The perception of a higher being is
due to a certain level of
intelligence that man has attained
through the process of evolution
(now don't go about questioning
evolution here!) Dogs do not observe
religious fasts and goats don't go
on pilgrimages. Yes, man has been
able to contemplate a higher being
behind all the creation. But that's
it. That is as far man has gotten.
After that he came upon an
unscaleable wall / barrier between
himself and this higher being. Lest
be outdone, man started to preach
what was behind this wall which we
will call the 'limits of human
intelligence'. Some worshipped
idols, others broke them and started
worshipping humans - prophets /
teachers; but not one has a clue
what is behind that wall. There are
conjectures which are touted as the
final word. Then man made gangs
based on their belief of what was
behind the walls and started
fighting amongst one another.
Man's brain is designed to figure
out a higher being, but his brain
gets confused terribly trying to go
from that point forward. To make
their voices louder, each of these
gangs (which we call religions)
wanted to become larger to have a
louder voice. So they started the
despicable practice of evangelizing
through force, greed or
brainwashing.
Religion is man's bane today. Look
at what is happening in the so
called 'Holy Land' today! Each side
claims that one patch of barren land
was 'promised' to them by God
himself ! They even have different
names for it. Christians call it
Jerusalem, Jews call it Yarshalim
and Muslims call it Bet-ul-mquaddas!
Public expression of religion is the
root of much of the evil in this
world. It propels wars where
innocents (WTC or Lebanon) die so
that some harebrained fanatics can
fight if it is proper to pray this
way or that ! Religion has become
the opium of the ignorant masses and
the devious goons who go in the name
of clerics use the passions this
ignorance generates, to fuel war and
politics. Millions are made in the
mindless process of religious wars.
Religions should be limited to the
four walls in people's homes. Public
expression of religion should be
banned. A person trying to
evangelize any religion over another
should be stripped naked and flogged
on the street. It was the hobble of
religion that Mao-tse-Tung shed by
chasing Dalai Lama into India and
crushing the religious types,
whereby he was able to transform
China from a country of Opium
addicts to one of the fastest
growing and much feared superpowers
of the world in a span of 50 years.
To grow and prosper, we must push
this religiosity business to the
back seat of our lives. - Aarcee - July 31, 2006
Well said Mr. Aarcee!
Everybody should have the freedom to
practice any religion of his/her
choice but I have a feeling that if
one considers oneself religious, he
should keep that to oneself and not
try and preach others about what is
good or bad.
Quoting Mr. Omar Luther King "preach
Christ’s gospel of love to
non-Christians" my question to Mr.
King is, why do you have to do that?
Just keep it to yourself. It appears
very sweet and innocuous "gospel of
love" etc. etc. but more often than
not creates problems and riots than
serve the society any good. Don't
get me wrong. We have such preachers
in all religions offering their
sermons but little do they realise
that they are, in someway or the
other, igniting the flame of
communalism.
You can practice or feel strongly
about any religion but please, for
Christ's sake, keep it to yourself.
Don't try and share this passion
with others.
If religion spreads terror, we are
good without it! - Ravindra Shahi
- Aug. 1, 2006
Mr. Omar Luther King, I agree that
religion is a personal matter and
that it's not the state's business.
Whenever you mix state and religion
you have misery for the common man.
Jesus was a noble and peace loving
person and he stood for love and
justice. When I read the Bible many
years back, many statements in it
touched my heart. The statement
'Forgive to set your self free' or
'forgive them to forgive yourself'
pierced my heart. To me Jesus is a
very respectable figure.
The problem happens when the
organized Christian church claims
that Jesus is the ONLY path to
salvation and EVERY non-Christian is
doomed to rot in hell for eternity.
This to me is a narrow minded and
intolerant philosophy that in the
past has caused slaughter of
millions of native Americans across
the American continent. Also
concepts like the earth is for man’s
exploitation has caused slavery of
the African-Americans since the
white Christians did not consider
them humans. Though I am not a
religious person and don't believe
in heaven and hell, did you consider
how saying that Jesus is the only
path to heaven and rest of you are
doomed is unjust to good people from
other faiths? Doesn't this provide a
window of opportunity for evil
people to use religion as an excuse
and a tool for exploitation?
Also the obsession of certain
preachers to emotionally fool the
ignorant masses just to increase
their Christian flock is unethical.
What kind of materialistic game is
this, to win as many people as
possible for your own team? Is
religion one’s property and one is
trying the increase it’s value
continuously? Is it for fulfilling
the church's ego or the God’s? Isn't
the diversity of human thoughts,
beliefs, actions and hence knowledge
itself affected when we all
subscribe to one point of view?
Isn’t this action unethical whether
a Hindu does it (in the name of
opposing religions conversion) or a
Christian does it (to save the
souls) or a Muslim does it (to
spread Islam everywhere)?
In South India, I have seen
preachers approach a person asking
them, have they seen the sign of
God's grace and then saying that
it's a sign from the Angels/Jesus.
This is then used to convince then
to become Christians. Well, as
humans many times in our lives we
have defining moments. Manipulating
this common human emotion to create
an illogical link to a sign from God
is unethical and shameful. Why not
treat humans with more respect and
dignity rather than cattle to be
parked in one’s own cattle-shed
(religion).
If you notice, a majority people
don't oppose the conversion of
Hindus to Buddhism. Why? Because
Buddhism is more rational and
logical religion than Hinduism. Not
to discount the fact that it evolved
in India and hence people don't
consider it as a cultural threat. In
my opinion, Buddhism ties back to
quantum physics and completes the
loop of agnostic thinking! But this
should not force the majority to
become Buddhists.
Personally, I think we might never
know the answer to the question as
to why we are here (even though
almost every religion claims to know
the answer). Preserving the
diversity of human knowledge is a
tool to finding answers to the many
questions about the universe. I will
like to maintain my entire toolkit
of knowledge rather than dumping all
the tools for one. We might not find
the ultimate answer but will find
many more other things on the way.
In a true Abrahamic religious
tradition, sometimes the Christian
religion with its belief that
universe is only 6000 years old and
God created everything tries to
cloud reasoning. But I am glad to
see that a majority of Christians
have grown out of this mindset and
we want to make sure that they don’t
become children again and repeat the
same mistakes that caused misery to
many.
To summarize I am all for ethical
conversion, I don't think the
government has any right to ban
religious conversion through a
legislation since this is an insult
to the open minded and educated
people. Indian people are not the
property of any one religion and
should be allowed to exercise their
own free will (provided they are
protected from the 'char sau bees
manipulators' (420s)). Also, the
religion needs to be loyal to the
society it is practiced in rather
than be loyal to a foreign country,
a small segment of the people, a
foreign institution or figurehead.
All religions, including
Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Sikhism, Jainism, Hinduism and
Buddhism have their pluses and
minuses, some have more minuses than
pluses. In this age, Christianity is
a religion of many more pluses than
minuses and I want to wish you all
the best for making the right
choice, which by the way is your
human-right. - Som Vishwakarma,
USA - Aug. 1, 2006
Thanks to you, Mr. Som Vishwakarma,
for the wise thoughts that you
shared. Let us agree to disagree
with each other and let us be happy
with whatever little knowledge we
receive from God. May God's profound
love, His rich blessings and wisdom
be with you and all the readers of
PatnaDaily.Com. - Omar Luther
King - Aug. 2, 2006
You are right, Mr. Ravindra Shahi,
religion spreads terror. That is all
the more reason why we need to
spread Christ's message of love to
one and all. If we cannot love our
enemies as Jesus did, we cannot love
the terrorists and persuade them to
stop violence on earth! - Omar
Luther King - Aug. 2, 2006
Aarcee, dear, I agree with you when
you say that public expression of
religion should be banned. But you
will agree with me that if we do not
expose the evil that exists on
earth, we will never ever overcome
it. And to overcome such evil and
wickedness and violence, we need to
have a clean heart which God and God
alone can provide. - Omar Luther
King - Aug. 2, 2006
Mr. Omar, your case is really very
unusual and interesting. In the
early age of Aryan settlement in the
Indo Gangetic plains, the people of
Assam originally were tribal. Then
they became Hindus. Then Buddhism
came by and many converted to
Buddhism and then converted back.
Then, around 1000 AD Islam swept
India's western frontiers. So, not
very long ago some ancestor of yours
converted to Islam with the firm
belief that Islam was the way to
salvation. For him, all his
ancestors would have been 'Kafirs'.
Now, you have found your salvation
in Christianity. You have negated,
in your life, the belief systems of
your father and everyone who came
before him - if you hold the belief
that the way to salvation is
exclusively through the acceptance
of your faith's messiah. Not that
you don't have a right to do that,
you surely do! But what does it
achieve to change faiths every few
generations?!!
Jumping from one faith to a better
marketed one, isn't in my mind the
smart thing to do. The smart thing
to do is keep as far as possible
from the orthodoxies of your faith,
adopt good philosophies from every
faith and lead your life in
happiness. - Aarcee - Aug. 2,
2006
(edited)
Mr. Aarcee, you made a very
interesting remark. You said, ‘The
smart thing to do is keep as far as
possible from the orthodoxies of
your faith, adopt good philosophies
from every faith and lead your life
in happiness’. Fine, but how many of
us do that?
...thanks be to God that through
Christ Jesus our Lord I am being
rescued from this body that most of
the time did more wrong than right.
- Omar Luther King - Aug. 3,
2006
Though the article is very good and
the comments are excellent I would
like to point out that the writer
has written from a missionary point
of view. Talking about your religion
to other is like putting your
opinion about god in front of other.
And just as you can put your
political views in front of others
you should also be able to put your
religious views in front of others.
But we have to realize this that we
are not is a perfectly tolerant and
peaceful society and this can
cultivate repercussions and hatred.
Instead of spreading the love of god
you can cause deaths and violence.
The law to stop conversion has taken
place to stop missionary work. But
this is clear violation of the
constitution. What if somebody wants
to change his religion by his own
will? How can you force somebody to
be Hindu or Muslim or Christian if
his heart isn’t there? These types
of laws are similar to the historic
caste system of India in which
people of one caste cant do work as
other cast. - Rashid - Aug. 3,
2006
Couldn't agree more with Mr. Rashid.
Mr. King's statements smack of
Christianity's obsession with
conversion and a sense of
superiority over other religions in
the world. This superiority complex
by any religion - be it
Christianity, Hinduism, Islam,
Judaism or any other religion - is
the first and foremost reason for
any communal disharmony in any
country and cause of wars among
different nations.
Mr. King, if you like/love your
religion, that's great! We are happy
for you. I don't think anyone has a
problem with that. But you should
keep it to yourself instead of
flouting it and acting as if
everyone else who does not follow
your religion is headed to the
eternal fire of hell.
It's this attitude that ticks off a
majority of Hindus and people of
other religion and I can't really
blame them for that. Please read Mr.
Aarcee's response again, he makes a
lot of sense.
Conversion by choice is just that -
someone's choice, but a concerted
attempt to convert the entire planet
to your religion is pure evil. -
Arun Mishra - Aug. 4, 2006
Mr. Arun Mishra, your comment on my
views has been well taken. I value
also the points raised by Messrs
Rashid and Aacree.
There cannot be two opinions about
what you stated, that a concerted
attempt to convert the entire planet
to one’s religion is pure evil.
Reason? No world religion is totally
good or perfect. Everyone must rise
above his or her religion, endeavour
to practice the principles of Jesus,
love the highest perfection of
virtue and all men without
distinction, resist evil by all
means, never resist evil with evil
and never use violence. - Omar
Luther King - Aug. 4, 2006
Of Jesus!!! They are the principles
of all religions. The theory is all
the same. The difference lies in how
we practice it. Look around. The
public display of religion, and the
consequent grouping and division of
humanity, has caused far more pain
and suffering than happiness and
solace to mankind. I hope there is
no difference of opinion on that Mr.
Omar Luther King. As suggested
religion must be a very private
affair. - Rajesh Chaubey - Aug.
4, 2006
Mr.
King, you still don't get it, do
you? Who do you think you are to
tell us what religion we all must
practice and which we shouldn't? Are
we asking you to adopt Hinduism?
Just answer in a simple yes or no.
Then why are you hell-bent on
shoving your religion down other
non-Christian people's throat?
"Everyone must rise above his or her
religion, endeavour to practice the
principles of Jesus, love the
highest perfection of virtue and all
men without distinction, resist evil
by all means, never resist evil with
evil and never use violence."
Oh really?? Let me translate your
above sentence into plain English
that anyone can understand:
"Christianity is a superior
religion. Other religions are not
religions. You all must give up your
religions and embrace Christianity.
Anyone who does not believe in
Christianity is evil and must be
stopped by hook or by crook."
Sounds like a religious zealot to
me!
It's people like you and your
fanatic beliefs that Christ is the
only way to salvation (which is also
the biggest flaw in Christianity)
that creates groups like Bajrang Dal
and Shiv Sena. Please, for the last
time, keep your religion to
yourself. We respect your religion;
now please learn to respect and
appreciate other people's religion
or is this something that is not
taught in the Bible brainwashing
class? How would you feel if one of
us said Christianity is for those
who have no brains of their own and
anyone who doesn't follow the
Sanatan Dharma is a sinner and is
destined to rot in the hell?
Exactly! We feel the same way when
you shove your religion down our
throats. You have one simple goal -
to convert everyone to Christianity.
For your information Mr. King, a
majority of Hindus are quite happy
and content being Hindus so please
stop pursuing your nefarious scheme,
at least in India. - Arun Mishra
- Aug. 4, 2006
(edited)
Sorry, Mr. Rajesh Chaubey, I am
constrained to inform you that not
all the religious communities follow
the same principles. Most of the
world religions teach to fight for
justice and one’s own rights, while
Christianity – I mean, Christ - does
not. - Omar Luther King - Aug. 5,
2006
When kids play they say "My car is
better than yours". Mr. Omar Luther
King says "My God is better than
your God".
Missionary zeal must not exceed
limits. I will share an incident
narrated to me. A Christian
missionary was visiting a remote
village. When it was time to leave
he turned the key in the ignition
but, as the battery was low, the
engine would not start. Immediately
villagers gathered to help. They
started pushing his jeep. The shrewd
missionary immediately had an idea.
He turned the key in the ignition to
off position and called out loudly
"Ram ke naam par thelo". The
villagers pushed hard and the jeep
started rolling. The missionary
released the clutch, the jeep jerked
but the engine did not start. The
missionary then called out "Iss bar
Allah ke naam par thelo". The same
thing happened again and the jeep
did not start. Now the missionary
called out "Iss bar Isu Masih
(Christ) ke naam par thelo" and
turned the key in the ignition. The
villagers tried again and this time
lo behold the engine coughed and
started. The missionary asked the
villagers to chant after him "Isu
Masih ki jai" and "Isu Masih hi
akela bhagwaan hai". Now that is
missionary zeal!!! The ignorant
villagers found their God in 15
minutes.
After all, all is fair in love, war
and in the spread of religion. Isn't
it? Let us also say loudly "My God
is better than your God" and then
let us kill each other for proving
whose God is better. - Rajesh
Chaubey - Aug. 5, 2006 |
