In my last post, titled “The Creator Theory : Why humans believe in the God”, I put forward one of the reasons (I believe) why humans believe in the God.
Here in this post I am putting forward a second explanation for people’s belief in the God. I have titled this explanation as the NGFG theory or in a longer version the Need, Greed, Fear and Goodness Theory.
The NGFG Theory
Need, greed, fear and goodness are four basic emotions that we find in every human being. I think that the creators of religion used these basic four emotions and weaved the concept of the God around it. Since everybody of us has these four basic emotions we are able to relate to the God through these emotions.
Need
Need can also be described as want. We are led to believe that if we pray to the God and ask him for something he will fulfill our wishes. The whole concept of ‘Mannat’ is based on this principle.
Greed
Greed is wanting more of something you already have. This is basically an extension of need. You wanted something. Now you have it. But you are not satisfied and want more. This also basically, ‘ask him and he will fulfill your wishes’
Fear
Fear is a powerful influence. In traditional religion the concept of heaven and hell are based on the principle of fear. Be good and you will get heaven. Do bad deed and you will be condemned to hell. When was the last time you heard, “Bhagavan naraaz ho jayaenge”? or “Shahidon ko jannat nasib hoti hai”
Goodness
So is all bad with the concept of the God? No. Quite a few also believe in the God through true altruistic motives where we want and wish good to others through our thoughts and deeds.
So our version of the God is defined through the amounts of these four basic emotions present in us. Find out what is your mix and you will get your version of the God.
This is a good theory that you have thought of, but then again it can only be as true as the theory that god exists. I somewhat do agree with the last line that to each his own god (and it doesn't necessarily mean the conventional god as portrayed by any particular religion).
ReplyDelete@salil:
ReplyDelete>> and it doesn't necessarily mean the conventional god as portrayed by any particular religion
Yes. The most important words are "the conventional god".
In my opinion the God is just a concept created for the betterment of the society and to keep human behavior in check. And it does not necessarily mean that the God as real entity exists out there with supernatural abilities to control the world.
If you can perceive only what you can sense physically then no one can convince you of any thing higher than what exists in this mundane world! Even then a possibility exists that what you sense is wrongly perceived by you due to a particular mind set. You refer to some personal tragedy or difficulties in life.... show me somebody (not a child) who has not had some problems or other in life?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that "religion" has been commercialized and packaged to take advantage of humans who have lost the ability to question and think independently or just don't want to as they find it too taxing.
I would like to believe that there exist a force that links a soul to a body and is trying to tell you something! May be it is in language which i have not yet learned? Wish you all the best in your quest
Thank you John sir for stopping by and giving your time to comment on the post.
ReplyDeleteYou said,
>> If you can perceive only what you can sense physically then no one can convince you of any thing higher than what exists in this mundane world!
This is one problem with the all of the spirituality related topics and the God. It demands unquestioned belief and faith that the God exists. All the sages will say that only after one believes that he/she will be able to get in touch with the God.
And this creates problems for skeptics like me who hold logic above everything because we can't convince ourselves that the God exists in the first place.
What i do feel is that the having faith in god is one's individual thinking.There is just one thing to say is to believe in yourself.I do believe in karma.I did once came across the person(rickshaw driver)who explained me that its only the positive energy he gets when he entered the temple.Its one kind of satisfication and where his mind is away from the tensions and worries.By his way of talking I came to that he was not strong follower of god.He also said me that he just do the work of his part and hope for good results.
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