Is religion necessary? I think that the main reason religions exist is because we are mortal and suffering due to disease and infirmity. We can all lump this under "suffering," and one of the reasons that we choose a particular religion could be the one which explains it the most well. All living creatures perish eventually and human is no exception. Even if we are deemed to be living double or triple times longer beyond our normal life expectancy, religions would still be around given the fragility of human condition that is riddled with illnesses, diseases, natural disasters and accidents. Humans face infirmity, illness, accidents, and any point in our lives from accumulation of fears coming from these elements, manifesting in our desires for spirituality. If all of a sudden, all absurdity, infirmity and illness are expunged in our lives today, religions would exist in humanity due to pervasiveness of such fears that interject into our lives.
It is what this euphemistically called "spirituality" drives us to seek religion. To me, gaining in spirituality mean reducing fear of death. I think that this fear of death led to Paul hallucinating meeting of Jesus on the way to Damascus. It was easy for Paul to believe in Jesus for he believed that he saw Jesus right in front of his eyes; Paul spread the gospel based on the hallucination or lies. However, we are not as religious as Paul, or perhaps, we can not blow things out of proportion as Paul might have done. Or, We may not be as fearful of death at least for now, and thus we don't fantasy about supernatural force such as God.
Which leads to the question: Religion doesn't come to us like in the case of Paul, but we have to go to the religion, more specifically, how one gets exposed to religion? Religion smeared into our mind without filtered like songs played on radio, making us think about it in a sort of getting brainwashed. Some people are exposed to religion early in their lives as their baptismal ceremonies are held in hands of their parents, or following their parents going to temples as soon as they start walking right after they are born like getting their first radio. It's fair to say that humans are drawn to religion some point in their lives because they are built on true nature of human existence such as mortality.
I was not born in a religious family, and my going to church started off with motif of getting a free gift given from a church nearby my home in Christmas, my objective was not clear. church or temple regularly, my first encounter with religion came with no choice as having born in a town where a shaman live in neighborhood. I grew up with no choice given to opt out from listening noises associated with religious ritual: rattling of cluster of mini bells, clashing sound of simbals in constant fashion, and banging of drums. The noise become quite bothersome to my ears as ritual last more than two hours . The next encounter with a religion came to me in rather spontaneous fashion, in unpredictable way. It happened one day when I was five years old, laying down on foyer of a Korean house with nothing to do. Seeing no toys were held in my hands, my grandmother asked me to come along. She took me to a temple nearby home in Shinchon. As soon as we arrived, my grandmother hopped on to the main room in the temple. Standining in front of an alter in front of a Budhha stature. As a toddler who knew nothing about life, putting my shoes on and following my grandmother going to temple was how religion came to my life. I smelled insents burning as I entered the entrance door leading to a courtyard. Waiting for my grandmother finish praying outside in the courtyard, I saw a small pond in which gold fish were swimming in hazy hot summer day. I sat by the pond and gazed at fish and then stared at my grandmother praying, having no notion of what religion is for. She was standing in the main saintuery in white cloth wearing traditional socks praying; her hands went up slowly over her shoulder and they met together. She was healthy, and I was wondering what she was praying for. Many people I saw at the temple, and I was also wondering why they come to temple instead of resting at home. Yes, they were my questions about religion: Why they come to temple instead resting at home? And I wanted to ask my grandmother, "Why did you come to the temple for?" 봉원사(Bongwon Buddhist Temple) located at the foothill of Mt. Ahn, not used to taking a long walk. I don’t have recollection for the entire trip, but I remember instances when I was coming home, walking with her coming from the temple on a scorching hot summer day. My grandmother was wearing a light colored traditional clothes holding a parasol. The oppressive heat and poignant sunlights made me to trudge and caused unbearable irritations on my skin. Her white traditional socks, 버선(Bersun), and her shoes, 고무신(Gomooshin), were too bright to see with its reflection with my bare naked eyes, which made me to immediately turn my head away to lay my eyes on her dress instead. Grandmother was holding a parasol, that formed a shade behind her. So I moved over to follow behind her under the moving shadow. Entering the one end of field hockey field at 연세대(Younsei University) and then gazing at the field, a moment of undue feeling of vexation spurred into my mind as I saw a long distance of walking still lies ahead. I experienced scorching weather in August on that day, as I trudged along behind my grandmother regretting myself follow along with her, stepping on the moving shade following grandma walking holding parasol.
One may come across with a thinking, as young as fourteen years old, that religion is created by man. Without the human existence, there would be no need for religion. God needs human. Think of the scenario where earth was created by God with no men living, there would be no one to worship him or sing for him. So, it's not God who created men, but rather men created God. Human needs God because human suffer from poverty, infirmity, calamity, failures, sickness and death. Our dependence on God diminishes as we become less dependent on God. If modern medicine cures deadly diseases curing all kind of cancers and allow people to live health for a very long life, we would be less dependent on God. However, still our dependence on God will never be ceased for our lives are bounded to end. Religion is about life, and it is for living. Religion is necessary in time of hardship in facing death of love one, but it may be we would knell down and pray to God when going gets smoothly. No life going smoothly, so we need religion. Christianity was drawn upon during tumultous time in Korean history. Nowadays, nobody would believe that the face of Jesus drawn on paintings do not truly reflect face of Jesus; nobody saw true face of God, and how can his face be drawn; it's silly. And depicting Jesus' face as a white person is grossly misrepresented given the geographical area where he might had lived. As there is no picture of face coming close to its authenticity, his birth is also questionable, the existence of Jesus is largely based on hypothesis or speculation under the name of "Christian faith"; there is no trace left of him, at all - we don't even know where exactly he ascended into heaven, nor trace left where he was born and where he resurrected. I treasure the memories of love of God by others such as beautiful gospels or literary and moral values on Bible. The beautiful religious music help our mind clear of debris and words of priest refresh us spiritually, which is necessary in our daily hectic lives. We may still need prists and we may still need churches, but there is no need to build another church or add producing more priests.
It is what this euphemistically called "spirituality" drives us to seek religion. To me, gaining in spirituality mean reducing fear of death. I think that this fear of death led to Paul hallucinating meeting of Jesus on the way to Damascus. It was easy for Paul to believe in Jesus for he believed that he saw Jesus right in front of his eyes; Paul spread the gospel based on the hallucination or lies. However, we are not as religious as Paul, or perhaps, we can not blow things out of proportion as Paul might have done. Or, We may not be as fearful of death at least for now, and thus we don't fantasy about supernatural force such as God.
Which leads to the question: Religion doesn't come to us like in the case of Paul, but we have to go to the religion, more specifically, how one gets exposed to religion? Religion smeared into our mind without filtered like songs played on radio, making us think about it in a sort of getting brainwashed. Some people are exposed to religion early in their lives as their baptismal ceremonies are held in hands of their parents, or following their parents going to temples as soon as they start walking right after they are born like getting their first radio. It's fair to say that humans are drawn to religion some point in their lives because they are built on true nature of human existence such as mortality.
I was not born in a religious family, and my going to church started off with motif of getting a free gift given from a church nearby my home in Christmas, my objective was not clear. church or temple regularly, my first encounter with religion came with no choice as having born in a town where a shaman live in neighborhood. I grew up with no choice given to opt out from listening noises associated with religious ritual: rattling of cluster of mini bells, clashing sound of simbals in constant fashion, and banging of drums. The noise become quite bothersome to my ears as ritual last more than two hours . The next encounter with a religion came to me in rather spontaneous fashion, in unpredictable way. It happened one day when I was five years old, laying down on foyer of a Korean house with nothing to do. Seeing no toys were held in my hands, my grandmother asked me to come along. She took me to a temple nearby home in Shinchon. As soon as we arrived, my grandmother hopped on to the main room in the temple. Standining in front of an alter in front of a Budhha stature. As a toddler who knew nothing about life, putting my shoes on and following my grandmother going to temple was how religion came to my life. I smelled insents burning as I entered the entrance door leading to a courtyard. Waiting for my grandmother finish praying outside in the courtyard, I saw a small pond in which gold fish were swimming in hazy hot summer day. I sat by the pond and gazed at fish and then stared at my grandmother praying, having no notion of what religion is for. She was standing in the main saintuery in white cloth wearing traditional socks praying; her hands went up slowly over her shoulder and they met together. She was healthy, and I was wondering what she was praying for. Many people I saw at the temple, and I was also wondering why they come to temple instead of resting at home. Yes, they were my questions about religion: Why they come to temple instead resting at home? And I wanted to ask my grandmother, "Why did you come to the temple for?" 봉원사(Bongwon Buddhist Temple) located at the foothill of Mt. Ahn, not used to taking a long walk. I don’t have recollection for the entire trip, but I remember instances when I was coming home, walking with her coming from the temple on a scorching hot summer day. My grandmother was wearing a light colored traditional clothes holding a parasol. The oppressive heat and poignant sunlights made me to trudge and caused unbearable irritations on my skin. Her white traditional socks, 버선(Bersun), and her shoes, 고무신(Gomooshin), were too bright to see with its reflection with my bare naked eyes, which made me to immediately turn my head away to lay my eyes on her dress instead. Grandmother was holding a parasol, that formed a shade behind her. So I moved over to follow behind her under the moving shadow. Entering the one end of field hockey field at 연세대(Younsei University) and then gazing at the field, a moment of undue feeling of vexation spurred into my mind as I saw a long distance of walking still lies ahead. I experienced scorching weather in August on that day, as I trudged along behind my grandmother regretting myself follow along with her, stepping on the moving shade following grandma walking holding parasol.
One may come across with a thinking, as young as fourteen years old, that religion is created by man. Without the human existence, there would be no need for religion. God needs human. Think of the scenario where earth was created by God with no men living, there would be no one to worship him or sing for him. So, it's not God who created men, but rather men created God. Human needs God because human suffer from poverty, infirmity, calamity, failures, sickness and death. Our dependence on God diminishes as we become less dependent on God. If modern medicine cures deadly diseases curing all kind of cancers and allow people to live health for a very long life, we would be less dependent on God. However, still our dependence on God will never be ceased for our lives are bounded to end. Religion is about life, and it is for living. Religion is necessary in time of hardship in facing death of love one, but it may be we would knell down and pray to God when going gets smoothly. No life going smoothly, so we need religion. Christianity was drawn upon during tumultous time in Korean history. Nowadays, nobody would believe that the face of Jesus drawn on paintings do not truly reflect face of Jesus; nobody saw true face of God, and how can his face be drawn; it's silly. And depicting Jesus' face as a white person is grossly misrepresented given the geographical area where he might had lived. As there is no picture of face coming close to its authenticity, his birth is also questionable, the existence of Jesus is largely based on hypothesis or speculation under the name of "Christian faith"; there is no trace left of him, at all - we don't even know where exactly he ascended into heaven, nor trace left where he was born and where he resurrected. I treasure the memories of love of God by others such as beautiful gospels or literary and moral values on Bible. The beautiful religious music help our mind clear of debris and words of priest refresh us spiritually, which is necessary in our daily hectic lives. We may still need prists and we may still need churches, but there is no need to build another church or add producing more priests.
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