God versus religion

The Abrahamic faiths all believe that there is only one God. That makes it easy. However, there are three Abrahamic faiths and many more branches and sub-branches of these three faiths. And each of these faiths, branches and sub-branches claims that it is the only true faith and that all the others are false. That makes it complicating.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Just a short ‘Boxing Day’ note to assure you that I am still around.

“Is it rational to believe in God?” asks Giovanni Serritella, which was published in Harakah, the party organ of PAS. You can read the article here: http://en.harakah.net.my/index.php/articles/depth/4048-is-it-rational-to-believe-in-god.html

The world has always addressed this matter as a theist versus atheist issue. You believe in the existence of God or you do not. However, it is not as simple as that. And because they have allowed very narrow parameters to the discussion it falls into a mere ‘yes’ or ‘no’ exercise.

I would like to introduce a new word, religionist, so that I can break the two groups into three (theists, religionists and atheists).

What I mean here is: there is one group that believes in the existence of God, another that does not, and a third that believes in the existence of God but not in religion. Once we expand the two groups into three it becomes easier to discuss the issue.

And this is where the religionists have been very devious. They not only reduce the groupings to two (theist and atheist) but they also tie the belief in God to the belief in religion. In other words, to believe in God you must also believe in religion.

Hence you must believe in the Trinity, that the road to salvation is through Christ and therefore you must accept Christ, or that Muhammad is the last Prophet and only by following Prophet Muhammad will you be ensured paradise, and so on. You are not allowed to believe in God independently. The belief in God must be packaged and tied to the belief in a religious doctrine. To reject this doctrine means you also reject God.

The Abrahamic faiths all believe that there is only one God. That makes it easy. However, there are three Abrahamic faiths and many more branches and sub-branches of these three faiths. And each of these faiths, branches and sub-branches claims that it is the only true faith and that all the others are false. That makes it complicating.

If we reduce everything to just the belief in God then it makes life very simple. Only when the belief in God also involves the belief in religion and you are not allowed to believe in God without also believing in one of the so many religions does it make our life messy.

Granted, you may believe that God exists and that the universe (and everything within it) was created by God. The question now would be: but was religion also created by God or was this an invention of humankind? God can exist because there is only one God. But how can there be so many religions if they were from God?

Well, we can talk more of this later if you wish.