State of Religion in the State of Denmark
During the last Christmas, I attended a proper traditional Christmas party with my work mates from Motorola in Copenhagen. "Julefrokost" is what it is called, which literally translates to Christmas lunch (though it is a dinner in practice). The Julefrokost traditionally starts with a strong alcoholic drink called Schnapps, which is very famous in northern Europe, along with the Herring fish and pork fat butter; all just to warm you up. For us then, the buffet was ready in some time with a good variety of food. After the dinner, some artists came up on the huge stage in front and live music started rolling. Later, the DJ was on and so was the night. At the end of all this, I wondered, what really is religious about this way of celebrating Christmas?
I had no answer, until I was part of my second Julefrokost with a set of friends from the Danish language class. We went to an Italian restaurant, drank Italian wine, ate Italian pizza and topped all this with a cool Italian dessert. I ended up flushing 350 danish kroners on myself. While on my way back to the train station, my Danish language instructor, Torben, walked with me. Just out of curiosity I wanted to know what they did in the church on Christmas and how it was celebrated as a religious festival. I put up the question to him, and his answer was pretty simple: I don't go to church. I don't believe in God.
I was shocked in some ways.
It is a fact that until you think on the state of a particular matter as it is in a foreign country, you always assume it to be like how you have seen it or how it was in your home. Indians are religious people, and we go to temples and even keep the photos and idols of our "favorite" Gods at home. Hence, being in Denmark would make me think that Danish people are religious as well and go to church like asked in Christianity. This belief was killed right after I come across the person who told me just the opposite. Torben went on to tell me some more things, and we had a nice small discussion on the state of religion in western Europe. It is not only him who does not go to the church, it is a common phenomenon in the whole country!
His argument was simple: we have other priorities in life than going to church or believing in God. But why? Because we are happy as we are and we don't have the time for it as well. Okay, this made sense to me. The Danes are among the most happiest people on earth. Though the sense of happiness here comes from the sense of being content. They are satisfied with what they have and don't live life with big dreams like Americans, who have been inheriting it. Moreover, they are a bunch of really secure people; secure socially. The children get education, the sick get treatment, the unemployed get money and so on, which is all for free. So, people basically have everything and need nothing more. So, why to ask God for anything?
Much of India in contrast is a poor state. We have problems which are deeply rooted and need a reform immediately. The standard of living is usually not good and the basic necessities of life are not available in rural areas. Amidst all this, it is quite clear that religion and our Gods offer us the support of going on in spite of problems and difficulties. For a farmer whose future depends on rains, the only option is to ask God for it and have faith in Him to save him each and every year. A farmer in Denmark would not be worried because he would be paid by the state if he comes across a bad harvest. So I think, the more content the people are, the lesser would be the relevance of religion.
America is a developed nation, but people are not happy. There are social problems which frustrate people. So, religion is still a big thing in America. Only 19 percent of the people in America are atheist's. The rest either believe in religion or doubt the existence of it. But 81 percent is a huge number, as compared to Denmark's less than 50 percent.
Around the same time, I had a chat with my Danish neighbor. We started our discussion on the same question which is why Danes don't prefer going to church (he also doesn't). Following this, we somehow ended up discussing the Danish cartoons controversy. His attitude on the controversy was very liberal. He never said that the cartoons were just for fun and should not have been taken so seriously by Muslims, but he was also not opposed to the idea of the cartoons being published. I was not very happy with his reaction at first, as I believe that this cartoon act was totally unacceptable, whatever be the degree of openness and freedom in the society. But then after a while, the reason for his arguments actually began to come to my mind which made sense to the whole concept.
If someone is not religious, he or she would not believe in any other religion either. And this in particular could result in the possibility of them hurting the faith of people following some or the other religion. Most Danes don't go to church anymore. Christmas for them is just another occasion to meet family and relatives, or have a party apart from this. Without a religious conscience, drawing a bomb on the head of Prophet Mohammad can be of great fun for the cartoonist thinking it would be great fun for the Danes as well. What he unconsciously did not realize was the fact that there is a set of people having religious sentiments with the Prophet, while he doesn't have a sentiment for any religion.
The bottom line is that the frame of reference of the two cultures (Danes and Muslims settled in Denmark) is different when looking at the same thing. While Danes are not believers in God, the Muslims still are to a great degree.
The movie Religulous by Bill Maher tries to question the existence of God and the relevance of religion in today's world. Stories of the birth of Jesus Christ, and tales written in the Testament's are fine; but the big question is how can one ascertain that these incidents are real and not just some fantasies. It is something that no one can tell, but we can in the best situation give an answer of "I don't know". This state of being helpless in being able to determine the truth behind how a religion came into being is also diverting people away from it.
I consider myself in the category of those who doubt religion, which doesn't mean I doubt in God. I still believe that there is a mighty force around us. But has this force taken the form of Jesus or Prophet or Krishna is something I cannot tell and thus something I doubt. I still get a sense of confidence and support from this force, and I also don't mind going to a temple and singing songs while remembering Krishna or Ram, just because I am not an atheist.
I had no answer, until I was part of my second Julefrokost with a set of friends from the Danish language class. We went to an Italian restaurant, drank Italian wine, ate Italian pizza and topped all this with a cool Italian dessert. I ended up flushing 350 danish kroners on myself. While on my way back to the train station, my Danish language instructor, Torben, walked with me. Just out of curiosity I wanted to know what they did in the church on Christmas and how it was celebrated as a religious festival. I put up the question to him, and his answer was pretty simple: I don't go to church. I don't believe in God.
I was shocked in some ways.
It is a fact that until you think on the state of a particular matter as it is in a foreign country, you always assume it to be like how you have seen it or how it was in your home. Indians are religious people, and we go to temples and even keep the photos and idols of our "favorite" Gods at home. Hence, being in Denmark would make me think that Danish people are religious as well and go to church like asked in Christianity. This belief was killed right after I come across the person who told me just the opposite. Torben went on to tell me some more things, and we had a nice small discussion on the state of religion in western Europe. It is not only him who does not go to the church, it is a common phenomenon in the whole country!
His argument was simple: we have other priorities in life than going to church or believing in God. But why? Because we are happy as we are and we don't have the time for it as well. Okay, this made sense to me. The Danes are among the most happiest people on earth. Though the sense of happiness here comes from the sense of being content. They are satisfied with what they have and don't live life with big dreams like Americans, who have been inheriting it. Moreover, they are a bunch of really secure people; secure socially. The children get education, the sick get treatment, the unemployed get money and so on, which is all for free. So, people basically have everything and need nothing more. So, why to ask God for anything?
Much of India in contrast is a poor state. We have problems which are deeply rooted and need a reform immediately. The standard of living is usually not good and the basic necessities of life are not available in rural areas. Amidst all this, it is quite clear that religion and our Gods offer us the support of going on in spite of problems and difficulties. For a farmer whose future depends on rains, the only option is to ask God for it and have faith in Him to save him each and every year. A farmer in Denmark would not be worried because he would be paid by the state if he comes across a bad harvest. So I think, the more content the people are, the lesser would be the relevance of religion.
America is a developed nation, but people are not happy. There are social problems which frustrate people. So, religion is still a big thing in America. Only 19 percent of the people in America are atheist's. The rest either believe in religion or doubt the existence of it. But 81 percent is a huge number, as compared to Denmark's less than 50 percent.
Around the same time, I had a chat with my Danish neighbor. We started our discussion on the same question which is why Danes don't prefer going to church (he also doesn't). Following this, we somehow ended up discussing the Danish cartoons controversy. His attitude on the controversy was very liberal. He never said that the cartoons were just for fun and should not have been taken so seriously by Muslims, but he was also not opposed to the idea of the cartoons being published. I was not very happy with his reaction at first, as I believe that this cartoon act was totally unacceptable, whatever be the degree of openness and freedom in the society. But then after a while, the reason for his arguments actually began to come to my mind which made sense to the whole concept.
If someone is not religious, he or she would not believe in any other religion either. And this in particular could result in the possibility of them hurting the faith of people following some or the other religion. Most Danes don't go to church anymore. Christmas for them is just another occasion to meet family and relatives, or have a party apart from this. Without a religious conscience, drawing a bomb on the head of Prophet Mohammad can be of great fun for the cartoonist thinking it would be great fun for the Danes as well. What he unconsciously did not realize was the fact that there is a set of people having religious sentiments with the Prophet, while he doesn't have a sentiment for any religion.
The bottom line is that the frame of reference of the two cultures (Danes and Muslims settled in Denmark) is different when looking at the same thing. While Danes are not believers in God, the Muslims still are to a great degree.
The movie Religulous by Bill Maher tries to question the existence of God and the relevance of religion in today's world. Stories of the birth of Jesus Christ, and tales written in the Testament's are fine; but the big question is how can one ascertain that these incidents are real and not just some fantasies. It is something that no one can tell, but we can in the best situation give an answer of "I don't know". This state of being helpless in being able to determine the truth behind how a religion came into being is also diverting people away from it.
I consider myself in the category of those who doubt religion, which doesn't mean I doubt in God. I still believe that there is a mighty force around us. But has this force taken the form of Jesus or Prophet or Krishna is something I cannot tell and thus something I doubt. I still get a sense of confidence and support from this force, and I also don't mind going to a temple and singing songs while remembering Krishna or Ram, just because I am not an atheist.
posted by Rajesh at 4:52 PM
3 Comments:
well said raji ,, there is a supreme power taking care of us..the god is only one and we dont know whether the god believes in any religion or not.......as u said out there ppl don't believe in religion much though Islamics does. but out here in India we are too much into religion and many times PPL political parties take advantage of it and get into riots fights etc.
its like religion ke naam pe kuch bhi karo
I think your observation that 'the more content the people are, the lesser would be the relevance of religion', but have you thought about why that is? I think it is because the purpose of religion is to promote a view on life - about what is right and wrong to do - which makes all people (not just a few) more content. I think you can say that we Danish people are extremely religious in the sense that we don't even need to go to church to learn to accept this Christian view on life...:)
Interesting post. Why is it that when (a) people is "blessed" with material goods, it tends to forget God? Seems that the more God blesses people, the more they forget him.
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