SECRET CORNER OF THANATOS

a story of a monk...

There was a religious person. Let him be the Monk.

He follows the teaching of a book….let it be the Holy book.

Written in the Holy book: “follow what the book says and you will go to heaven where the God is”.

Being a very religious people, he followed what the book  and the religion told him to do.

His religion teaches him to pray everyday. So that’s what he did. He follows every protocol and moves as written in the Holy book.

His religion told him not to drink alcohol. And he follows them strictly. He never touched a single drop of alcohol in his life.

The book says that he should not do anything that would arouse his sexual desires. And so he did everything he could to suppress this animal instinct of his.

He is a very religious person. He’s done every single thing written in the holy book.

He is very proud that he had done a great job, doing everything written in the Holy book. He is quite sure that he holds the key to heaven now. And naturally, he would think that those who do not act or behave like him would not deserve to go to the same place. Thus, he tend to look down and even criticize those people from time to time……..

Although he’s a good servant of God, he is not a very good person socially. He is arrogant, demanding, fussy and would do anything in his power (or sometimes beyond that) to get what he wants, or at least in his eyes, to make things happen like how it “should” be.

Any mistake or bad things he does, he would say that it is not prohibited by the holy book and get away from punishment. “in the name of God”, he used his religion as protective shield against all his mistakes

He has a neighbor. Once the neighbor asked him to teach his son the knowledge he know in his religion. He was reluctant at first to share the key to heaven. But after the neighbor begged again and again….he finally agreed at a price: to give him all his belonging. Of course in his right site of mind, he did not do that. So he accused the neighbor as being not sincere enough to learn that religion.

The on the next day, the monk found that he finished his rice. Needing to eat rice everyday, he seek for the neighbor for them, knowing that he would spare him some, since he always does. But the neighbor was out that time and left the door unlock, by  accident. Being very impatient, he has decided to find his own way to the kitchen through the opened door. The found the sack of rice just beside the rack. But it wasn’t opened yet. So he instinctively took a pair of scissors and cut the sack open and took the amount of rice he needed. He did not even bother to close them back, thinking that what he done is right. (because he is “never wrong”).

On his way back from the neighbor’s house, he met the neighbor who had just came back… he told the neighbor that he took his rice from the kitchen, without any sense of guilt. “Now”, he said, “bring your son to see me tomorrow. I’ll teach him something”.

If you were the neighbor, what would your reaction be??

the monk is too obsessed with meeting with up the God at the end of his day, that he forgot to live his life when he is still in this world. Probably, he is loved by God when he does everything in the Holy book. But at the same time, he is a hated person socially. But he does not care about it. Because he thinks that whatever happens he would still go to heaven. In the end of the day, only God determines his fate and to Him and only Him that he would need to answer to.

I wonder, there are so many teaching and religion in this world. And every believers believes on their own religion and teaching. It’s of course good if all of them can get what they desire in the end. But the possibility of everyone doing different things, some even contrasting each other, but in the end getting the same happy ending is low. What if, I say IF, a person who has been believing something all his life, and suddenly find that what he believe is not true….what is going to happen to him?

What if this happen to the monk? What would he do then??

If you are a religious person, would you like to be like the monk?`

Note: the “monk” and “the neighbor” mentioned above is entirely fictional and represents the lowest degree of human beings or any religion possible….

This is just a scenario and may or may not be related to actual events in real life. Names have not been used to protect the personal interests of the bloggee. ( hehe…sorry for taking your lines daryl....)

on religion....

this is a reflection on daryl's blog on "Whoever is not a christian and who does not believe in Christianity will go to hell!"

i would like to borrow's david hume's idea on this. he's a scottish philosopher who tried to explain the reasons of origin of religion philosophically.

according to hume, religion is a fairy tale which is profitable to church. Human who is under the influence of religion becomes dependant on superstitions.

according to Hume, "religion is opium for people". however, philosopher noticed that this opium was useful and nessasary for people----if there's no religion, people would never keep the principle and follow human's principles.

i was asked to write some comment on the statement "religion is opium for people," and this is what i wrote....

"i agree with david hume's statement that religion is opium for people. however i do not deny the existance of God and the powers beyond my understanding. David Humé's statement is just a metaphore to describe religion as a source of spiritual relief. Human like to believe that there is a greater power above them to help them through the obstacles that they face in one way or another, which they know by their own power, it's impossible to solve. in hard times, it is this belief in this so called "fairy talës"by Hume that could raise their spirit, enabling them to do the impossibles. this is, ironically, same as the effect of opium. religion, too, provides a space for people to think irrationally, temporarily escape from the world of reality, thus providing a kind of spiritual relief from the 'pain' they are suffering from this cruel reality. Again, it's the effect of opium"

to make things clear, i do not object religion.juz looking it from a different view. and i stress that i DO believe in God.i think it's funny to fight over which God to believe in because who knows in the end of the day,we might find out that we are All believing in the same God. probably we see Him in a different way but i see no reason to go to hell for that.

to add on, here's some david hume's statement on MIRaCLE

"One way to support a religion is by appeal to miracles. But Hume argued that, at minimum, miracles could never give religion much support. There are several arguments suggested by Hume's essay, all of which turn on his conception of a miracle: namely, a violation of the laws of nature by God. One argument claims that it's impossible to violate the laws of nature. Another claims that human testimony could never be reliable enough to countermand the evidence we have for the laws of nature. The weakest and most defensible claims that, due to the strong evidence we have for the laws of nature, any miracle claim is in trouble from the start, and needs strong supporting evidence to defeat our initial presumptions. In a slogan, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This point has been most applied to the question of the resurrection of Jesus, where Hume would no doubt ask, "Which is more likely – that a man rose from the dead or that this testimony is mistaken in some way?" Or, more blandly, "Which is more likely – that Uri Geller can really bend spoons with his mind or that there is some trick going on?" This is somewhat similar to Occam's Razor. This argument is the backbone of the sceptic's movement and a live issue for historians of religion."