Religions and Gods: Their Consequences in Modern India.

Of the about 1200 million Indians, about 85% follow the traditional Hinduism, about 13% follow Islam and others follow Christianity, and other religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainims etc.

I consider only the three major religions of the world here: Hinduism, Islam and Christianity in India as others are considered offshoot of Hinduism.

The core criteria for being a religious person are:

1. Believing in the IDEA of a Super Natural Agent (SNA) who controls ALL activities of all beings in this Universe, including human beings ALL the time.  According to Holy Puranas, Holy Koran and Holy Bible this SNA  could very well be in the form of Lord Shiva, Lord Krishna or Lord Rama or other human form.

2. Believing in the IDEA of real utility of Prayers, Poojas and Bhajans (PPB). That is,  the Almighty SNA will yield to PPB and provide the devotee or the worshiper with "all that he/she" prays for.

The above criteria are very important for all those follow Islam, Christianity (Abrahamic religions) and Hinduism.

3. In addition, Hindus must believe in the IDEA of Janma Poorva Karma (meaning the life in this birth is determined by all the actions of this and all the previous births; this brings forth the most important concept in Hinduism: the IDEA of Reincarnation and Rebirth, which demands the IDEA of FATALISM: the IDEA of everything is Pre-Ordained or Pre-Determined, and events in ones life can't be prevented, no matter what.

For many Scientists and to Atheists, the aforementioned criteria are just FICTION made up by some men:

Men created Religions, which created Gods for the purpose to subdue, organize, regulate, dominate, control or exploit human beings. This is the position of Atheists, and many Agnostics and Naturalists (who don't believe in any God, but believe in the awesome power of Nature as a Force).

Of the 7 billion in the world now, about 2 billion people follow Christianity, about 1.5 billion people follow Islam and about 1.0 billion people follow Hinduism. The rest 2.5 billion people are Non-Worshipers and Non-Believers.

Modern India has Secular Constitution. However, vast majority of the population is devoutly religious. Perhaps, about 100 million people who are middle class or rich are "Reformed Religious People" who have somewhat irreverent approach to religion - they don't go to Temple/Mosque/Church regularly for prayers. Others spend many hours a day in doing Prayers, Poojas and Bhajans to the Almighty God.

The current economic malaise of India where the average per capita income is about $3.65 per day per person can be traced back to extreme religiosity of nearly 1100 million people, who are poorly educated and with very poor skills

Most of these people strongly believe that their wretched life is because of their Janma Poorva Karma, and that they can't do any thing about it.

Life is Pre-Determined by the Almighty God (God of Puranas or the Gods of Abraham).

That bothers me the most.... more later.

Cheers.