Belief in God but not Religion - Essay Example

Examples of religions include the Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims among others (Hesse 77). There is the need to belief in God and not religion because the two books; Siddhartha and The Little Philosophy Book gives different perspectives of religions. Siddhartha talks about a spiritual voyage of the main character who is Siddhartha, through four sections of life. Siddhartha was a son to Brahmin and aesthetic in the forest. He was described as a gambler, merchant and eventually a ferryman. At the end of the book, the wisdom of Siddhartha arrived at by the supposed character was a mixture of Buddhists and Hindu traditions (McClory 42).

The Little Philosophy Book, on the other hand, talks about examination of individual-self, the earth, and the nature of truthand, putting across questions like, “why are we here?” “who are we?” and “how should we live?” the book begins by traveling around antique philosophy that varies from Socrates’ Greece, to Vedic India, to Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist China, and in the Middle East (Solomon 82). In essence, both books reflect on the aspect of religion where different people practice several beliefs and customs.

For example, in Siddhartha, the main character was a gambler who lived in woods with his own way of life and in his quest for wisdom Siddhartha makes a false sacrifice (Hesse 77). His selfish actions made him have many arguments with his fellow old man, Ferryman. For example, Siddhartha portrayed his negligence and selfish actions when he was told by Ferryman to let his 12-year son to take care of himself in the woods and the world because his father was not being fair to him. Siddhartha had a mind-body problem, which made him portray his selfishness attitude.

Throughout their lives in the forest, these people had their own religion, which combines the teachings and practices of Buddhists and Hindu. Note that Buddhism is a religion on its own while Hinduism is another religion on its own. The practices and traditions of these two religions are different. Since, Siddhartha, Ferryman, Hesse and other people who lived in forest had a hybrid of the two religions of Hindu and Buddhist, it means their religion was also on its own (Hesse 64). Note that all of them believe to be worshipping God but their practices, customs and traditions are different.

This means that belief should be dedicated to God and not religion because the world has several religions, which have distinct practices, and no religion believes on what the other religion believes in. The same concept is supported in the book The Little Philosophy Book which examines the concept of consciousness as par Descartes’ thought that, “I think, therefore I am”, phenomenological words that explain the issue of mind-body problem (Solomon 91). This book talks about God, spirituality, nature, freedom and responsibility, cosmology, morality and ethics.

The book also explores the meaning of life and the function of philosophy in determining both life and happiness. All these concepts are connected to religion in the sense that they define the way of life of people and as mentioned, the practices in it indicate that the religions of China people was Buddhist, while Indians practiced Vedic as other practiced Confucianism (McClory 43). All these are examples of religions in both books and they clearly imply that people need to believe in God and not religion because there is no uniform custom in all the religions in the world.

The spirituality of these religions also differs greatly due to the difference in believes. However, it should be clear that spirituality is the majestic and thoughtful fervors of life and a life lived