I often was asked how Malaysian are you when you do not believe at a religion as the first Malaysian Constitution stated 'Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan' which roughly translate to 'Believe in the God'. As a person that cannot understand religion, I do not subscribe to any of them. However throughout the years, from an atheist, slowly I begin to realise there have to be something larger than what we (human) can comprehend. In our daily life, there are mysteries we encountered. The mysteries that we cannot perceive yet it just comes so naturally. Therefore, I realised I need to recogize this element of unknown, element that is watching us everyday and element that is larger than us. Recognizing this element make me curious, make me small and feel belongs.
For me, religion is a medium. It serves well in the past as a part and parcel of human civilization. It teaches us the values and some knowledge when we have no foundation to rationalize. There are those dark ages in human civilization where we are ready to evolve into a larger societies yet values is the barrier. The best method at that time to inculcate the values and knowledge is through religion. Religion uses the power of unknown and fear (God) to strike knowledge to our heart. It serves us well until education and scientific methods teach us how to reason. I believe they has replaced religion to teach us the values and knowledge we need in this era. Who knows one day, some technology might replaced education and scientific method that can bring human to a higher level. But certainly, some parts of religion has obsolete by scientific method. The other havles of religion including moral and values that religion bring us is replaced by education.
I strongly believe there is no connection between the God and religion. Religions describe the God, the fanatics tries to be the along with the God and the spiritual leaders often used the God. In the end, I believe the God as a larger set of this universe, the unknown and the space.
