By Aishwarya Ishwar
Ever wondered why faith is fading among the younger generation? Is it just to look ‘cool’ or does it have a deeper meaning to it? Well, let us not be shallow but attempt to understand why this is so relevant in today’s youth. ‘Faith’ is described in Encyclopedia Britannica as, “The inner attitude, conviction, or trust relating human beings to a supreme God or ultimate salvation. In religious traditions stressing divine grace, it is the inner certainty or attitude of love granted by God himself.”
Ever since man came into existence, the concept of faith has also grew with the stages that man traversed. Early man was scared of Nature’s fury and therefore, worshipped it. Back then, it was only limited to the four elements, Earth, Fire, Water and Air. As man evolved, so did the concept of faith that continued to intensify and it was then that small but probing questions sprung up. The intensification of this simple concept began in the form of dominance, rituals, sacrifices which started to blur the concept of faith. The intensification, brought with it, superstitions and unnecessary beliefs and this is when we also see Faith turning into a commodity, something that can be sold and people made money out of it.
Social evils such as the caste system, Sati, Child Marriage, Polygamy were all born out of this commodity. Especially for women, things became all the more difficult and stereotypes began to form.
These concepts are so deeply rooted in our society that it has now become almost impossible to eradicate it in totality. In the early times, only a certain section of society was literate. The masses who belonged to the lower strata of society were illiterate. What brought them on the same page was disbelief and superstitions and none had the vision to evaluate the wrongs in these concepts that had blinded the illiterate ‘faithfuls.’. The first Indian to ever oppose Sati and Child Marriage was Raja Rammohan Roy. But this was in the year 1814. It’s obvious these evils had existed for over 500 years. You can now imagine how deeply mythical faith has penetrated society.
As we move towards the Modern era, we observe people’s perspectives changing and becoming more practical. This practicality is what clashes with faith. Practicality asks for scientific reasons or proofs about why a certain phenomena takes place but faith is not phenomena. It is misconception based on beliefs born out of ignorance. Our faith has brought us together but it is hard to explain.
Another reason why faith is fading is too many superstitions and impositions in society have been promulgated and woven into the mainstream social fabric. As a result we have a stream of nonbelievers or Atheists. Even today we see a number of people who only want us to ‘believe in disbelief.’ Their only goal is to hold man in the web of illusions they create thereby belying the trust of their ‘lambs’ in the name of groundless but ‘charismatic’ orations. A closer look at the theories and philosophies of these god men and god women is enough to expose that none of them think alike or depict holy scriptures in the manner they are meant to be depicted. Their versions are full of contradictions. Thugs, after all, seldom see eye to eye on their individual brand of lies. But that does not mean that all preachers belong to this category. There are the ones who thankfully guide morals and beliefs towards The Light and that is what faith is all about. Faith is magical, in the sense that there have been many instances of scientific failures, phenomena which science has not been able to unravel and this where we see Faith proving its very existence.
(The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. She can be reached at aishwar84@yahoo.com)
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