Disclaimer: I do not wish to hurt the sentiments of any person - living or dead, theist or atheist. Other than the facts stated here, the rest is mere speculation and the opinions may vary from person to person. If you do not agree with the opinions presented here, please do not get personal, instead use the comments page to put forth yours.
Every event needs a catalyst; a seed that sets in motion a chain of events, each leading to another in perfect harmony, a balance so delicate which even the smallest of disruptions can destroy. Ok.. ok.. I admit, the introduction is a bit too eloquent when the event in question is just a blog. Anyway, moving along; the seeds in this case were the words written by Tolstoy, those that were written out of a desperate need to convey a message so truly believed in, those words that were suppressed out of fear by the men in power, those that would cause me to spend over fours thinking.
Religion. Something that has influenced the course of human history to a greater extent than what our feeble minds can ever comprehend. It has changed the way we think, our morality, our concepts of right and wrong, influenced culture; and in short, it has defined us. Even science has been, more often than not, subservient to this giant. It is only in the past few decades that we have, to some degree, managed to separate the two.
The modern day notion of religion seems to be quite different from that intended by the sacred books. We have confused religion, which was supposed to be a way of life, with a set of rituals and holidays. The true message of religion has been slowly pushed behind the curtain, leaving only a few rituals to take center stage. Let us look at Christianity, which by the way has the largest number of “followers” today. All that the average Christian, as a follower of his faith, does is go to church every Sunday to pray and to listen to a few sermons, baptize his kid when he/she is born, marry in the “true” Christian fashion, observe a few holidays, exchange gifts when required and confess his/her sins to the priest every year and believe that now that he/she has done so, he/she is cleansed of them, and proceeds to commit more. Is this all that is left of Christ’s legacy of non-violence, forgiveness, chastity [I guess he went a bit overboard there], etc? If films and culture are any reflection of reality, the fact that “heroes” often kiss the cross and then go off to kill people, should give us something to think about [pun intended]. There seems to be a complete contrast to what most people perceive religion to be and what it actually is. This is exactly what Tolstoy was trying to convey through these words -
“Then he is instructed that on holidays [the day that Christ was born – though no one knows when it actually was, the day he was circumcised, the day the mother of god died, the day an idiot hallucinated, which for some unknown reason has become more popular than the others] he must dress up in his best clothes, go to church, buy candles and place them in front of images of saints and pray. Also, according to this faith, it conduces to the salvation of the soul, to make pilgrimages to “Holy lands” and kiss “miracle working” icons. Is this religion?”
This seems to be the case with most religions nowadays, not only Christianity. Even though most people claim to be religious, there are very few real followers. What was supposed to be a path that would lead to a good quality of life has been distorted to such an extent, that today it is little more than idol worship. When and why has this distortion occurred? The answer to this is quite complex and encompasses a wide range of topics from politics and hunger for power, socio-economic factors all the way to the fear of standing up against society.
The atrocities commited by the church, in the name of god, during the middle ages is an excellent example of people trying to gain control over the masses. They would go to any extent - homicide disguised as "witch burning", sentencing/ threatening people like Galileo with death, so that people dont question the authority of the church. To indulge in violence, they naturally had to dismiss the non-violence part of the bible and convince the society of the same. The role that socio- economic factors plays is evident in the "gifts" that have to be given to brahmins during pujas and other auspicious days. I am not saying that charity is a bad thing, but the fact is that as time progressed, people started believing that giving charity is enough to achieve salvation of the soul and slowly dispensed with the other albeit more important messages; and they were of course encouraged by the "brahmins". Or for that matter, look at the pujas that are performed - they were in all probability initiated so that the brahmins would have a sustainable income from the financially rich, at the same time acting as a source of hope for them. Again, this is something that pushed the actual teachings to the background and convinced the people that praying was enough, and that actually following the teaching was unnecessary. As far as standing up against society is concerned, one simply does not want to hurt the feelings of his compatriots and hence the topic of religion is mostly sidelined.
We are now observing the slow death of the so called "religion" simply because more people are turning away from something that holds no real value. I just hope that the real religion, which in fact is really promising and worth following, does not take a battering.
PS - I did not feel the need to mention Islam here, cause the ridiculous way in which it is being mis-interpreted is quite obvious.
Every event needs a catalyst; a seed that sets in motion a chain of events, each leading to another in perfect harmony, a balance so delicate which even the smallest of disruptions can destroy. Ok.. ok.. I admit, the introduction is a bit too eloquent when the event in question is just a blog. Anyway, moving along; the seeds in this case were the words written by Tolstoy, those that were written out of a desperate need to convey a message so truly believed in, those words that were suppressed out of fear by the men in power, those that would cause me to spend over fours thinking.
Religion. Something that has influenced the course of human history to a greater extent than what our feeble minds can ever comprehend. It has changed the way we think, our morality, our concepts of right and wrong, influenced culture; and in short, it has defined us. Even science has been, more often than not, subservient to this giant. It is only in the past few decades that we have, to some degree, managed to separate the two.
The modern day notion of religion seems to be quite different from that intended by the sacred books. We have confused religion, which was supposed to be a way of life, with a set of rituals and holidays. The true message of religion has been slowly pushed behind the curtain, leaving only a few rituals to take center stage. Let us look at Christianity, which by the way has the largest number of “followers” today. All that the average Christian, as a follower of his faith, does is go to church every Sunday to pray and to listen to a few sermons, baptize his kid when he/she is born, marry in the “true” Christian fashion, observe a few holidays, exchange gifts when required and confess his/her sins to the priest every year and believe that now that he/she has done so, he/she is cleansed of them, and proceeds to commit more. Is this all that is left of Christ’s legacy of non-violence, forgiveness, chastity [I guess he went a bit overboard there], etc? If films and culture are any reflection of reality, the fact that “heroes” often kiss the cross and then go off to kill people, should give us something to think about [pun intended]. There seems to be a complete contrast to what most people perceive religion to be and what it actually is. This is exactly what Tolstoy was trying to convey through these words -
“Then he is instructed that on holidays [the day that Christ was born – though no one knows when it actually was, the day he was circumcised, the day the mother of god died, the day an idiot hallucinated, which for some unknown reason has become more popular than the others] he must dress up in his best clothes, go to church, buy candles and place them in front of images of saints and pray. Also, according to this faith, it conduces to the salvation of the soul, to make pilgrimages to “Holy lands” and kiss “miracle working” icons. Is this religion?”
This seems to be the case with most religions nowadays, not only Christianity. Even though most people claim to be religious, there are very few real followers. What was supposed to be a path that would lead to a good quality of life has been distorted to such an extent, that today it is little more than idol worship. When and why has this distortion occurred? The answer to this is quite complex and encompasses a wide range of topics from politics and hunger for power, socio-economic factors all the way to the fear of standing up against society.
The atrocities commited by the church, in the name of god, during the middle ages is an excellent example of people trying to gain control over the masses. They would go to any extent - homicide disguised as "witch burning", sentencing/ threatening people like Galileo with death, so that people dont question the authority of the church. To indulge in violence, they naturally had to dismiss the non-violence part of the bible and convince the society of the same. The role that socio- economic factors plays is evident in the "gifts" that have to be given to brahmins during pujas and other auspicious days. I am not saying that charity is a bad thing, but the fact is that as time progressed, people started believing that giving charity is enough to achieve salvation of the soul and slowly dispensed with the other albeit more important messages; and they were of course encouraged by the "brahmins". Or for that matter, look at the pujas that are performed - they were in all probability initiated so that the brahmins would have a sustainable income from the financially rich, at the same time acting as a source of hope for them. Again, this is something that pushed the actual teachings to the background and convinced the people that praying was enough, and that actually following the teaching was unnecessary. As far as standing up against society is concerned, one simply does not want to hurt the feelings of his compatriots and hence the topic of religion is mostly sidelined.
We are now observing the slow death of the so called "religion" simply because more people are turning away from something that holds no real value. I just hope that the real religion, which in fact is really promising and worth following, does not take a battering.
PS - I did not feel the need to mention Islam here, cause the ridiculous way in which it is being mis-interpreted is quite obvious.
posted by maruti | 6:37 AM
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5 comments
