4 Jul 2006

knee jerk reaction?

Some time back an uncle of mine was in a bad accident. It resulted in him being paralyzed from the neck down. In the following weeks, as news slowly spread among family and friends, we got a number of calls from well wishers. While a few offered to help in their own small way, most were at a loss for words and just said that they would pray for him. As a way of offering support, people who seldom talk about God and were in the least bit religious were promising to offer prayers on his behalf to God.

It made me ponder over what my science teacher, in primary school, once told us. He said that what man couldn’t explain, he attributed to God. Our ancestors are believed to have worshipped fire, rain, solar eclipses, volcano eruptions, lightening etc to various Gods and their activities because they were at a loss to explain them scientifically.

Does this hold true even today? Do we remember God only in times of need or difficulty? Or is God the name for the unknown? For a power that we are yet to understand completely? Or is God an excuse when we feel inadequate in dealing with certain situations?

Thoughts like these keep recurring in my mind. So I would like your opinion. Also, if such a calamity were to befall someone you know, how would you go about consoling them or helping them out?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

hmmn..ths s a tricky situation..sometimes we just donno how to react to such situations..so the best way s to provide moral support and let them know that we are always there for them.

ego said...

I think so... Even in the past the unexplained theories were attributed to God, so much that they ended up being dogma's which were only demystified by science.. But despite so much progress in science , there are several things which remain unexplained.. We humans need some kind of a black-box mechanism to which we can attribut e this unknown..

Coming to the question you asked about consoling, well, the best support you could provide in such times is to keep in touch and make sure that the person doesn't feel neglected... I would do that atleast...