You get into a bus or a train, and
the next thing you hear is someone preaching to you and telling you that your
religion or denomination is useless, and that theirs is the best ordained by
God. I am not against preaching to anybody, but when you castigate other people’s
beliefs, then you are ignorant. You know what I do? I just turn on my
headphones and blast my music. But these reoccurring scenarios made me ask, “What’s
in a religion”, “Which religion is right” and “Is religion really necessary”?
When you ask
a Christian, he or she will tell you that Christianity is the only recognized
religion by God, and that those in different religions are wasting their time. Same
will be said by a Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or any other person from the numerous
religions that exist. But with all these religions, there is absolutely no evidence
to prove that any of them is legit. A Christian would site books from the holy
bible as evidence to prove their point, but let us face the fact, the bible was
written by human beings just like us. Christians obey what the bible instructs
but have we ever sat down to think about the origin of its contents. Yes, we
have been made to understand that the books were instructions directly from
God, but let us be sincere; there is no evidence to prove that, because we were
not there. Whatever is written in the bible has a realistic probability that is
either true or untrue. We as Christians believe that God parted the red sea
according to the book of exodus, and that Jesus Christ is the son of God and
once lived among us, but we were not there when all of these supposedly
happened, so we cannot be 100% sure of it. But we believe even when we did not
witness it, so we have no right saying our religion is the best.
Islam too is
just like Christianity and you can agree that they are similar in some ways.
But just like the latter, Muslims believe that their religion is the correct
one, but there is no evidence to prove that because nobody was alive when
Mohammed, who is believed to be a messenger and prophet from God, walked on
earth. The Holy Quran used by Muslims, just like the Holy Bible, was compiled
by humans too, and there is no visual evidence to prove its contents, but we
all chose to believe them.
Other
religions are the same, absolutely no evidence to prove them, but why do we
keep castigating each other’s beliefs. The Christians are always against the
Muslims, and Muslims, against Christians, while everyone seem to be against the
Jews. Other religions are not left out too, and Pagans are considered as
outcasts. This is not right because everyone should respect the decisions made
by others. We all blame terrorism on Muslims, and some have even said that
Islam supports killing innocent people. But there is no place in the Quran that
says anything about its support towards killing people, or anything about 7
virgins. This is clearly made up by the ignorant people and also the press who
want to discredit Islam. If you look back in history, at a point, Christian
leaders killed innocent people who did not believe or did not accept their
religion from 345 CE. Unbelievers had to run away in order to save their lives,
but The Bible does not preach or promote killing. Yet today, Christians accuse
the Moslems of the same thing. Sad indeed!!!
If we are looking
for a religion that has been castigated the most, then it is certainly Judaism.
This is, according to history, one of the oldest religions ever, and the oldest
to survive into the present day, spanning over 3000 years. For reasons I don’t understand,
they have been ridiculed. They believe that they are legit too because their
religion is older than Christianity and Islam too.
All these
talk about religion made me ask, “Will the world have been any better without
religion?” More than half of the world’s problem is based on religion.
Terrorist groups hide under the disguise of Islam to carry out their attacks on
innocent people, when Islam clearly does not support it. Joseph Kony, the head
of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan guerrilla group, who claim to be
fighting for the Ten Commandments, carries out his numerous bloody attacks
under the umbrella of Christianity. In Nigeria and parts of West Africa,
religion separates a vast majority of people, and religion also caused the
break-up of Sudan into North and South Sudan. Many other things occur because
of religion. If religion had not existed, at least half of the world’s problem
might have been solved.
Don’t get me
wrong, I am a devoted Roman Catholic, but I still do not understand why the
Holy Father, the Pope, sits on a gold chair, while people all over the world
cannot afford a meal. I am not against people worshipping God, or whoever they
want to. But let us get our facts right before we take decisions. The truth is
that no one knows which religion is right or wrong and no one knows the right
way to worship, but if we all respected each other’s views, the world would be
a better place to live in, and there would be no religious problems. Let us all
do what we feel is right. Clearly, nobody is right, and nobody is wrong.
