Benoy's Blog

God, Religion, & Government     From recent discussions with many of my friends, it seems to me that there is quite a bit of confusion between the meanings of the words ‘God’, ‘religion’, and ‘government'. Many people think that by referring to 'God', one is automatically bringing religion into the discussion. Is this really true, though? This article is my humble attempt to clear up this confusion. Belief in God Vs. Existence of God     First, let us look at the word “God” and see what it means. When referring to 'God', I am referring to a Supreme Being who is the Creator of all that exists. The word ‘God’ doesn’t automatically translate to Krishna, Allah, Jesus, or any other such deities. 'God' is the most plausible conclusion to the following logical arguments: The Cosmological Argument shows the necessity of a timeless, spaceless, and immaterial Being who caused this universe to exist. The Teleological Argument ...

Many people mistakenly claim that the Bible supports slavery. The intention of this article is to show that the claim is not true. (I will be using several passages from a very enlightening book by Paul Copan titled “Is God a Moral Monster.” I would encourage you to get that book for an in-depth study on this subject) First of all, we normally think of the word slavery as we have seen in the antebellum South (prewar). We hear horrible stories of this wretched practice and we know deep in our hearts that “slavery” is evil. But the big question is this – when the Bible uses the word “slavery,” what is its meaning? Does it equate with the meaning of slavery that we know today? As we all agree, it’s very important to interpret any ancient writings in their proper context. Having said that, let us analyze slavery in the Bible. What we find in the Bible is not slavery like we had in the antebellum South; rather, it is indentured service. Hebrew servanthood could be compared to...

I was prompted to write this after observing my atheist friends call anyone who disagreed with them idiots. An atheist is one who knows for sure that God doesn’t exist and thus there are no “absolutes.” In their world view, everything is relative. (I want to clarify something here – most of my atheist friends live very peaceful lives, they are kind, and they are faithful in their marriages. I am not saying that these atheists are immoral people.) Let us consider a scenario: Jack is an atheist and Andrew is a theist. Jack believes in a set of ideas, which we will call Idea Set A (ISA). Andrew believes in another set of ideas, which we will call Idea Set B (ISB). Jack calls Andrew an idiot because ISB (Andrew’s set of ideas) is different from ISA (Jack’s set of ideas). Jack knows for sure that ISA is BETTER than ISB, which is why he calls Andrew an idiot. So now, let us analyze the situation: If I say that my idea is objectively better than yours, what does that mean...

Dear friends, I have been meaning to share something in my heart with you for some time.  I hope you will not be uncomfortable with me for expressing my heart.  I also hope you will read this letter in its entirety before passing any judgment. When we buy something fantastic, whether it’s a washing machine, car or house, don’t we get excited about it? And let us say if you have used that washing machine or that car for some time and you are really satisfied with what you have purchased, don’t you want to tell your friends about it? Is there anything wrong with that? After all, don’t you want your friends also enjoy the benefits you are enjoying now?  Don’t you think it’s completely normal to do that? I believe that when it comes to spiritual topics, we should think the same way.  What I’ve found is that we usually don’t want anyone to tell us about something they found very interesting about a spiritual or religious matter. They may be enjoying the benefits of ...