A grey matter

Religion is another unique set of belief systems that people choose to embrace for one reason or another. Some fall into a particular religion merely by circumstance of birth or geographical location, others voluntarily take up a religion because it may appeal to them more than others and some others convert by obligation of marriage or in exchange for support received by other religious affiliations. And then there are those who refuse to be identified as belonging to a particular organised religion. Labels to describe different types of belief systems or lack of any, can be found in abundance, so I am not going to list them out here. But whatever the individual belief may be, most people are willing to bet their lives to defend their belief, while usually putting down or denying other belief systems. Not only that, religious debates can go on (often inconclusively) for a long, long time!

Looking through an objective standpoint, organised religions are many-faceted. They all have more than one of the following general characteristics;

• It has moral guidelines for happiness and harmony
• It can be philosophical and appeals to the intellect
• It gives people a sense of comfort, security and purpose
• It has larger-than-life explanations to explain the un-explainable
• It controls by fear of punishment, the notion of the after-life and by discouraging the questioning of the teachings
• It is sometimes driven by political agendas
• It unites people under one purpose to achieve feats (both good and bad) that one individual simply cannot accomplish alone
• Religious texts often reflect various inequalities that were predominant in societies thousands of years ago during the times when these texts were written. Examples include: believer-non believer, male-female, master-slave, man-animal, heterosexual-homosexual, high caste-low caste, etc

The list is not exhaustive.

Why does a religion appeal so much? Reasons are varied from receiving guidance on how best to live a good life, finding strength or inspiration when it is much needed, finding inner peace, maintaining law and order in a community, securing a good after-life, receiving divine favours or miracles, tapping into higher states of mental consciousness or even finding answers to some of life's burning questions like our origins and purpose. Man's primary intention to seek refuge in religion is mostly for positive reasons rather than negative ones. Based on this need, religions have thrived for centuries and many try to keep up with changing times to maintain the appeal.

Not all religions survive the test of time - depicted here are the Olympian Gods of ancient Greece

Organised religions of today may have evolved from the time our ancestors tried to explain mysterious natural occurrences around them that went beyond their understanding. It is not hard to imagine that people instinctively respected and feared these powerful forces which had the power to destroy and create our existence. Then there were various religious figures who rose to prominence for their realisations, teachings, causes and impact. Crowds gathered around them for the same reasons that people still seek out religions - for answers, for happiness, for comfort, for peace. Over time, various religions were born and spread geographically. They were handed down from generation to generation with the aid of religious texts, devout followers, strict rules and their fusion with cultural elements. Not surprisingly, religions in the past have heavily influenced everything in a society from culture, traditions, attitudes, education, art, music, dance, literature, drama, philosophy, architecture, sport, food, politics, terrorism to wars. Some of these are slowly changing with growing knowledge of Science, globalisation, the Internet, advancement of human rights movements for equality, etc.

A great piece of Western classical music inspired by strong religious faith, no doubt

As much as religious influences have potential for much good in the world, sometimes it can take a bad turn to bring about much misery and imbalance to the world. The world has seen some of the best forms of expressions in the arts, music and expression arising from the profound connection that man has with his spiritual side. Religion can also be a strong driving factor for people to overcome their weaknesses and help others in need. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some teachings have been taught or interpreted in extreme ways and people have found themselves deluded to the point that they choose violence and mental manipulation in spreading their dogmatic views. I think, somewhere in between these two extremes lie a majority of the world's population consisting of people with moderate, little or no religious beliefs.

It's amazing what love, riches and a vision combined can achieve. That aside, the architecture of Taj Mahal showcases religious influence

What prompted me to write this post was seeing a religious post on my Facebook feed. A person from religion X warned others of deceitful ways that followers were converted to other religions by organised groups. Out of curiosity, I dug for more information. Using the details of a case where authorities cracked down on a ring of offenders, he went on to use references from the country's ancient history to state why religion X earned superior status in the country and had to be protected. To me, it reeked of extremist religious views. His opinions gathered passionate support from a group of followers of religion X who felt the same. Of course, people who abuse the law by bribery, disrupt religious harmony or use forceful or deceitful ways to coerce people into conversions in faith have to be dealt with seriously by the authorities. I believe there are laws in multi-religious countries for such offences.

Is there a need to be so insecure over losing followers if they were considered as people who were capable of thinking for themselves and were at liberty to embrace whatever religion or philosophy that made sense to them? If a religious community feels forced to protect its people like sheep out of fear that they'll be taken away or if a religious community feels driven to resort to forceful or deceitful ways to subscribe new followers, then clearly the motives in both cases are more political than moral. Also, acting out in this way reveals that something is not fundamentally right either in a religion's teachings or in the way that it is preached and practiced. This is just one example and this type of insecurity is not uncommon in most religions.

Anyway, this post was not written with malice towards any particular religion, rather it was a neutral standpoint to touch on all the general aspects that I thought revolved around the concept. Growing up in a multi-cultural school that didn't offer any religion as a subject (now I see how that was perhaps a clever idea to foster unity), growing up with friends from various religions, living in households with people practising different faiths and living in countries with varied religious influences have made me indifferent over the years to what others decide to embrace as their religion. It only bothers me when they try to justify and get away with something immoral, unethical, irrational or ignorant using their religion as an excuse.

Regardless of our differences in religious labels, what would be nice to have in the world are people who exercise their intellect and better judgement to respect all living things, make ethical choices that benefit everyone and practice tolerance towards the differences in race, religion, gender, species, sexual orientation, etc, that exist among us today.

Is it too much to ask?