Gulshan-You are absolutely right.Different religions and its subdivisions creates social division.In fact religion is the root cause for majority of fights in this world. But that is a social problem.What I am pointing here is the purpose and essence of religion.It is for individuals.

Again I want to correct you here.A Hindu is never supposed to believe.I have already made it clear.He is free to take any path.That why there is toleration and universal acceptance. A Hindu is free to give away anything he thinks illogical.I like to quote the last lines of holy geeta.In it Krishna says to Arjun.""You have heard me.First understand this, then analyze it and if you are satisfied only accept it.""Thus it is not blind faith.The very unfortunate fact is that only a very few understand this reality.And there is degradation when this knowledge came in the hands of different people.Thats what is disturbing for both you and me.

Gulshan-Can i ask you a question.Why don't you believe in God.?

:) This is personal belief MC

There is no point that everyone should believe in GOD.

In continuation of the point I made in my earlier post,let me add that true religion never divides and at the highest state of spiritualism there hardly exists any compartmentalization as Hindu ,Muslim or Christians and so on.Why unnecessarily do we blame religion for the kind of division we witness in our society.Although my personal belief in the organized religions is nil but at the same time I do believe in the existence of the Supreme Being.

MC,
Science can't explain all thing.There is GOD which cannot be explained using science.Actually it is just a development from the side of man what GOD had created.So it will continue.

This is a very interesting topic. There are a lot of angles to both science and religion that can be debated upon and not one would arrive at a specific answer to either of them. Apart from mere belief or what can be called as religious inclination, there is something called as FAITH. There have been numerous instances quoted in history books and other documentation which defies all known definitions of science. Where science looks upon a subject or topic as a proof or theorem to be solved, by providing logical explanations and chemical analysis and such; religion takes a much broader view.

A few examples: I am sure all of you would have heard of Saint Dnyaneshwar, 14th century Maharashtra, he along with his siblings; was invited by Saint Changdeo to have a debate on the prevalent religious beliefs. Saint Changdeo used to ride a live tiger to get around. St. Dnyaneshwar thinking it inappropriate to go to meet him on foot, drove a wall to see him. Many would not believe this story, but documented proof by people who have seen this incident still exist until today. Can this be explained by science?

There are many more examples that can be quoted. Samarth Ramdas Swami and St. Tukaram, both acknowledged as teachers by Shri Shivaji Maharaj and contemporaries; in both their works, there are references to atomic energy. Plastic surgery originated in India. The different astras which have been described in Ramayan and Mahabharat in actually were great weapons of destructions AND were derived from pure science and were in no way magic or voodoo science. Our ancestors in reality HAD accomplished a very high level of pure sciences in terms of weaponry and lot many other powers; and in order to ensure that these powers were not misused for personal selfishes or to kill unnecessarily linked it with religion. There can be a separate debate on this but those who may choose to study ancient scripts will find the truth that asll the so-called chamatkars was the result of exact science.

Also there are instances of people experiencing ESP(extrasensory perception) which science has so far been unable to explain. Instances of people achieving unbelievable feats merely by extreme willpower, a lot many things as yet remain unexplained. These have been explained by many as as result of chemical reactions in the brain but haven't been able to prove.
It is our choice whether we want to believe in one thing or the other or go by practical logic.

This is an article here :laugh:

Saint Dnyaneshwar, I haven't heard of him ..Thanks for the wonderful information Kalyani...

Thanks Deepti, I will forward more information on him for you to read. But in short, he was a very young boy who, at the age of 16 wrote translated entire Bhagwad Gita in Marathi known as Dnyaneshwari. 14th century Maharahstra was in immense turmoil, people were on one hand being oppressed by Mughal rulers and on the other hand by so-called religious leaders of upper caste. The knowledge from our hindu scriptures and education was being denied to the common people and people of lower caste. There was a state of total anarchy and lot of different religious cults were on rise. These cults claimed themselves to be worshippers of Shakti and practised immoral things. That was when his Dnyaneshwari and lot of other works proved to be a guiding principle.

You may have heard of the yearly Wari in Maharashtra which takes place every year in the month of Ashadha. where devotees walk for thousands of kilometres to Pandharpur to take darshan of Shri Vitthala. This tradition of wari was established by St. Dnyaneshwar.

Also, of note he took samadhi at the age of 19 at Alandi, Pune. Therefore, the annual wari now starts from Alandi pune to Pandharpur.

@kalyani,
This is exactly what I had in my mind when I made this thread.Thank you so much for providing such highly informative and interesting input for this debate.
You are right.Our ancestors used pure science and advance technology.I like to mention here the words of the scientist who made the atom bomb.His name is J. Robert Oppenheimer. While witnessing the explosion, he thought of a verse from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita:
""If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one...""
There are many such quotes from him like this.Also many scientist mention about the ancient knowledge.It clearly tell us the depth of scientific knowledge our ancestor had.

@Deepti,
I was just asking him what is the reason :) .I have no issue if one believes or not.If you read the earlier post I have made clear about my view on belief.

@Chinmoy,
Religion as such is not the reason for the division.It is the people or followers who create division.In that point of view, we may blame religion.

@Abid,
I completely agree with you.This is my point also.Science can’t explain everything.