The Pandemic and the God — 1
A regiment had a new CO. On inspection he saw two soldiers guard a bench. He asked the reason.
“We don’t know, Sir The last CO told us to do so. It is a tradition.”
The CO searched for the phone number of the last last commander. He called him and got the reply.
“I don’t know. The previous commander had the guards. I kept the tradition.”
He went back another three COs and until he located an 80 year old retired General.
“Excuse me, sir. I’m now the CO of your regiment which you commanded 50 years ago. I find two men assigned to guard a bench. Could you please tell me about the bench?”
Retired General, “What? Is the paint still wet?”
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
I didn’t write that joke but I feel this joke is relevant to all our traditions and beliefs. We follow the orders blindly without even blinking an eyelid or raising an eyebrow no matter how absurd the order is.
Read another story here of a frog in the well. -
Our judgement is often clouded by our surroundings and the limited knowledge we have. When my younger kid started speaking, we asked him his mother and his brother’s name and he responded by saying “Mama” and “Veera” which in Punjabi means mother and brother respectively. He thought that those are the real names but the fact is his knowledge was limited at that time. Growing up, he knew the difference between real name and how he needs to address his mother and brother.
While growing up we don’t have any roadblocks to learning. Kids ask lot of questions to enhance their knowledge and increase their understanding but as we grow up the quest for knowledge diminishes and we start accepting things as told to us by others. The quest for knowledge diminishes to such an extent that “Whatsapp” has become a University :)
When I was born, I did not have a choice either to choose a name or religion. I was given a “Name” and the “Religion” by my parents. Now both of them have become my identity.
2 things here — First, I can change these but why fix something which is not broken. Second, Changing my name\religion will not change anything. My parents, my family, my choices are going to remain the same. I can’t change my skin color or my accent. The only thing I constantly try and change is to think better and be a better human being and not confine my thinking within the boundaries of religion or boundaries set by my parents, friends and some beliefs which have no evidence. I believe, my thought process and to a certain extent everyone else’s thought process is confined by the boundary of knowledge which can only be pushed by constant learning.
Disclaimer: The article talks about God or at-least the concept of God as per different religions. I have made conscious effort to not name any religion and there is no attempt to defame or pull down any religion or any “Concept of God”. “God” has given us brain to think, understand, question things around us. This article is a mere attempt to understand some of human beliefs and faith in God which has been questioned by this Pandemic. The intention of this article is to let people think and question things around them. If you feel your faith or belief gets hurt by someone talking about God, please do not read further.
Further, I do not claim to know about all the religions or about everything else, nor do I have answers to any of the questions that I am asking. I am simply trying to make sense of some of the concepts that have prohibited us from understanding and questioning it.
In this article, you will find the God as just God or IT because I don’t know if God is a male or female and I want to simplify everything about GOD as if it were a SUPERPOWER. Why confine the supreme power within the boundaries of a Gender?
It is really difficult to start such a sensitive topic without a Disclaimer because even a Pandemic could not make people learn beyond their boundaries. People are hurting others for their own greed. Thefts, Murders, other evils have not stopped even during this Pandemic which is why I think it is necessary to talk about the idea of GOD.
I have a lot of questions and not too many answers. I have been questioning the concept of God since I was a kid but my questions were silenced time and again by saying same thing over and over again like “God will punish you” or “Don’t try and talk bigger than your age”. Now, I find this laughable because if God really didn’t want us to ask questions, he would not have given us brain and the ability to understand and question anything.
I have tried to put my questions around some of the different concepts of GOD(s) around us.
Concept of “N” god (s) for each religion: The n can be 1,2,3,4……. Infinity
Science tells us there are 8–9 planets in our Solar system (Pluto has been re-classified as a Planet by NASA so I will leave it up to that for now — https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2022/02/10833656/us-pluto-return-astrology-explained). There are multiple Solar Systems in our Galaxy Milky Way and there are millions and millions of Galaxies in the entire universe. Each galaxy contains multiple Solar Systems and each Solar System has multiple planets.
The first question that comes to my mind after reading or understanding different gods for different religions is
“Why would different Gods (of different religions) decide to send all humans to Planet Earth out of millions and millions of planets out there?” Did they sit together to have a cup of tea/coffee/beer/wine (I don’t know) and unanimously decide, “send the humans to planet earth”. Did they not think we would fight each other to prove our superiority or GOD’s superiority :)? Or were they fighting among themselves and when they could not decide who is superior (because all of them probably have exact same superpowers) and decided to send us over here to fight and decide.
Some of us might be thinking “Because earth is only habitable planet in our Solar System”, that is why different Gods must have sent us over here.
Really? If God(s) can create planets, stars, different life forms including us then Can God(s) not make different planets habitable for all of us to live separately and peacefully?
Do the air, water, plants, trees, animals, birds belong to any particular religion?
Did different gods outsource this common work to a 3rd party contractor? I would like to be enlightened about a Religion who owns all of these because if any of the religion or God claims to own all of these then why would that God let other human beings use the air, water, plants for their survival?
For e.g. If God of Religion X made Water, why did it not make water as poison for followers of all other religions?
Did all gods have a pact that we humans will have similar structure both inside and outside?
Why do our birth and deaths have exact same process? Why does a child birth take place from people of different faiths, different religions, different skin colors?
Ask yourself — Do you eat food? Of-course yes, But is food custom grown or has a special mark for your religion or faith or God?
Do you take medicines? Does Science and technology customize it on the basis of your religion?
Why did Pandemic infect people of all faiths and religions?
Pandemic made me ponder over this question time and again and if it is viewed separately it becomes an important question to ask.
Science explains our genetic system, our DNA which can contain information about us.
Is it possible that humans evolved as “Science” has been telling us and some of the “Gods” (as we know them) were extra ordinary human beings with extra ordinary brains who understood a lot more about nature and evolution than we do and gave the message of Love to everyone and then people who believed “God” became followers and added extra stories to the messages and tried to show the “X” had extra ordinary or magical capabilities. Similarly others believed “Y” and became followers and so on. Now we as followers are fighting to prove God of Religion X is more powerful than God(s) of religion Y and Z.
A few months back when my mom was going somewhere and I told her not to go outside since the virus was quite widespread and there were lot of deaths during the 2nd wave in India. She said, nothing will happen to her since God is on her side, I smiled and said, well, the god is with the Corona Virus as well otherwise it wouldn’t have spread and killed so many people. And, what about the people who died because of this Virus? Was God not with them?
The virus is mutating in front of our eyes as Science has been telling us. We can certainly be blind to all of this and still believe what we want to but will it be a wise thing?
What will happen if we are able to find “Alien life” on some other planet?
Will their concept of God be same as ours? Will they have different God(s) than what we have on Earth? Will they have different life form from what we have on Earth?
Pause for a moment and think how many species have gone extinct on Earth. All of us are familiar with at-least 1 such species — Dinosaurs. What if we are able to find Dinosaurs on some other planet? What if we are able to find animals, plants, insects on some other planets which have gone extinct on Earth. What if we have totally different looking Animals, Plants, Insects on those planets.
What I am trying to ask here is “Does any religion claim to own these animals, plants and various other species which have gone extinct?” or “Does any religion claim to own life on other planets?”. And If they do claim then why can’t that 1 God own every life on earth as well?
https://techjatinder.medium.com/the-pandemic-and-the-god-2-687e6387fea5
