I don't understand people.
129 of us died a day ago. It was insane, irrational, and entirely unjustifiable. #PrayForParis started trending in the attack's aftermath. I read a lot of Facebook statuses condemning the attacks and sympathising with the bereaved. But among those posts were several about how stupid the majority was, spending time, 'praying for Paris,' which left me thinking.
I've always believed in a power bigger than myself, not necessarily in the form of a God. It gives me some solace to think that somehow the world makes sense and that it's all part of a bigger plan. That we aren't in fact just some permutation of atoms who just happened to exist.
Holding this belief comforts me. Some others derive this comfort from worshipping a God with human traits. Still others prefer not to hold this belief in a higher power at all. This is all fine.
Sure, some people take their beliefs a little more seriously than others, which is also fine. However, things start getting crazy when a person starts considering his belief as the sole truth, automatically making the rest of us wrong. Things get crazier when he voices this thought. People die sometimes when he acts on it. As the 129 did yesterday.
I read posts stating how wrong it was to pray for Paris. What can you possibly accomplish by praying, they asked. Why don't you do something instead, they repeatedly said. Which got me thinking of what exactly will I achieve by praying? My prayers won't mitigate the suffering of the grieved; they won't help catch the 8th attacker still at large; they won't bring the 129 to life again.
But neither will writing a status condemning the slaughter of the innocents. Or anything else you do for that matter. But we do it anyway. Because we do not live in a utilitarian world where everything has a designated function and is of clear practical importance. This is who we are; this is what we've always been--a people living in a world full of redundancies and impracticalities and things that make no sense at all and yet, make us happy.
So if praying for Paris brings some amount of comfort to a person, let him. If praying for Paris is a means for someone to express his sympathy and thoughts for the departed, let him. If praying for Paris helps someone think and reflect on this painful, painful tragedy, let him.
Let us not demonise people for praying. It would be far better to leave the job of spreading hate among us to the terrorists, and focus instead on learning lessons from this grave setback and moving on as one people, united.
129 of us died a day ago. It was insane, irrational, and entirely unjustifiable. #PrayForParis started trending in the attack's aftermath. I read a lot of Facebook statuses condemning the attacks and sympathising with the bereaved. But among those posts were several about how stupid the majority was, spending time, 'praying for Paris,' which left me thinking.
I've always believed in a power bigger than myself, not necessarily in the form of a God. It gives me some solace to think that somehow the world makes sense and that it's all part of a bigger plan. That we aren't in fact just some permutation of atoms who just happened to exist.
Holding this belief comforts me. Some others derive this comfort from worshipping a God with human traits. Still others prefer not to hold this belief in a higher power at all. This is all fine.
Sure, some people take their beliefs a little more seriously than others, which is also fine. However, things start getting crazy when a person starts considering his belief as the sole truth, automatically making the rest of us wrong. Things get crazier when he voices this thought. People die sometimes when he acts on it. As the 129 did yesterday.
I read posts stating how wrong it was to pray for Paris. What can you possibly accomplish by praying, they asked. Why don't you do something instead, they repeatedly said. Which got me thinking of what exactly will I achieve by praying? My prayers won't mitigate the suffering of the grieved; they won't help catch the 8th attacker still at large; they won't bring the 129 to life again.
But neither will writing a status condemning the slaughter of the innocents. Or anything else you do for that matter. But we do it anyway. Because we do not live in a utilitarian world where everything has a designated function and is of clear practical importance. This is who we are; this is what we've always been--a people living in a world full of redundancies and impracticalities and things that make no sense at all and yet, make us happy.
So if praying for Paris brings some amount of comfort to a person, let him. If praying for Paris is a means for someone to express his sympathy and thoughts for the departed, let him. If praying for Paris helps someone think and reflect on this painful, painful tragedy, let him.
Let us not demonise people for praying. It would be far better to leave the job of spreading hate among us to the terrorists, and focus instead on learning lessons from this grave setback and moving on as one people, united.
