Religion – "Look Before You Leap”

Religion has been the basic dividing force between human beings. We saw it on Aug 15 1947, we saw it in the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya, we saw it recently in the riots in Gujarat

More blood has been shed in the name of religion than any other cause each religion claim to know the truth. Even goes to the extent of saying theirs is the only truth. In fact what they know is just the half truth it is like the story of the four blind men and the elephant.

I am a Christian, I go to the church, I take part in the communion, but I don’t believe Jesus is the son of god or a divine being. I take Christianity as a way of life. I consider Jesus a great man. I want to obey his teachings because by following most of his teachings I have learnt to lead a happy life. I would like other to take up Christ’s teachings because Christianity in its purest form can reduce a lot of evil from this world. This doesn’t mean I don’t consider myself spiritual. Being spiritual should be having the spirit to do right to others and to yourself.

As of now there is no concrete proof to show if man created god or god created man. If there is god, he/she/it will be the only god. As of now no religion seems to have concrete proof that there is the true god. There are many religion the basic message of every religion is to lead a good life. Islam’s mainstream message is of peace, but many of Islam's fanatics undertake terrorist activities saying “There is no better way to show god you love him”. They quote verses from the Quran to justify themselves. No wonder a great writer indirectly called the verses satanic verses. Ramayana and Mahabharata are great books, but its characters have become Gods and Goddesses. Even in this 21^st century, intoxicated with religious fanaticism, many people want a temple build at a place where there was a mosque. Their claim is that it is the birth place of Lord Rama and the Muslim invaders to India had destroyed a temple and build the mosque there. Isn’t this Talibanisation of India? If Harry Potter was written by Mrs. Rowling thousand or two thousand years back, the young wizard Harry Potter would have been a child god and worshipped by millions now.

Many people do good to please God and go to heaven, isn’t it selfish? Many people believe confessing after each wrong committed will enable god to forgive them and they don’t have any qualms about doing wrong. Many believe that taking a dip in some so called holy river will wash away all their sins. In some religion people worship animals and don’t mind killing human beings.

Graham Stains who did a lot of good to the tribal and backward people of Orissa was brutally murdered. One of the main accused Dara Singh is considered as a hero by some religious fanatics he escaped punishment and he contested the elections too. The religious fanatics say he was fighting against Christian terrorism. If our government and educated people allow such horrid acts to go unpunished, even allowing the fanatic illiterate people to elect the ones behind this horrible crimes as their representatives to parliament, then what right do we have to speak against cross border terrorism? Against Islamic fanaticism?

We don’t mind being in the dark. Why don’t people do good to be refined beings? Why can’t people train themselves to think only those thoughts which they won’t feel embarrassed about it they were thinking it aloud? Why not people do only those things which they won’t feel ashamed to talk about to others? By “others” I mean righteous people, people who have a spiritual aura about them. There are also many people who do a lot of wrong but are not embarrassed about it doesn’t feel ashamed to talk about it to others. Such people are chronic Psychological patients and needs treatment. Many of our political leaders who have a history of crimes should be under treatment in asylums or behind bars and not in the parliament.

In the January 2002 issue of Readers Digest there was an article by Vince Rause which said that there was evidence that humans are hardwired to believe in God. For some “God is just a perception generated by the brain” while for others “The brain has been wired to experience the reality of God”. Which is true? Let each consider his version true and not look down on the other or become fanatics holding on to his beliefs.