It looks like my friend, who got the bug of blogging into me in the first place (a year ago I got infected), seems to be trying his level best to make me a regular on here.
He replied to a forwarded email, keeping me in the CC list, in a not-so-kind manner. Although, I will be quick to add that the forwarded email was stinking of religious bigotry. I have been seeing this kind of intolerance across religion grow day-by-day. Not sure where all this is leading to. GOD save this world!
Coming back to the email, it stated how much divided the religion of Christianity and Islam are, by taking examples of sub-castes among them. People from one caste don't allow other caste's members to enter their place of worship. Saying that Hinduism does not have such division and praising its unity. Hailing it as the best religion. Such shallow-mindedness!!
Although, my friend had fittingly replied to the email, I thought his words were pretty harsh on the boundary of rudeness, which I made sure to let him know. His reply to that forward (I will try to be much more sedate in translating his phrases) was that there is casteism (among Hindus) still prevalent across India, Dalits being denied entry to Temples, the killings undertaken in the name of honour euphemistically called "honour killings". Well, he is absolutely correct in what he said.
Once you grow up among people of different religion/caste/creed/sections, you either tend to become obsessed with the differences amongst us or you try to gain an insight about the differences and try to view it in a wholesome manner. I have always tried to do the second.
From my experiences (I must add that I am not very religious, but I do follow a particular religion), I have found that no religion has been teaching the kind of intolerance I see all around.
The question comes up "What actually is religion?". Wiki describes religion as "A religion is a set of tenets and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, or religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience."
That's wiki. I hold a slightly different view-point. According to me a "religion provides a guiding path for us to move ahead". When we are born, we have no knowledge of what a religion is. Which religion we belong to. We are just like wanderers in need of some guidance, failing which we move in random directions. The first guidance comes from our parents. We follow a religion because we need a map in our life. The religion that comes to us, is blessed upon us by our parents.
Essentially, a religion provides a sort of moral behaviour we could adhere to. We can say it provides the skeleton/framework for our life. We could choose to follow this path or else could choose to create a new path. It is not necessary to follow it word-by-word.
Like humans, religion also evolves. During this evolution, people paraphrase it as per their perception (and most of the times, their need). Like every perception, some bias do creep into it. It is this detour that actually is seen as a vast difference between religions. Some confine themselves to the hardliner view, some to the moderate view and some to the liberal views.
My earlier blog had touched upon the caste divide among Hinduism. Similar divides are there in every religion. It is only human to try and gain the upperhand by showing others in a poorer light. Same thing is happening with religion as well. There seems to be a divide among the lines of "good religion" and "bad religion". Can anyone make me understand these adjectives associated with religion? If a person perceives his/her religion differently (here, I mean, in an adverse way), is it fault of the religion?
I see this kind of perception has crept into every religion. They tend to look at their religion in respect and don't have similar respect to others. There is also an increased intolerance being pushed into the minds of people towards other religion (here other religion means excluding one's own religion). The above email (forwarded one) is once such instance where people are being led to believe the superiority of a certain religion over others.
I feel, we are in such a generation where our maturity should make us realize the stupidity of such behaviour. If we don't evolve ourselves from the previous generation, we are lacking something. If we stop our evolution, there is no point in being alive. This is not a religion v/s religion match. This divide is not amongst religion but it shows our apathy to other human beings.
These were my view-points. I won't say I am right or wrong because these are my perception. Though, I would be really glad to hear your views.
He replied to a forwarded email, keeping me in the CC list, in a not-so-kind manner. Although, I will be quick to add that the forwarded email was stinking of religious bigotry. I have been seeing this kind of intolerance across religion grow day-by-day. Not sure where all this is leading to. GOD save this world!
Coming back to the email, it stated how much divided the religion of Christianity and Islam are, by taking examples of sub-castes among them. People from one caste don't allow other caste's members to enter their place of worship. Saying that Hinduism does not have such division and praising its unity. Hailing it as the best religion. Such shallow-mindedness!!
Although, my friend had fittingly replied to the email, I thought his words were pretty harsh on the boundary of rudeness, which I made sure to let him know. His reply to that forward (I will try to be much more sedate in translating his phrases) was that there is casteism (among Hindus) still prevalent across India, Dalits being denied entry to Temples, the killings undertaken in the name of honour euphemistically called "honour killings". Well, he is absolutely correct in what he said.
Once you grow up among people of different religion/caste/creed/sections, you either tend to become obsessed with the differences amongst us or you try to gain an insight about the differences and try to view it in a wholesome manner. I have always tried to do the second.
From my experiences (I must add that I am not very religious, but I do follow a particular religion), I have found that no religion has been teaching the kind of intolerance I see all around.
The question comes up "What actually is religion?". Wiki describes religion as "A religion is a set of tenets and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, or religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience."
That's wiki. I hold a slightly different view-point. According to me a "religion provides a guiding path for us to move ahead". When we are born, we have no knowledge of what a religion is. Which religion we belong to. We are just like wanderers in need of some guidance, failing which we move in random directions. The first guidance comes from our parents. We follow a religion because we need a map in our life. The religion that comes to us, is blessed upon us by our parents.
Essentially, a religion provides a sort of moral behaviour we could adhere to. We can say it provides the skeleton/framework for our life. We could choose to follow this path or else could choose to create a new path. It is not necessary to follow it word-by-word.
Like humans, religion also evolves. During this evolution, people paraphrase it as per their perception (and most of the times, their need). Like every perception, some bias do creep into it. It is this detour that actually is seen as a vast difference between religions. Some confine themselves to the hardliner view, some to the moderate view and some to the liberal views.
My earlier blog had touched upon the caste divide among Hinduism. Similar divides are there in every religion. It is only human to try and gain the upperhand by showing others in a poorer light. Same thing is happening with religion as well. There seems to be a divide among the lines of "good religion" and "bad religion". Can anyone make me understand these adjectives associated with religion? If a person perceives his/her religion differently (here, I mean, in an adverse way), is it fault of the religion?
I see this kind of perception has crept into every religion. They tend to look at their religion in respect and don't have similar respect to others. There is also an increased intolerance being pushed into the minds of people towards other religion (here other religion means excluding one's own religion). The above email (forwarded one) is once such instance where people are being led to believe the superiority of a certain religion over others.
I feel, we are in such a generation where our maturity should make us realize the stupidity of such behaviour. If we don't evolve ourselves from the previous generation, we are lacking something. If we stop our evolution, there is no point in being alive. This is not a religion v/s religion match. This divide is not amongst religion but it shows our apathy to other human beings.
These were my view-points. I won't say I am right or wrong because these are my perception. Though, I would be really glad to hear your views.
Religion is imposed on us without our consent.It then controls our daily life and over the years it takes control over us. The extent of control varies from religion to religion.For me I follow only one religion i.e service to humanity.We need to just take a bird view about the religion factor. If we follow this we will be free from the clutches of dangerous religion.
ReplyDelete