SPRING 2018_3
Dear Whom It May Concern,
- HUMANITY 3550 Topics in Religions (Top: Intro to World Religions)
Estelle Song
Prof. Dan Yingst
HUMANITY 3550-001
10 May 2018
Whom to Blame
Even though the survival instinct of all living creatures has been keeping their species alive, the act of giving birth, creating and making a 'newborn' to have a life, appears selfish and cruel: whether one believes in any sort of religions, or science, no one really is asked to be 'born' into this world, at the first place. Depending on one's personal viewpoint, two sexually potent individuals can decide to produce one or more offspring of theirs, or choose not to do, based on their situations; but whether to come to this world to become an active member of his or her society or to prefer not to, is not an option for the newborns.
From the moment of being born, one is destined to death every single second, has to desperately gasp for oxygen to stay alive, and needs to satisfy its bodily demands. Until the newborn matures enough to become a part of society, one is closely nurtured by caregivers, so the suffering of life is not as complicated as those grownups have; of course there are countless newborns around the world who do not even get those basic sustenance therefore face death a lot earlier, however, again, none of those newborns, or even mature ones, had no choice but to be born, grow up, learn to be a member of society, and live until his or her time is up, which also is not a decision one can make. More mature one becomes, types of suffering become more complex and obscure.
In order to confront the central anxieties of human life regarding death and suffering, people started to come up with the idea of religions - to find their purpose of life, to explain and or to understand the way world works, and if the explanation meets a dead-end, to believe there is a higher being upon them and all the suffering must be its intention for the mankind. By putting all the inexplainable things in life and anxieties from endless suffering and fear of death to the 'higher being's intention', which varies throughout different cultures and religions, believers have been able to put their anxieties in life slightly at ease.
For instance, in Christianity, mankind self-gained its suffering through life and inevitable death: human being was originally created by the God, "[let us make] human beings in our image, after our likeness... and found it very good" (Genesis 1:24) and created the garden of Eden for his creatures to live happily ever after. Ironically the God placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and because Eve, the first woman created by the God, was tempted by a snake to have a fruit of knowledge of good and evil and ate it with Adam, her husband, they were forever banished from the garden of Eden where everything is peaceful and happy. Disappointed and enraged, the God punishes Eve to have unbearable pain in pregnancy and to be dominated by her husband, Adam to endlessly work for survival, and most of all, mankind will "return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19), in other words, destined to die.
Ever since the first mankind were expelled from the garden of Eden, rest of the generations have been born as 'sinners' therefore the sufferings throughout the life is inevitable. Moreover, throughout the history of mankind according to Genesis, the Seven Deadly Sins became the standard of morality, forbidding such as killing one's sibling due to jealousy - Cain and Abel as a specific example - and over the time, the lifespan of mankind became shorter and shorter because the Genesis clearly stated that "Shelah lived four hundred and three years" (Genesis 11:14) but as the generations get closer towards the birth of Jesus Christ, the lifespan of mankind became shorter and shorter, since "all the generations from Abraham unto David are fourteen generations... unto the Christ fourteen generations" (Matthew 1:17) Admitting oneself as a sinner, Christianity disciplines its followers to pray for forgiveness and redemption of the God, and if one practices rigorously throughout his or her life, believes in one and the only God, avoid the cardinal sins, the eternal suffering will end at the moment of death, forgiven by the God, and will be rewarded with peace and happiness at heaven.
On the other hand, in Hinduism, the worldview is slightly different from Christianity: this world never had a beginning nor an ending - Krishna, the Hindi god of mediator, directly says "Nor will we cease to exist, all of us, from now onwards" (Patton 19) -because this world belongs to lotus universe and or samsaric cycle which continuously gets created and destroyed all the time. Every individual is born with karma and or dharma, sufferings he or she confronts throughout life is one of the ways of either accumulating or diminishing karma; if one works off all the karma, he or she will finally be free from endless cycle of life, but if not, will be stuck in the cycle of life forever. For instance, when Arjuna, who was bounded to fight to become a king, tried to refuse his fate, Krishna tells him that "If you will not engage this fight for the sake of dharma[karma], you will have shunned your own dharma[karma]... and shall cause harm" (Patton 25) According to Hinduism, the world never has been a peaceful, happiest place to live; it is filled with temptation, ignorance and uncertainty; unlike Christianity, Hindis not necessarily have to believe in 'godly figures', but to "engage in actions! Let go of clinging, and let fulfilment and frustration be the same" (Patton 29) encouraging one to rather focus on current life.
Even the most powerful godly figure of Hinduism such as Shiva and Krishna, get defeated by demons and moreover, the gods sometimes act irrationally as well. The concept of life and death Hinduism seem almost too cold-blooded, because even Krishna tells Arjuna, when he grieved and mourned for people who he has to kill, that "you should not mourn... Death is fixed for those who are born, and birth is fixed for those who die; since such an end is certain, you should not grieve" (Patton 23) A religion that even justifies killing other mankind may seem erratic, since the God of Christianity specifically punished an individual for killing his sibling even though the God's biased preference to the other led to the consequence; but since this world is full of unpredictability and uncertainty at the first place, simply accepting the fact that this world cannot be understood by anyone, may helped the believers to comply their fate, alleviates the anxieties from endless suffering of this life, and helps one to see 'death' as not the end of everything but as another given chance to become a better being.
Whether one will eventually be freed from the original sin therefore enters heaven, or one works off all of his or her karma therefore no longer be a part of endless cycle of life, neither of religious promises appear to be answering the basic questions of a mankind: no one really had an option whether to join this world or to not - and this ultimate question leads mankind to question themselves the purpose of life and what to do, in general.
Work Cited
"Genesis." Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc.
Patton, Laurie L. The Bhagavad Gita. Penguin, 2008.
"The Gospel According to St. Matthew."