Religion and blind faith

Some say religion insists on implicit faith and a blind faith at that...

Sorry I have some reservation about your statement that religion wants implicit faith, or in other word unquestioning blind faith.

All processes of reasoning need implicit faith and that includes science.

Religion as understood by a few may be requiring blind faith , just as some scientists who reach the pinnacle also want blind faith in what they say as the infallible theory, till proven wrong, by all others who have not reached the pinnacle of scientific achievement. How Newton suffered and hid quite an amount of his work till he reached a certain stature as well the history of others too indicate this.

It is a human arrogant attitude of "ahamkara". or in loose translation self-ego, which distorts both science and religion.

Now coming to religion, I understand our Upanishads emphasise questioning first and not believing blindly. Emphasis is on "jnana" , or translated loosely, knowledge.

Sri Madhwacharya my own sect Acharya, abhorred blind faith by disciples in what he says. He wanted questioning and reasoning to completely understand through thorough studies of scriptures in depth.

SImilalrly Sri Raghavendra swamy in the same lineage, declared apart from all the gurus in that line, that they hate blind unquestioning faith.

SO I find it difficult to accept a genaral statement that religion demands blind faith.

The curse of modern Indian born intellects is that we did not have 15 years of education in finer nuances of Sanskrit language and access to ancient scriptures in Sanskrit , to make a deep study.

English translations with western point of view, distorts our spirit contained in smritis. Simple Varna and jati differentiations are lumped together in to "caste", word and in very wise righteous manner quite a few keep condemning the manu smriti. Krishna clearly explains varna in different context... and this exists in all societies including Western ones. But with little knowledge, many rush to say disparaging words about what our ancients envisaged.

About atom, sub-atom Sri Madhwacharya recorded the distinctions more than 500 years ago as well as about the ulttra-voilet radiation in space too. Not the bue color of sky. But how many of us know?

The darkness we live vis-a vis the ancient knowledge base, makes many a sadhu and even more aggressive followers, drive some kind of distorted scheme of things to hide own lack of knowledge to answer queries. They insist on blind faith. It is convenient.

Fundamentally if some one says he knows about God, he is a first rate duper. No one can know God because by definition, what ever you know is not God.

The images we use for dhyana etc are more for convenience of meeting limitations of our imagination. The all pervading energy that is God, is difficult to visualise and again the viswam is ony a manifestation but not God per se.

To my little mind after hearing many a discourse of erudite scholars, who spent life time studying our ancient scriptures in original language, I understood very little that if the Force is present every where , then it is present in the statues we worship as well as in you and me too apart from every thing manifest and perceived by us as sound , light ,or earth plant, animal.. insect....

I was surprised that at the end of the day what religion tells us in a nutshell, ( as told by Bhishma to Yudhishtara, to a question)..hardly two words as to how a man should live. "Tyaga" & " Vinaya" loosely translated in to English, meaning, sacrifice( nishkama karma), and humility.

Prof Rao is one such individual I know personally. He is living rightly and is close to the divine calling of ideal. Humility charaterises him and he is self-less.

Though I did not want to write anymore about these issues, Prof Rao's joining the issue made me write.

I remain a seeker and honestly do not know the answers-- cannot accept science is complete in that sense nor our own level of knowledge of any subject in the world.

Regards to all...