At some point in life, we should ask ourselves why we believe in God. I humbly think such a question can play an enormous role in eliciting the core pattern of how humanity works.
When being asked the reason why we believe in God, without a doubt, there are different personal reasons why this belief is formed and strengthened with time. Everyone needs to believe in something to maneuver through life; life will become dull when one needs to stand alone all the time, without anything to cling to or believe in. By believing in something grander than ourselves, our identity will drastically expand, thus giving us a sense of control over our life. The reward is immense for such unconscious inclination because the feeling of helplessness and lack of control would instantly fade away with the adherence to our beliefs.
But in my opinion, no matter how noble the belief is, it is still a deterioration when it’s taken as a shield of identity. It is no longer what our faith can give us; it is about why we have that faith in the first place. Throughout history, the supremacy of religion has been the main reason why wars happened. Back then, everyone in the war thought they were fighting for the right cause; protecting their faith from being torn apart has become their sole purpose in life. Of course, those at the forefront were never the ones who started the war; they were undoubtedly manipulated by the upper-class people. Nevertheless, regardless of the motive, they still thought killing people for the sake of protecting the name of their God was a very noble thing to do.
What are we without our shield of identity? When asked who and what we are, we usually would say something like “I am this,” “I am that,” “I like this,” “I like that,” or we would even say that we have a firm belief that we shall be redeemed in a vast distant future if we were to surrender ourselves to a higher power. But, never once in our life have we identified ourselves with just our existence; we find plenty of other reasons to surpass our humdrum life. Slowly and unconsciously, those that were initially just a means for external identification have inevitably become our sense of self. We could only see ourselves in those things that are by nature impermanent; we have become a reflection of those things.
Humanity is afraid of being nothing, so they invent something to identify with. It is somewhat ironic to proudly proclaim that religion’s ultimate purpose is to dissolve oneself into the grace of God; because what we do is the exact opposite of our claim, due to our nature where we are so afraid of being nothing, instead of being completely dissolved through divine power, we gradually strengthen our ego by perpetually acting like a profoundly religious person on the surface level.
That is why people feel offended when other people discriminate against their religion. The reason for their annoyance is crystal clear.
“Where would I stand if what I believe in is not significant anymore? I must defend it so that I can feel great again.”
We all should ask ourselves the prime reason why we believe in something; there will always be conflicts if we only use our beliefs as a means to protect ourselves.
I humbly believe that the one with no sense of self is genuinely religious, for there is a self; there is always the existence of ego. No matter what and how the ego disguises itself. The one who “truly” identifies with the divine has no problem whatsoever in life; because they are life.
So, will we feel offended if people are judging our beliefs? Do we feel insecure when our worldview collapses? So are we actually protecting our faith or merely our selfish selves? It is always a good elemental question to ponder if we want everlasting (not fleeting) happiness.