does not believe in any of these deities. I.e to say an atheist does not believe in N deities. But, a religious person, who has been mandated to choose just one religion, now does not believe in N-1 gods, which makes that person almost as atheistic as the atheist. The only difference being that the atheist has applied the same logic which the theist applied to N-1 gods for not believing in them, to the one religion that the theist chose to believe in. An illustration, If you are a catholic and you do not believe in protestantism, mormonism, islam, judaism, buddhism, etc and all other religions in the world, you are almost the same as an atheist, except that he in addition to your unbeliefs, also does not believe in catholicism, why is that so strange? What is the rule that says you cannot believe in all religions, and you cannot believe in no religions, you must choose one? If you are a christian and you cannot comprehend why an atheist just won’t believe. You need to realize that it is exactly the same thing as you not believing in islam Or any of the many other religions.
A lot of people do not like to examine religion, but nothing is more apt than the saying ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. We should always critically examine everything we endeavor into. Seeing as modern religions were introduced to most countries relatively not long ago. What happened to all the ancestors, prior to introduction, who never knew these religions? are they ALL going to hell? going by the religion’s strict rules, the direct answer should be yes they are all going to hell, but in christianity for example, which panders to hopeful converts, the answer you would most likely get if you asked a spiritual leader this question is that, they did not know about god and hence they will be judged according to the lives they lived. (I am not sure what the islamic take on this is).
I find this very interesting, because the argument can be extended to adherents of other religions. In The case that one religion is the true religion, the practitioners of other religions can feel safe and have a bit of confidence that even if their religion is wrong, they will not suffer eternal damnation as long as they have a pure heart and they have been fair to other people(taking for granted that abiding to a religious faith automatically assumes that one is being considerate to their fellow man and lives a pious life).
If the deity will not interfere with your life while you are on earth, then you have nothing to gain/lose when you are alive for not worshipping him, since the only punishment/reward is in the afterlife. if the creator is lenient enough to allow people who have lived a good life, and who worshipped other deities(false religion) to escape damnation, then it seems like common sense that he would allow people who have lived a good life and not worshipped any gods at all(probably because they did not know which one was genuine) to avoid damnation too. why then would you gamble to choose a religion, which might be wrong, and waste your time serving the wrong deity? when you can choose no religion and still go to heaven(permitted that you are a good person)?
If the creator will not interfere with our lives, while we are on earth. Why would he be interested with our souls after we die? There are billions of humans who haven’t been born yet, where are they now? Are they waiting in heaven to be born, then die and go back to heaven or hell? were you in heaven before you were born? If a time existed before you were born, when you did not exist at all, just like all the people who haven’t been born now, why do you think that if you die, you will not go back into non-existence? common sense beckons that if we die we are going back into non-existence and this view should be championed until any evidence points to the contrary. Of course it is religion, there is no evidence.
In conclusion, a deity who will not interfere with our life while we are on earth, or with our 'souls' while we are dead(as we catapult back into non-existence), is equivalent to one who does not exist and does not need to be believed in. Maybe he really just created the world, And disappeared after all. Whether or not he actually exists is a totally different question. I rest my case.
