Fictional Gods

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.~ Arthur Schopenhauer

I have wondered this for some time, now -- Could various religions be work of art by various artists scattered across time and geography? For just as every area has its staple diet, it also has stapled religious practices. Each religion is also practiced with local customs that have shaped over centuries and have been influenced by local geography. For example, in some Indian states, Bramhins have been traditionally vegetarian. However, as you travel north to Jammu and Kashmir or to the coastal state of Goa, Bramhins consume meat. So, which Bramhinical way of life is the best? Abstaining from meat or enjoying what's available in plenty and is necessary to survive?

I can't answer in words better than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne's:

Every man calls barbarous anything he is not accustomed to; we have no other criterion of truth or right-reason than the example and form of the opinions and customs of our own country. There we always find the perfect religion, the perfect polity, the most developed and perfect way of doing anything!

Each religion has originated from one place and then spread across geography. It has been a slow process. The spread has taken centuries, but highly motivated individuals have wandered the earth, undergone hardships, given their life, worked as slaves, and have endured hate with a smile with a hope that they are doing the right thing for the human race.

I often wonder as Gods, across the world, have been drawn, sculpted, designed, and formed by artists, how much of their thoughts on how a particular god looks influence their art? I bet their own imagination shapes the outcome.

So, for every religion, across time, several individuals must have thought of the way the unseen, and yet the all-pervading ruler, appears. It is those individuals who would have determined what is right and wrong in the eyes of the almighty. Next, they would have garnered followers by their astute story-telling skills and making others believe -- theirs is the best way to live.

For me, if god exists, then there is just one god who has been customized by human fictional imagination. If you want a demonstration of the way we cook up information, play a game of Chinese Whispers with 10 individuals. The first phrase spoken to start the game looses accuracy at the fourth or fifth whisper. So, just imagine the accuracy of religious teachings across centuries!

In the present day and age, it's more important to love each other than to kill or fight in the name of religion, language, region, or custom. It is difficult as we can't avoid fighting even for entities like Football teams!

No matter how you have been raised, you must believe - one is all and all is one. I once heard a great speaker say -- We don't choose a religion, we are born in it.

So, love all and hate none.

I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings. ~ Albert Einstein

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer