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Why Religion (in its current form) is the single most divisive, deadly, destructive force in the universe today...
Let me begin this one with all the disclaimers that are needed, so I can avoid needless discussions with the nut jobs that will inadvertently stumble across this post, and take it upon themselves to argue their point.
Disclaimer 1: I am no expert in this field; I'm just a humble scribe with an itch that turned into an obsession.
Disclaimer 2: I
am no enemy of Religion. I believe in the need for a way to bring the
faithful together as much as the next person. Religion has its place in
society, and uncorrupted, it has the capability to change the world!
Disclaimer 3: I
believe that all religions are equal and I am not setting out to
discriminate against, or single out any single religion. I will not
argue the pros and cons of one religion against another here; I believe
that every religion has as much to be ashamed about as it does to be
proud of, give or take a few rights and wrongs, over the course of
history. |
|
So...
The concept of Religion itself - the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power or a personal God (or gods, for some religions) is not fundamentally flawed. Humanity (for want of a better word) has taken that concept a step forward making Religion the organized worship of said deity (or deities), and today, Religion has come to encompass all of the tenets, rules, doctrines, dogmas, scriptures, blind interpretation of those scriptures et al that comes with worshiping a deity. Today's generation, in their infinite and unending wisdom, when quizzed about how into Religion they are, will present to you a new dimension to a very familiar term. "I am into Spirituality.", they will say. "Religion is for the chumps and fanatics."And I do not blame these people. Hell, I used to be one of them.
Religion today is what any of you want to turn it into. It has basically become the most whored-out term in the space-time continuum. Anybody with a figment of an idea and a fragment of capital (and sometimes, not even that), can start a religion today.
Don't believe me? Just run a Google search on 'How do I start my own religion?' You will wonder why you haven't started your own religion already! I mean, do you know that in America (where else?), there's a Church of Euthanasia that asserts its four principal pillars 'suicide, abortion, cannibalism (“strictly limited to consumption of the
already dead”), and sodomy (“any sexual act not intended for
procreation”)'. According to the church’s website, it is “a non-profit educational
foundation devoted to restoring balance between Humans and the remaining
species on Earth.”, and their one commandment is “Thou shalt not procreate”. The slogans employed by the group include “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself”. Take a moment out of your day today, to just appreciate how ridiculous that idea is!
But let's get down to my real beef with Religion.
(Am I still allowed to say 'beef' in India?) Religion today is responsible for literally most, if not all of the wars that we have seen in the past few centuries. From the Crusades, to the Holocaust, to the Gaza conflict, to the everlasting battle between America and every Muslim country (with oil, of course) that ever existed, every tiny little conflict that escalated into a global, large scale war has its roots in religious conflict (or conflict against a single community or religious group, which is essentially the same thing). Over the past few centuries Humanity has fought over everything from land possession rights, to which community was responsible for the nation's economic downfall, to where borders should be drawn, to race superiority, to which religious community dictates how a secular nation is run (Ahem!), to basically which ethnic and religious group was the easiest to wipe off the face of the Earth! Today, rebel groups all over the African continent are literally wiping out whole communities of people, based simply on the religion they belong to. Let that sink in, for a moment! Imagine if you, and literally everyone that basically followed the same belief system that you did, was wiped off the face of the planet, simply for holding on to that belief system!
Putting things into perspective, the sad reality today, is that Religion is being turned into a commodity that is being sold to the masses. Sadly, all of this has resulted from the corruption of the fundamental concept of Religion. Today, which religion you belong to, has come to represent the quality of life you will have, depending on where you choose to settle down in the world. People have literally thrown their lives away and moved cities, countries and continents because of persecution related to their faith and religion. Religion is being used and abused today to simply serve the egotistical needs of a particular community, and in the long run, this is detrimental to the functioning of society, as a whole. All of this is birthed from the fact that every religion relies on its scriptures for guidance, and every religious community relies on its community leaders for scriptural direction in all things related to their religion. And this is where the problem arises! Let's call this the 'Lost in Translation' syndrome.
Let's get this straight.
No faith (not religion!) advocates killing another individual for the heck of it! Heck, I'm no expert here, but if Religion comes from God, then no religion advocates hate and violence as a means to a greater good. I'd like to believe that no religion teaches you to bomb buildings, burn down churches, lynch people in the streets, hijack and destroy planes, rape and murder religious faithful, loot religious houses and kill and destroy in the name of your religion. Correct me, if I'm wrong! But sometimes messages are lost in translation. Rabbis, priests, imams, gurus, sadhus, babas and the religious clergy sometimes have agendas beyond what meets the eye. And the religious fanatics are always the one's that understand very little of their faith. They're always the one's that have been taken advantage of, that have been blindsided into doing something that goes far beyond anything that a normal person would even begin to imagine. And almost always, there is someone of authority working behind the scenes to corrupt the concept of Religion for them; to take the little that they understand about their religion and turn it on its head. This is where Religion begins its swift descent into the sewers.
It's little wonder then, that most people you meet today say they are
not religious. I've come across a whole lot of people from college
students to working professionals who say they don't believe in
Religion, with some who say they choose not to believe in God at all (yeah, the atheists). And while it saddens
me immensely, I do not blame these people, because Religion and the
corrupt, festering wound in the flesh of this universe that it has
become is doing more evil as an entity, than good.
The funny part is people today have begun to equate God with Religion. I've come across so many people who tell me that they don't believe in God, and then give me all the arguments I have just given you against Religion. I'd understand if people wanted to stop believing in and following Religion. Religion was a means to an end, that eventually became the end (of all things good and true). Religion is God's divine conception of 'Faith', corrupted by man's terribly grubby mitts. However, in my opinion, it would be extremely narcissistic of us as a race to think that there is no God. To borrow (from all places) from an Internet meme, "We live on a Blue Planet that circles around a ball of fire next to a moon that moves a sea, and you don't believe in a God? Really?" Well my belief system is much more deeply rooted than finding meaning in memes, but that's a story for another day, yeah? Either way, my response to people who say they don't believe in Religion, is this...Question everything you are told, and keep an open mind! This was what led me through the wilderness of doubt, into the bright realm of believing. Because only by questioning can you arrive at a deeper understanding of your belief system, and an open mind will let you absorb more than just the little that your simple, human understanding can comprehend.
The easiest thing in the world is to give up on something that pisses you off, and that makes you uncomfortable. But don't give up on your faith, your God, or your religion, no matter what they may be! There is incredible beauty in understanding the intricacies of these things, and in maintaining a thirst for knowledge of the mysteries that they will no doubt deliver!
I'd love to have begun this article with a dramatic fact that would have caught your attention. The fact of the matter is that there is none related to Religion, because although it is a global problem today (in its current form), it is not one that humanity is willing to isolate and deal with, because we're too busy fighting our petty religious wars. The closest I came to finding anything of interest was a little article I found in the DNA online newspaper. Again, I have not verified any of the facts or statistics presented in the article, (apparently some American think-tank has) but the title was what caught my attention:
India had highest level of social hostilities involving Religion in 2013. (Read the whole article
here)
I was shocked. I was not even sure how to process this information, because this was my country.
My India! The article went on to compare India against countries like Israel, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, several at-war African nations, and some of the middle eastern countries, and that made things all the more depressing. When did India go from being a secular, democratic nation to a pseudo-Banana Republic? Did we as a country even have the kind of conflict in place that the Palestinian regions had going on? Were we a nation ruled by guerrilla groups where rebel wars were an everyday occurrence, and people were persecuted for the God that they worshiped? Were we one of the gulf states that made it their business to systematically wipe out other religions because of the 'injustice' being committed against them elsewhere? No!
We were India! Land of the free! Population: 1.2 billion! Well, why weren't we fighting this then? Could we not find a few good men to band together and fight, like the men of the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones fought Mance Rayder's army? Was I still living in a world of fantasy?
And that's when I realized that in my country the plague of religion had become a vehicle. A vehicle that religious groups in my country were driving against the religious minorities. A vehicle that my government had occupied and was using to condone or blissfully ignore the behavior of these religious groups. A vehicle that would eventually come to signal the end of the freedom, the democracy, the secularism, the equal rights that the country I once knew had come to stand for. And in truth, the enemy here was never Religion itself, it was the corruption of the concept of Religion that was killing Humanity. It was what people had made of Religion, that would eventually come to destroy those very people.
We could have prayed for Humanity then. If only we still believed in Religion. Or in a God...
