Religion - Boon to Bane

Religion is supposed to be a positive force in the human society. It is supposed to be a moral guide, helping people do the right things in their life. It is supposed to be the “bedrock of moral order” in Regan’s words. It is supposed bring peace to the world.

Every religion says that one should help and serve people in need. Every religion says that one should promote peace. Yet wherever I see, I find people fighting in the name of religion. We kill and rape and pillage in the name of God; our God; a God that we inherited through nothing more than a random event of being born to a specific religion.

Three crusades were launched by the Holy Christian Church over a span of two centuries, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. Many of these deaths were those of innocents who were dragged out of their homes, tortured and slaughtered.

I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t know about the atrocities committed against the Jews. Hitler’s Holocaust is only one among the many painful incidents this society has been made to face.

Hindus and Muslims in India have been killing each other by the score. Starting from the time of India Pakistan partition, our history has been blackened with Hindu - Muslim hatred, and the ensuing carnages. The Bombay riots and the Godhra carnage are just the highlights of an otherwise ongoing “war of religions” as I would call it.

The Muslim “jihad” against the Christian world has resulted in thousands of deaths, the highlights of which have been the violence perpetrated by the Al-Qaeda and similar militant organizations, and the WTC attack.

Even within the same religion, people of different sects have warred. The different sects of Muslims – Shiite, Sunni, Sufis, etc have slaughtered each other. Different sects of Hindus – Vaishnavites and Shaivites have killed each other.

There have been countless acts of violence arising out of religious superstitions. Even if some people do not perpetrate violence, they harbor intense hatred and anger towards what they believe is against their religion.

Religion is supposed to be the purest of things on the world. It is meant to be our savior. But our perversity has tortured it into one of the worst demons possible. Even the simplest of people, with normal day to day lives transform into hideous beasts participating in the vilest of acts, because of an imaginary affront to their religion.

Religion is a very powerful force. And in the typical human nature, rather than use power for progress, we are using it for our own detriment.