Religion Paper Excerpts
On immortality:
In Daoism, people have to achieve harmony with the dao in order to reach the ultimate level of success: immortality. By such a goal, Daoism is just like any other religion that believes in an afterlife, or Heaven and Hell. The origins of such beliefs must be stemmed from human’s desire to transcend beyond life for something eternal or something better. However, I again find myself at odds with this concept. I cannot understand why people are constantly looking for something better, for something greater, for something larger than life. The need for an eternity or afterlife, to me, seems as if people are afraid of death. They are afraid that life will not be enough. People are so afraid of reaching death that they want to invent a solution so that they can tell themselves, “This isn’t it. There’s got to be more.” But in doing so, they deprive themselves of enjoying actually living; people sometimes become blinded by the ambitions and thus do not appreciate the aspects in life that are tangible.
On the belief in a higher power:
My inability to comprehend the concept of immortality and the dao stems from my lack of belief in a higher power. I am able to grasp the idea of a personal God, such as the God in Christianity, only because my peers are Christian themselves and education, especially literature in the Western world, focuses on the Christian God. However, the idea of a personal god remains too abstract for me. As much as I could imagine a figure that watches over people, in the end, all my imagination amounts to is a concept that is still too unreal. Attempting to understand the idea of the dao, however, proves to be even harder. The Western school of thought – having a personal god and a figure to embody an image – has influenced my view of what “God” is supposed to be, even if I don’t believe a God exists. I cannot imagine an impersonal god such as the dao because there is nothing to picture in my mind. And that is the problem with Eastern religions in the Western world. People who have grown up believing in a personal god would have a even more difficult time accepting the impersonal god as presented by Daoism.
On a personal versus impersonal god:
My conflict between a personal and impersonal god is fueled by the definition of “god.” Society seems to have defined “god” as a figure or a force that propels individuals to act a certain way or believe in certain ideas. The word “god” becomes synonymous with religion. Religions have defined their own gods, so that people automatically associate the word “god” with whoever or whichever god or gods that they are accustomed to believing in. To me, however, the word “god” has no meaning. If anything, the only “god” that exists in my perception is myself. Does that make myself a god? The word “god” has developed such a venerable connotation; to call oneself a god would be to betray all religious practice, because there are set gods that such religions cater to.
On religion in society and on a personal level:
The misrepresentation of myself among an overwhelmingly large group of Christians is only on a personal level. Even my peer’s inability to understand my beliefs, and my inability to understand his beliefs reveal the causes of religious incompatibility. When a religious group faces another religious group, both are convinced that their own religion is the way to be. The difference in ideology only contributes more to religious schism. What neither groups realize, however, is that religion overall can never be the absolute truth, because there are no absolute truths. Religions offer the mirage of an absolute truth. Daoism claims that the only goal individuals should strive for is to submit to the dao and allow it to guide them in order to achieve a “successful” life. Ideology and philosophies, however, are subject to cultures and different societies. The world is run upon relative truths; qigong is a perfect example of that. To a believer of qigong, the individual is affected by the qigong master’s qi, while a non-believer does not react to the qigong master; in the non- believer’s mind, the truth is that qi does not exist. Religion has survived throughout the history of mankind because its followers believe that the religion is the absolute truth. If their relative truth is the idea of an absolute truth, and if it works for them, then I am in no place to criticize their religion.
This page is linked to a more recent blog entry on Daoism.
