Wednesday, January 26, 2011

God of the faithful and the faithless

First of all let me wish every Indian a very Happy Republic Day. Let me also echo/copy the sentiments of a friend.

Wishing all my friends greetings on the occasion of the Republic Day of a prosperous, compassionate, developing India with an active judiciary, neat governance and a vibrant democracy to lead the world into the new times of change and growth accessing technology and advances in Science for the benefit of mankind, flora and fauna all over.

I shall soon be boarding the plane to let our children have some time with their grandfather (Hubby’s father) who may soon bid adieu to this world. Later, they would need to get back to their studies and their world full of promises and so also heartaches. They loved their grandfather like every other grandchild and I am not sure how they shall deal with such inevitabilites of this life. As for me, let me gather my strength and hold onto to my own faith in the Almighty. One needs it all the more at times like this.

The following is an email forward from my blogger friend and many may have read it. It is just another bid to try and convince a few who hold on to their faithlessness.

GOD
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists."
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer.
"Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine a loving a God who would allow all of these things."
The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept.
The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist."
"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked o n you!"

"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."
"Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me."
Exactly, affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

7 comments:

  1. Condolences on your loss.

    Typically lackluster believers tale, if you ask me. tbh, I learned and searched for this phenomenon called God all through my youth years. Religion has quietly but surely pulled me away from this unproven, theoretical figment of imagination called God. No offense, but this theory "if you search, you'll find" has worked reverse for me. Whatever...

    ReplyDelete
  2. That was real good.
    So much has been going on around us on the name of religion and Gods.People have to learn to understand God and where to look for him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. that was an interesting one, and i read it after i read and replied an interesting comment from a reader..sometimes i wonder, why should god be connected with a religion?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey! that was a nice and interesting story.

    Hope your children would be happy to see their grandfather.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Scorpio: Sorry if I sounded thus but my FIL is still in this world, though getting weaker day by day.

    How ironic that religion itself has pulled you away from God! But then, when one has finally found God, one does not need religion to sustain the faith. Sounds strange I am sure :)

    Dr: Yes.. religion seems to have done more harm than good over the years. Guess the connection with God will be made one day or the other.. atheists may disblv.. but I blv that we are wired for it :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Maddy: God need not be connected with any religion.. but like how a child needs his parents to start his life, religion may be necessary to steer him in his initial grappling with faith.

    Abhi: the happiness was mutual.. in fact the doctors were surprised when FIL sat on the bed without any support on seeing the children. The next day he started pestering us to take him home. He even volunteered to go to the doctor's room to take the permission :) We shifted him home a day after we reached.

    ReplyDelete
  7. that i agree is a very lucid answer to my question - well well...

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive

clustermap