AN OPINION


     What is it-God made man or man made God? It seems that at the beginning of human civilization, when confronted with big events of nature,such as, fire, earthquake, famines and epidemics, frightened human beings could not understand what caused these catastrophic events. They began  to believe in the existence of some powerful mysterious being controlling the universe.To propitiate this god (or Gods) and to calm down his wrath, men developed different ritual practices.

     In different parts of the world, this process led to the formation of different religions. In the absence of much knowledge about the laws governing different events of nature, men resorted to speculative construction of edifice - theology - to explain genesis of universe and life upon it. Today. most followers of all religions follow beliefs and rituals of worship which have been brought down  to them thru tradition. Seeking protection from misfortune and fulfillment of good life (including afterlife) is what underlies religious practices. Thus, fear and desire seem to be responsible for all beliefs in supernatural forces.

     There have been some exceptions to this trend which prevailed even thousands of years ago (e.g. some Indian and Greek philosophers who were skeptic about various supernatural beliefs). But on a large scale, only about three hundred years ago, a group of intellectual thinkers, primarily in Europe, began to challenge the age-old religious dogmas. This has brought about epochal changes to human society with the development of sciences, such as, physics, chemistry and biology, based on seeking knowledge by direct observation of nature thru our senses and logical thinking.


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