I love something incredibly awesome today. This movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_My_God_%282012_film%29It's about this one Atheist struggling against the organized religions, who economize on the superstitious belief systems created by the corrupt politics. So he ends up suing God, and all the religious leaders in the world. Little does he know is that God exists, but whose side is that God on anyway?
Why, the God intends to assist the Atheist in his battle, of course.
I sincerely feel that people (especially Indians, no matter what their belief) ought to watch this movie and reflect on it for a moment. It's not about the triumph of either Atheism or Religious belief, but the synthesis of human values and why religion began to exist in the first place, and why the mindless traditions of the orthodox needs to purge. The satire supports the Atheistic view of scientific skepticism, but wagers again the "cynicism" that comes with it, and essentially encouraging to find answers (especially value) from different perspectives and figuring out "what exactly corrupts a system" rather than fighting against the system itself.
Metaphorically, it means: If tradition pouring milk and prassad (i.e., a food that counts as "blessing") upon God is a good thing, then it ought to be worth weighing whether to pour it on a black stone, an idol, or feeding it to a hungry chap sitting by the street. The stone or idol will hardly be affected, but the hungry chap will be alleviated of his suffering at least for a day, not only physical but also psychological (with the idea that people still are empathetic and possess good will, thereby encouraging reciprocal altruism). In short -- God exists in people's hearts.
And after all, recent psychological studies did say that merely "helping" someone (even by random) simply makes things easy for everone, thereby proportionally lighting a threshold of mood in a given environment (not just of the person you're helping).