MY GOD AND YOUR GOD

According to reliable estimate, 7% of the world population are atheists. The remaining are believing in some forms of gods. Each one of them believe that his/her  mental formation of the God is right.  Each of them also have the obstinacy of knowing the God fully. Some of those may even go to the extent of naming all the relatives of God. Unfortunately, none come out to say, 'I don't know God'. 

All such 'knowledgeable' people believe that God is the creator of everything in this universe. They know all about those, they think. They proudly raise their heads and say that those who belong to other religions do not know anything about God. While each religion prepare the followers to reach the Almighty One, they also ensure to tell them that all other religions are wrong in their conceptions of the Divinity. Even some of those go the extent of narrating about the heaven which is abode of God they believe.

Whatever may be the outcome of the religious faith, in our worldly life, contribution of the religions are not much appreciable. If we take the top crime prone countries of the world, almost all of those have over 60% of the top religions of the world. On the other hand, among the top happiest countries, population of the atheists can be found over 60%. Every year the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network report published it's World Happiness Report, a study that examines the connection between happiness and development. The area considered by the researchers for this report are GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support, trust and corruption. Going through the top few countries in the list for the year 2021, out of the 10 happiest countries' in the world 5 have atheists population over 50% or about 50%. Contrary to these, among the top crime prone countries in the world, five have over 60% and upto 95% religious  population.

When one say his God and his religion are good, there is nothing wrong in it. However, alongwith that,  saying other God and other religion is wrong or bad, certainly burn out the peace of the society. Anyone can say anything good about their faith, but none should say bad about the faith of others.

(Indebted to the article by Sebastian Modak and Caitlin Morton in Conde Nast Traveler on March 23, 2021 about the data shown in the rating of happiest countries of the world.)

K V George