Gods - Man's Creation ?

I recently recieved an email about a Malayalam Song by Vayalar on the creation of God.
"Manushyan mathangale Srishtichu, Mathangal Daivangale Srishtichu...", which traslates some thing similar to, Man created religion, religion created God. Man, religion & God together divided amongst themselves, soil & mind."

Here are my random thoughts on this subject.

I do believe in God(s). Anyone can give you examples to prove both ways. But I personally agree completely with Vayalar's song, "God was the creation of man". In my opinion God came into existence when man couldn't give a reliable/scientific explanation of things happeningaround him. For example, thunder, lightning and volcanic eruption were Moses' encounter with God on the Mount of Sinai, and to me, Ten Commandments were his final creation. In the past, it was easier make people believe anything by the mention of God(s) which stopped them from asking more questions.

The holy books were written (much after the event actually happened) from ballads and fairy tales and we all know how the truth changes when from ear to ear. Over time people, who were important to a religion, made their explanations to support their own acts. For example, in Bible, a believer is asked to pray alone with the doors of the room closed so that others don't see him talking to God. But after churches came into existence, community was considered more important than individual itself. The heads of the churches gave their own explanations to Bible for their own existence.

The great flood during the time of Noah and Manu (refer Mathsya – fish – incarnation of Vishnu) looks same to me. You can also see the flood Legends from different parts of the world (China – the family of Fuhi, Babylon – Utnapistim, Chaladian – Xisuthrus, Australia – woramba, Greece – Deucalion). This makes me believe that the human race came from a single place somewhere on earth.

Coming to Hinduism, it was never an exception to my theory. If you look closely, Hinduism is not a religion, but it's a practice. You become a Hindu only if you practice Hinduism. The "Upanayanam" – thread ceremony depicts the transformation of an individual from non-Hindu to Hindu (Later it was completely absorbed by Brahmins and taken away from other castes making the rule that Gayathri Manthra can be only heard by the Brahmins). During Manu's time, even girls were allowed to get Brahmopadesham but the later Orthodox stopped that.

The four castes were previously defined depending on the work an individual performed, but later became inherited. Untouchables were created much after Krishna. If you see Krishna, he was a Yadav, who is listed in Indian constitution as a Scheduled Caste and was an untouchable once upon a time. It is interesting to note that in the past, the lower castes were not permitted to enter even in Krishna temples and the elite, orthodox Brahmins (Called Savarnar in Malayalam) did the pooja in those temples :-). Interesting?

Another legend that interests me is our Ayyappan. Sabari was a lady according to Ramayana who lived in those mountains and hence the name Sabari Mala. Ayyappa is believed to be the son of Shiva & Mohini
(Vishnu's lady form) –even Gods were homosexuals :-). Mohini came during the time of second incarnation which is Koorma (tortoise) – to steal Amruth from the Rakshasaas. But Ayyappa's friend Vaavar is a Muslim and Muslims didn't exist until 570 AD. Don't you see something wrong here?

I prefer to believe that 10 incarnations of Vishnu were nothing but evolution. May be Darwin silently stole it from here :-)

Mathsyam (Fish, life started in water)
Koormam (Tortoise, amphibians)
Varaham (Basic life completely out of water)
Narasimham (Transition from animal to man)
Vamanan (First human form, short like the pigmies)
Parasuraman (The forest man)
Ram (Man starts to rule man, still attached to forest so it's a
transition)
Balaraman (I don't know what he was for)
Krishna (most cunning of all, the modern man)

I was reading a book recently about how Cows became sacred for Hindu's. The name of the book is Myth of the Holy cow by DN Jha. Aryans who were nomads must have eaten meat (readily available) since they never stayed at a place for farming.

Myth of the Holy Cow by DN Jha - Digital book from Google (some pages are missing)

As Jesus said, "Ninte Vishwaasam Ninne Rakshikkate"…