Saturday, November 16, 2024

Is it acceptable to believe in God but choose not to follow a religion?

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God is a creation of the religions, and it has no separate existence beyond the scriptures of religion.

Can you believe in a fictional or movie character and reject the fiction itself?

The problem is that logically speaking, there has to be only God, but every religion describes God differently, and every God gives different and often opposite commands. For instance,

  • The God of Islam prohibits drinking Alcohol, while the God of Christianity permits it.
  • Marriages are unbreakable in Hinduism, but divorces are permitted in Christianity and Islam.
  • Meat eating is prohibited in Jainism but common and customary in Islam
  • One marriage is the norm in most religions, but Islam allows four wives
  • Idol worship is the norm in Hinduism but considered to be a sin in Islam and Judaism

Hence, for any logical person, it is apparent that God is a figment of the imagination of the human mind because if God had been real, He (or She or It) would have been the same. However, as we can see, every religion has different Gods who hardly share many characteristics.

Any rational person would, therefore, agree that it is not God who created man but the man who created God.

Hence, as a logical and rational person, you don’t want to follow the prayers and rituals of your religion because deep inside your heart, you know that there is no God who is going to listen to your prayer and grant you your wishes.

However, admitting that you don’t believe in God, which implies that you are an atheist, requires tremendous courage because making such a claim has a huge social cost, particularly if, in your country, almost everyone believes in God.

In some countries, you can even be killed for denying the existence of God.

Hence, you want to have the best of both worlds by one side rejecting all religions and on the other side claiming to believe in God.

In this way, you can avoid being called an atheist, but you can get freedom from all religious chores.

Hence, rejecting religion and accepting God is nothing but an act of hypocrisy, as there is no God except what exists in religions.

You have travelled half the journey by rejecting religions and now you have to travel the remaining half of the journey to reject God.

If you are honest and truthful, reject not only religions but also God, as they are just the two sides of the same coin, and one can't exist without the other.

Source of picture: Why Do I Believe No Gods Exist? » Answers In Reason

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