Differences in the Views About Religion 

We all wonder if there is a supreme being watching over all humans, and who is in charge and knows all about our affairs. We try to fathom how we were made and who made us. This is still a mystery to some of us. However due to the different creation stories, and stories about God from different religions we humans have diverse thought and beliefs about the kind of God we serve and what God made the things that we see.

'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger' by William Blake talks about two different types of God. The God who made the lamb and the one who made the Tyger. It appears that the God who created the lamb is passionate while the God who created the Tyger is one who should be feared. We have a description about another kind of God by Salman Rushdie’s “imagine there is no heaven.” The article about “imagine there is no heaven” argues that religion has been the cause of many problems that bedevil the world today through its many doctrines regarding the questions of origin and those of morality.

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He spoke about free choice versus religion. The question was if people would still act and do things the right way if there wasn’t heaven or a punishment of either heaven or hell. He further stressed that religion has brought about oppression because people are now guided by a specific rule and cannot act outside that rules

The God who created the lamb is calm and caring.

He is a kind of God who provides for his creations and has quite a fair judgement. William Blake was an English poet , printer and printmaker who wrote this poem and spoke of the lamb as a child. In Christianity, the lamb represents Christ as both suffering and triumphant; it is typically a sacrificial animal, and may also symbolize gentleness, innocence, and purity. . Blake compares the lamb to Jesus, the Lamb of God. Blake claims both are mild and meek, with a heavenly aspect about them. However, in the poem “The Tyger”, which is also written by William Blake, the view of God who created the Tyger is quite different from the lamb. We all know the Tyger is an animal that hunts for food and therefore this creature does not have a meek or mild spirit. The Tyger is a highly symbolic poem based on Blake's personal philosophy of spiritual and intellectual revolution by individuals. The speaker in the poem is puzzled at the sight of a tiger in the night, and he asks it a series of questions about its fierce appearance and about the creator who made it. Therefore, this poem gives us another view of God and how religion is. Maybe religion is not about being all meek and mild like the first poem has portrayed it to be. Religion could be a battle and could be a fearsome journey or challenge as the Tyger has made us realize. The broader point is one that many Christian believers have had to grapple with: if God is all-loving, why did he make such a fearsome and dangerous animal? We can’t easily fit the tiger into the ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ view of the Christian creation.

Indeed, we might take such an analysis further and see the duality between the lamb and the tiger as being specifically about the two versions of God in Christianity: the vengeful and punitive Old Testament God, Yahweh, and the meek and forgiving God presented in the New Testament. What bolsters such an interpretation is the long-established associations between the lamb and Jesus Christ. The tiger, whilst not a biblical animal, embodies the violent retribution and awesome might of Yahweh in the Old Testament. “Imagine there’s No Heaven” is a letter written by Salman Rushdie who is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He is an atheist and is known for his unflinching criticism of religion. He speaks about how religion has modified the lives of people. It is about individuals struggling with a complex set of external forces that regulate and define their lives. He speaks about how religion has given individuals the choice to do right things and wrong things. Imagine if there was no heaven were the arguments made by Salman.

Take for example, branding some type of food as unclean and cannot be consumed by followers of that religion. Muslims are not allowed to eat pork because it is unclean to their religion. He said in his letter that religion was created by man which ultimately means that people are following the rules that man has brought to us and not what God has. He also said religion has prevented people from making their own choices and therefore preventing individuals from reaching their full potential. One of the many other arguments he wrote in his letter is how religions act as a prison for many and a means to gain power to few. Those in power are able to make the rules and then the followers of the religion have to abide because they are bound by those rules. The fact that people have to believe in something has been entwined with their emotions. His letter also spoke about how some religion do not believe in preventive medicine and treatment, many more still die.

The author employs a consistent flow in his analysis of the problems that religion has caused on the world. Like the wars between Islamic countries. The main point that author is putting across in this point is that religion is responsible for waging war against its own people, against its followers, those who are defenseless. Moreover, the main goal that is evident in this article is that the author is advocating for the freedom of the mind, the ability to have an open-mind, free from the dogmas of religion. It is this kind of mind that can win the war against religion, as such a mind enhances belief in oneself and is not held in bondage by the precepts of religion.