Has our world become a dangerous place to live? The number of bomb blasts that rocked our country over the past few months raises this question. I was wondering what could be the reason behind such awful acts. Most of the blasts, terrorist acts are accounted in the name of religion. I believe it is the superstition of few people triggering such acts or superstition is the “medium” that are used to make people conduct such acts. Is religion the culprit that has a corrupt by-product called superstition? Do we need a world with out religion?
Religion to me is a way of living. If followed in proper way, it brings discipline in one’s life. Most of the rituals done as part of religious practices can bring harmony to life. One of the many simple examples I can point to is Surya Namaskara – During early morning the atmosphere layers are very thin and the rays coming out are very good for the skin. The physical exercises done during surya namaskara can help you develop able body. Similarly, there are zillion such practices that can bring prosperity to your life.
Like a coin has two sides, religion also has a bad side and that is superstition. Even if you weigh the good effects vs bad effects of religion, it doesn’t deserve to be replaced or abolished. Can any one show me a system which is 100% perfect? I don’t think any one ever can. A replacement system for religion can also be error prone. Also, it is practically impossible to replace something society has been following for thousands of years. It will put lives in jeopardy. It doesn’t make sense to replace/abolish religion because it induces superstition and by ignoring the good things it can bring to life.
The best way out is to refine than replace. I would urge those rational thinkers (atheists) to stop blaming the religion and re-group their energy to refine it. At present, many practice rituals to get GOD’s blessing. They are not trying to understand why it is practiced. Everything is done in the name of GOD. This has been the reason for the upsurge of superstitious practices. We have to make people aware of reasons behind practicing rituals, like the way I explained Surya Namaskara. Educate why a ritual is performed and by practicing it, how one's life will prosper.
Once people start analyzing, they will be able to differentiate superstitious practices from good practices. One can stop himself from falling for superstitions. People will then realize bomb blasts, terrorist acts won’t get them to heaven and Jihad doesn’t mean killing innocent people.
We need to figure out ways to educate people. Technology is very advanced these days and we can reach to the masses relatively easy. Television, news paper, internet etc. can be a good medium. If we can include such topics as part of our curriculum in schools and colleges, it will do a lot of good for the next generation. Qualified professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers etc. getting into the act of terrorism shows lack of such kind of education.
I believe, this method will work as we are neither criticizing nor asking people to do anything drastically different. Rather, we are going in their path and educating them about what they are doing.
7 comments:
A good passage.....neat run of thoughts.......
Analyzing the concepts behind religious practices again raises many questions:
1) Why shud i analyse surya namaskaram which has significant yoga embedded into it..Why shud i not analyse Namas which comes from an entirely different background.
2) Does this country have enuf scholars and literates who can dedicate their life and knowledge towards understanding and researching the concepts.
3) Will different school of thoughts percolate and people getting confused again with too many choices to follow.
I am sure there are too many good things in religious practices, but will there be a row of patenting into these also and a good loss in human values, because professional researching requires funding and the person who funds would finally patent the idea and the end effect you pay a price to do something like surya namaskaram.........()
SOPE Let the world not dig into religion and try to spoil the way millions live....
Understandings and beliefs are personal and are influenced by ones background,his abilities, his motives. MAN has to go through his phase of life on things he believes.....some could have proofs and some need not
Surya Namaskaram is there for ages... buts its effectiveness has been found out only a decade back. If we go by the philosophy of proving whether a ritual is good and then following it..... surya namaskaram should not have been followed for ages.....
Same is the case with yoga.... only now have they realised the effectiveness of yoga (and they hv gone to the extent of patenting it!!!!!!!) whereas it has been practised for centuries.....
So the philosophy should be.... practise the rituals/procedures in your religion and parallely try to find out the reason behind it.... if you find out that the reason is not to your liking then stop practising it....
By the way religion is just "way of life"....
Nice start mate, I liked the flow. What you are saying makes sense. This is almost like atheist thoughts where their way of living is rational/logical and what you suggested is also same by having rational/logical proof and awareness for some of the existing good practices of religion.
-Phani.
Dude nath,
Let me answer your questions one by one:
1.) You can analyze practices followed by any religion. Infact, I would say don't limit your self by restricting to only one religion. If people can adopt good practices from other religions as well, it is a dream come true. It will definitely stop people from fighting against each other in the name of religion. It will also reduce superstitious practices.
2.) I got your point. Let me ask you this. How does one become a scholar? No one is born as scholar. You learn, invent and become the scholar. Einstein was not born with the knowledge of Nuclear fission :)
3.) I don't think so. Knowledge will never create confusion. Rather, ignorance create confusion. To get the clarity for our thoughts, we need to acquire knowledge.
>>> Understandings and beliefs are personal and are influenced by ones background,his abilities, his motives. MAN has to go through his phase of life on things he believes.....some could have proofs and some need not
[My reply] - I agree experience is the biggest teacher. However, experience is a costly teacher. It comes with a price - your time. If you can share your knowledge with someone, he need not have to re-invent it from experience. If everyone tries to re-invent "laws of gravity" you will be wasting enormous amount of time. That time could be very well invested to invent new things after learning Laws of gravity.
Knowledge can never spoil the lives of millions. Rather, it will improve the lives of the millions.
Good post, Nikhil. I'd like to refer you to www.nirmukta.com, a site created for people like you. Please register and contribute there too.
I have recently posted an artcile along similar lines at http://nirmukta.com/2008/10/01/selling-rational-thinking/
Keep up the great work.
Good blog sir! A very thoughtful and very very correct message. I wonder if the serious atheists should now be made to think on these lines.. There are so many intelligent, influential people preaching atheism, I suppose they've taken this path mainly because of the harmful effects of superstitions. These are the people who can make real difference if they spend their energies in the right direction - to educate others about those ill effects, and hence curb the "real harmful superstitious practices".
There are so many examples of this in Hinduism, at least. I hope you all know about Raja Ram Mohan Roy whose sincere efforts helped abolish the inhumane "sati-pratha". Thats a remarkable achievement considering the times at which he did it.
Today, people are far more "rationale" than ever before, so if you are really sincere about working towards the betterment of the society, start reforming the different religions instead of preaching atheism - thats a far more effective and proven way..
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