I am not a big fan of what is often, somewhat lazily, called ‘organized religion.’ People coming together to formally worship God A, B or C almost invariably leads to wars, persecutions and other fun things. From the burning of witches to genital mutilation, according to various groups of believers, their God smiles on any such endeavours.
So, if you see folks stoning someone, you can almost be sure there will be some priest or mullah in the background, smiling benignly or loudly praising the God of his choice.
Religion may not have managed to kill as many people as malaria has but not through lack of trying.
Now, if you compare the various world religions to certain diseases, some are obviously more lethal than others - and some, like Christianity, have developed from deadly to mildly serious. From bubonic plague status to that of the flue, if you want. Which doesn’t mean that it couldn’t mutate back into something far more deadly over time, of course.
That’s another thing our various religions have in common with germs and viruses: They are forever changing, backwards and forwards, and always trying to find new ways to infect and infest us.
Having said all that, the following news story almost had me shouting, like some damn Monkey, “I’m a believer!” and wanting to convert:
“Buddhist monks in Thailand have recycled over one million used bottles to build a temple. The monks began collecting bottles in 1984 and they collected so many that they decided to use them as a building material. They encouraged the local authorities to send them more and they have now created a complex of around 20 buildings using the beer bottles, comprising the main temple over a lake, crematorium, prayer rooms, a hall, water tower, tourist bathrooms and several small bungalows raised off the ground which serve as monks quarters.”
As all of us know, all religions need donations and tithes to be able to survive. Some of them beg for money, some use threats and emotional blackmail. Others sell favours and salvation for cash but all of them want our money.
What a welcome and refreshing bit of news then that there is one religion that would beg to differ and, in effect, beg its followers to drink as much beer as humanly possible, to keep it into building materials.
As diseases go, you could do worse than catch Buddhism.
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"Religion may not have managed to kill as many people as malaria has but not through lack of trying."
ReplyDeleteIs this religion's fault? Do a few nuts who kill in the name of religion invalidate religion altogether?
Yes, my view is that it is religion that is at fault. Not a God or Gods (if He, She, It or They exist) but people organizing themselves in religious groups.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's more than "a few nuts", of course. The Crusades and centuries of anti-Jewish pogroms; the maiming and killing of heretics, non-believers and people of other faiths. The ongoing slaughter in India of Hinidi and Muslims (by Muslims and Hindi). Et cetera, et cetera.
Religion has always been a fulcrum of (and an excuse for) the most deadly divisiveness. Man has, of course, found other excuses and 'causes' for war, and for making the lives of his fellow man miserable but religion is one of the common threads that run throughout our blood-soaked history.
That's not the fault of any Creator but human nature is such that giving humans religion is not unlike giving a hand grenade to a three-year old.
So do the Crusades and jihads and other less-than-savory events on religion's record invalidate all the good it has done? What about hospitals and charities? Are those rendered null and void because of the bad things done in the name of religion?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on your view of God, if you believe that your God is better than you, you can turn to them when you need to forgive someone, because they forgive better than you. You can turn to them when you need to show compassion, for they are more compassionate than you. And you can turn to them for love, for they are move loving than you.
ReplyDeleteOf course if you think your God is a petty, vindictive, abusive, spoiled brat you can get your own radio show and urge the nation to go to war to show that your Petty, Vindictive, Abusive, Spoiled Brat of a God is stronger than some other Petty, Vindictive, Abusive, Spoiled Brat of a God.
Gods are not responsible for hospitals or wars (or the images of Them that we create.)
ReplyDeleteI'm just saying that, with the good, human beings also create a Hell of a lot of bad stuff - and religion has always been something that, while giving solace and hope to individuals, has been part of and responsible for vast crimes against humanity.