Have you ever played the game "what if!!"
It was lazy sunday afternoon, post a heavy lunch when I prodded my husband with an innocuous question "if given a choice, to change ANY ONE thing in this WORLD, what would you like to change?"
Never did I realize that the same question would end up being a reason for unravelling quite some interesting facts that provoked me to come up with this blog.
"How about a world without religion!!!" a bold thought peeped in some corner of my destructive mind.
What is religion?? to me its a lifestyle,an adherence,a discipline,a belief endorsed by a group of like minded people in an attempt to be attached to a supreme power named "GOD"
And in this process we come across the teachings of sincerity, responsibility,honesty, love and care,etc etc. But on second thought how many of us trully follow these teachings!!
Does a person really need to be a metophoric "religious" person in order to imbibe the much sought after traits in the list above??
Are not these traits more essentially human traits than being religious traits??.
My apathy towards the word religion primarily has its roots in the very devastating effects of a much touted cause called "RELIGION".
French Wars (1562-98) - a prolonged war for religious tolerance by the protestants, who finally got the freedom to follow their version of Christianity after the struggle
Babri Masjid (1992) - a communal riot faced by the city Mumbai, post demolition of Babri Mosque.
Gujarat Riots (2002) - a communal riot in an India State,Gujarat, against Muslims where the lives lost and homes destroyed were also of Hindus.
Yet thats not the end of the list, there are many more like Indo pak partition, attack on World Trade Centre, European Wars, etc. But what was achieved.......only some vested interest met,some egos satisfied in exchange of many ravaged thoughts,plundered emotions and decimated structures which devalued "Humanity" at large, that we are argueably prototypes of.
They say Religion is a great discriminator.
It discriminates humans during admissions in school, else WHY do we read about children dropping out from school in order to stay with their religion ??
It discriminates lovers, else WHY when a Hindu wants to marry a Muslim or Christian objections are raised ??
It discriminates between genders, else WHY in a Hindu family a widow is expected to live alone looking after her kids, whereas a widower can easily gets off marrying another woman?? WHY in Islam, a man is allowed to marry four times irrespective of whether his previous wife is alive or not, whereas women are not even allowed to move freely in society ??
Religion is a license to do wrong without fear, else WHY by mere confession Christians easily gets off all the sins ??
Religion obliterates rational and logical thinking and is an impediment for scientific progress, else WHY walking under a ladder is considered as bad luck or WHY Friday 13 is said to be inauspicious ??
Thats why even after being a religious person, I doubt what good is religion doing to us! Agreed these religions have set certain rules for individulas to lead life in certain way, but whats the use of any such religion which discriminates one from other on grounds of superior and/or inferior feelings? Whats the need of any religion if we can live together as one society and not many groups in a society?Yes, we need to live a systematic life, and so need to follow certain rules, and a society with rules is good......but rules based on some religion which is also made by MAN is doing no good to anyone. Instead its just holding many of us back from proceeding in life in true sense.
However, by end of the day this is just what I feel, you may or may not agree. But just to recall, the very concept of world without religion was just an assumption...what if.....!!!!
Reference:
http://www.sociologyguide.com/social-stratification/caste=system.php
http://www.islambasics.com/view.php?bklD=157&chapter=6 http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html
http://www.wsu.edu/-dee/REFORM/WARS.HTM
http://www.lepg.org/wars.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Wars_of_Religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_violence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Riots
http://www2.islandnet.com/~luree/silly.html
It was lazy sunday afternoon, post a heavy lunch when I prodded my husband with an innocuous question "if given a choice, to change ANY ONE thing in this WORLD, what would you like to change?"
Never did I realize that the same question would end up being a reason for unravelling quite some interesting facts that provoked me to come up with this blog.
"How about a world without religion!!!" a bold thought peeped in some corner of my destructive mind.
What is religion?? to me its a lifestyle,an adherence,a discipline,a belief endorsed by a group of like minded people in an attempt to be attached to a supreme power named "GOD"
And in this process we come across the teachings of sincerity, responsibility,honesty, love and care,etc etc. But on second thought how many of us trully follow these teachings!!
Does a person really need to be a metophoric "religious" person in order to imbibe the much sought after traits in the list above??
Are not these traits more essentially human traits than being religious traits??.
My apathy towards the word religion primarily has its roots in the very devastating effects of a much touted cause called "RELIGION".
French Wars (1562-98) - a prolonged war for religious tolerance by the protestants, who finally got the freedom to follow their version of Christianity after the struggle
Babri Masjid (1992) - a communal riot faced by the city Mumbai, post demolition of Babri Mosque.
Gujarat Riots (2002) - a communal riot in an India State,Gujarat, against Muslims where the lives lost and homes destroyed were also of Hindus.
Yet thats not the end of the list, there are many more like Indo pak partition, attack on World Trade Centre, European Wars, etc. But what was achieved.......only some vested interest met,some egos satisfied in exchange of many ravaged thoughts,plundered emotions and decimated structures which devalued "Humanity" at large, that we are argueably prototypes of.
They say Religion is a great discriminator.
It discriminates humans during admissions in school, else WHY do we read about children dropping out from school in order to stay with their religion ??
It discriminates lovers, else WHY when a Hindu wants to marry a Muslim or Christian objections are raised ??
It discriminates between genders, else WHY in a Hindu family a widow is expected to live alone looking after her kids, whereas a widower can easily gets off marrying another woman?? WHY in Islam, a man is allowed to marry four times irrespective of whether his previous wife is alive or not, whereas women are not even allowed to move freely in society ??
Religion is a license to do wrong without fear, else WHY by mere confession Christians easily gets off all the sins ??
Religion obliterates rational and logical thinking and is an impediment for scientific progress, else WHY walking under a ladder is considered as bad luck or WHY Friday 13 is said to be inauspicious ??
Thats why even after being a religious person, I doubt what good is religion doing to us! Agreed these religions have set certain rules for individulas to lead life in certain way, but whats the use of any such religion which discriminates one from other on grounds of superior and/or inferior feelings? Whats the need of any religion if we can live together as one society and not many groups in a society?Yes, we need to live a systematic life, and so need to follow certain rules, and a society with rules is good......but rules based on some religion which is also made by MAN is doing no good to anyone. Instead its just holding many of us back from proceeding in life in true sense.
However, by end of the day this is just what I feel, you may or may not agree. But just to recall, the very concept of world without religion was just an assumption...what if.....!!!!
Reference:
http://www.sociologyguide.com/social-stratification/caste=system.php
http://www.islambasics.com/view.php?bklD=157&chapter=6 http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html
http://www.wsu.edu/-dee/REFORM/WARS.HTM
http://www.lepg.org/wars.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Wars_of_Religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Gujarat_violence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Riots
http://www2.islandnet.com/~luree/silly.html
A world without religion would be possible only if we are willing to have a world without God. Since God exists in our minds (and everywhere else, as many would like us to believe), it is not possible to erase religion without erasing the belief in God from our minds. When that happens, everything negative associated with religion will vanish automatically. But that is wishful thinking because neither religion nor God will vanish from our minds and hearts. So we will have to put up with the world as it is!
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