Our religion is not our choice
We all know that our religion is not our choice. We have inherited this religion from our forefathers. We never chose our religion. The parents brought us up as per norms of the religion in which they themselves had been trained and since our birth we are following the same, whether we are liking that religion or we are not liking that religion. It is on record that at times people had been forced to change their religion and convert to the religion of their rulers and if they did not agree, there are instances where they had been killed . In India the Muslim rulers had been converting the people to the Muslim fold and we have heard that during the time of Aurangzeb there had been forced conversions and we have also heard that two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs had been bricked alive at Sirhind and this was done in times of Aurangzeb. There are instances when these Muslim rulers had been burning Hindu religious books and had been demolishing Hindu Temples and on those very places from where they had demolished Hindu Temples, they had been constructing religious places of their own religion just to establish that the Muslim religion is more stronger that of Hindus. And the present Muslims either in India or in Pakistan , their forefathers had not come from abroad but mostly they are Hindu Conferts. Therefore, the people who are following the present religion here in India and in Pakistan are not original Muslims or original Christians. Most of them are converts.
There are instances where the people are still converting or are persuaded to convert, but this conversion is still going on in each part of the world. When peopkle convert from one religion to another, they change their way of life, but they are not wholly changed and therefore, from these people we are giving birth to a new religion which they call humanity. There are people who are converting as Secular and there are people who are converting as fundamentalists. The fundamentalists are at war. They are converting as terrorists and as rioters and it is on record that they are killing innocent people when none of the religions on this earth is approving these killings. To give birth and to take life of man had been recognized as the realm of God, but these religious people are taking this work in their own hands and thus they are violating the jurisdictions prescribed by God but still they claim that they are near to God.
It must be admitted that these religions would not merge and form one religion. Because of these impossibility, a new set of people is coming out and they are calling themselves as Secular. They are really secular or they are just showing all these changes, is a question which cannot be answered at this stage because people in India are calling themselves as secular, but there are people who are still Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Christians and they are at war because there4 are terrorists and rioters and they are killing innocent people. The minorities are turning terrorists and the majority is blamed for riots in India. They are trying to equal the killings and if we count, at least 2,00,000 people might have been killed through terrorism or riots. This is the situation in a secular country and now people have started demanding reservations on the basis of religions and the Dalits are also declaring that they should be allowed to become full-fledged citizens of India.
Religions are taking place in politics and now the people are converting every religion as a political identity because politics give them power and there are chances when the religions shall be political parties. Man may be reaching God through these religions or not, but there are chances they shall establish governments on the basis of religions and all the people in other religions shall be slaves or second rated citizen in those religiously dominated countries. There is no chance that these religions shall play a good role in this world; The people are not following the principles laid down in religious books.
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I usually don’t upload other videos and post them (thanks YOISM.org), but this video was too good to pass up. It reinforces why I love this candidate. Finally someone eloquent who really gets it!!! He admits some of the inanities in the bible and the illogic. He admits that faith is illogical and imperfect. He lays out why religion should stay out of government. He’s for civil unions and not marriage, but… eh… criticizing that is like not driving the Lamborghini because it only gets 9 …
Marcus Brigstocke rants about religion. Not for the faint-hearted! Audio from ‘The Now Show’, Radio 4, Saturday 21 July 2007. Pictures compiled, animated and sequenced by Alien8ted.
I was just wondering. Many religions claim men are superior to women. Is there any religion which states women are greater than men. At least that they are equal. Why do you think many religions consider men to be superior? Is it because all the founders of the religions happen to be men? If so its time we start our own religion. What do you think?
Religions could not reform the man
We shall have to accept that much is written in all the religious books available in this world, but at the same time we shall have to accept that all these guidelines could not correct this man nor these guidance could reform the man. People in all the religions are committing crimes, sins and misconducts found in all the conduct books, in all the religious books and in all the penal laws available in all the countries and the police, the society, the courts and the jails are full with people who are facing all these charges and are being punished.
The religions had been established at different places at different time and the people who took up the work of reforming the man started writing books or giving discourses establishing guidelines for the man and the people who started joining these groups are ultimately established themselves in that religion and they gave a particular name to that religion. The religions might had done something good for the beginning, but with the passing of time these religions started dividing this man into different groups and at a later stage they started fighting amongst each other. It is on record that most of the wars had been because of different religions. There had been conversions and forced conversions too. The people had been demolishing religious places of one religion and they had been constructing religious places of their own religions on those very places just to establish that their that their religion is more forceful than the other. The people in different religions had been coming forward and had been competing amongst each other telling the others that more good principles are written in their religious books and such things are not available in religious books of other religions.
The world is divided on the basis of religion. We had seen that here in this sub region there had been a partition worst in the history of mankind in which millions of people had been killed and millions had been forced to migrate to unknown places in the year 1947 and since India and Pakistan had been at war and they are killing people without any target and without any achievement. If we go deep this war of 1947, 1965 and of 1971 between India and Pakistan had been there because of religion and this war shall continue for centuries on the basis of religion and this war between India and Pakistan would not allow India to become a nation.
So we shall have to accept and admit that religions could not correct this man and will not be able to correct this man. Rather, in the near future, this religion shall play worst role in the world and the next world war, if at all it shall be there, it shall be amongst two religions and they shall try to root out the other religion. The days are over when these religions had been functioning giving guidance to the man to live in peace and seek way to God.
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Religion And Fanaticism
26/11 Mumbai was under siege, some 20 odd young men brandishing AK 47 rifles went on a killing spree at a busy railway station, and five stars hotels killing hundreds. This incident brings back memories of the now infamous 9/11 where a handful of highly motivated, misguided souls took controls of aircrafts and banged into the World Trade Center destroying it completely and killing thousands. These incidents again make us realize how susceptible we are in the face of such terror activities, where a group of highly trained and motivated people inflict so much pain and agony to the innocents. The very fact that the actors who perpetrate these acts are ready to die makes them more dangerous, because the very fear of death, the ultimate fear, itself is absent from their psyche and hence they can go to any extent to inflict terror in the minds of people, or they can go to any extent to get the authorities to bend on their knees. The very pertinent example would be the Hijack of Indian Airlines Flight IC 864 to Afghanistan. Their ( Of the hijackers, who were mainly terrorist from Pakistan owing allegiance to Taliban ) demand from the then Indian Government was to get their 20 operatives released from various jails that they were put in and Indian Government had to give in to their pressures as lives of 265 innocent Indians were at stake. The Pilots of the United Airlines aircrafts very well knew that their lives will be snuffed in seconds when they saw the world trade center getting larger and larger in front of their wind screens. Their psychology was so strong that with the knowledge of their death in seconds they kept flying straight into World Trade Center.
Unfortunately majority of such terrorist activities are perpetrated by the religious fanatics of Islam. Such tendencies are not limited to Islam alone but it is seen mostly in the abhramic religion ie Islam Christianity and Judaism. I urge my readers not to misunderstand me as I revere all religion as no religion in the world tells its followers to go and kill in the name of religion. In its essence and origin, Islam is a religion of mercy and peace, of kindness and tolerance, and of knowledge and enlightenment; it is not a religion of violence, fanaticism and ignorance.
What happens is that because of a miniscule group of misguided souls the entire religion and the followers of it suffers. The pain that a innocent Muslim goes through when their religion becomes the center stage of any terrorist activity is very evident in the following article written by a Muslim devout in Khalij Times. I reproduce that letter verbatim for my readers.
“Khaleej Times: No Time to Hide for Muslims by Aijaz Zaka Syed (View from Dubai )
Every time innocents are targeted in the name of Islam around the world, one can’t face one’s non-Muslim friends and colleagues. I feel like burying myself in the ground. Growing up in a religious family, one never thought one would see the day when being a Muslim could be a source of shame.
A distraught friend who has devoted her life to speaking and fighting on behalf of Arabs and Muslims wrote in yesterday saying “I’ve had it with the Arabs and Muslims and Islamic militancy. Forgive me but I am throwing in the towel.”
I couldn’t write back to her but understood her pain… She grew up in Mumbai and is understandably upset.
My friend went on to say: “The Muslims and Islam have a problem and only they can solve it. If they do not, the whole world will turn against them.”
Can you blame the world if it’s turning against Muslims? What do you expect when not a single day passes without the name of our faith being dragged through the mud by fellow believers around the world?
Is this what Islam and the noble Prophet teach and stand for?
It’s all very well for us to say Islam has nothing to do with extremism and terrorism. We can go on deluding ourselves these psychopaths do not represent us.
However, the world finds it hard to accept this line of argument because it sees the extremists increasingly assert themselves and take the centre-stage while the mainstream Islam remains silent.”
Religion seems to offer a particularly fertile matrix, in which fanaticism can grow, is religious belief itself the cause of fanaticism? Or is religion simply one of many catalysts that can transform desperation into extremism? We might find the answers in the teachings of the Founders of the world’s major religious systems. What do they say about fanaticism and religious zeal? Did they espouse it or promote it? And if not, where does it come from?
Some particularly sharp insights may be found in the Bahá’í Writings. Bahá’u'lláh clearly condemned fanaticism of all kinds. In a statement that seems to foreshadow our times, He wrote:
Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can, alone, deliver mankind from this desolating affliction.
(Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 13
Religion itself breeds fanatics. If the teachings of the Manifestations of God had been followed, fanaticism would never have taken root within the religions they established. We can say this because fanaticism and hatred are so clearly contrary to their explicit teachings. It uses religion as a tool to further aims that have nothing to do with true religion. If we use a hammer to open a jar, we’re going to destroy the jar. Hammers are not meant for opening jars, and they are powerful enough tools to do considerable damage when misused. Religion is one of the most potent forces known to humanity. Misused, it is capable of doing correspondingly great damage.
Why do the fanatics succeed? The answer lies in a short story. A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, Owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. ‘Very few people were true Nazis,’ he
said, ‘but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were
too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a
bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen.
Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and
the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up
in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories. The essence of this story is simple. The terrorists are very small in number but they are very cohesive. Their negative attitude is cohesive as well. Therefore they can inflict so much pain. The good and peace loving people are much much larger in number but are not cohesive at all and hence their positivity and goodness does not percolate down the society. The fanatics are so cohesive that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are
gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and
homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to
become suicide bombers. Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians , Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, Indians including Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
Each religion brings out its own doctrines and insists upon them as being the only true ones. And not only does it do that, but also it thinks that he who does not believe in them must go to some horrible place. Some will even draw the sword to compel others to believe as they do. This is not through wickedness, but through a particular disease of human brain called fanaticism. They are very sincere, these fanatics, the most sincere of human beings; but they are quite as irresponsible as other lunatics in the world. This disease of fanaticism is one of the most dangerous of all diseases. All the wickedness of human nature is roused by it. Anger is stirred up, nerves are high strung, and human being becomes like tigers.”
Thus faith turns into fanaticism. The communal frenzy erupts and religious wars are fought with ensuing mass destruction and chaos. There is no doubt that more blood is shed on religious wars and persecution than on any other cause. But this is no fault of an individual. It is the evolutionary weakness. It is not a crafty design of one individual, or one particular religion. Our inability to convert faith into the knowledge of direct perception (of the truths as preached by the religious seers) is responsible for this. The mammal in us is still strong; we have as yet failed to evolve as complete human beings.
When a person embodies values like spiritual wisdom, purity of heart, qualities of universal love and altruism, we call him a saint or a sage. Sometimes such a person contributes to the welfare of humanity in such a great measure that he is referred to as God -the founder of a religion. Such examples are Sri Krishna, Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Nanak, Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, and many more. The list is unending; we encounter such great souls in every religion of every continent and in every era. These great souls have intuitive knowledge of oneness of human race. Their intuition is based on their experience or realization and conforms to rationality and reason. They speak from the experience of realization of Divinity acquired after transcending the limitations of body-mind complex. They have the direct knowledge of Reality. Millions of followers of these saints intellectually and emotionally grasp their message of love and compassion; but cannot claim to have experienced these values as direct knowledge. They believe in what the saints say.
None of the saints or their religion preaches hatred and killing. Every religion preach that humankind is a single family and the earth its common homeland. There is no place for fanaticism or the fanatics.
The Dark Side of Religion …
by Adam Wilson
Religion can be defined as set of supernatural beliefs and practices that to give meaning to one’s life through the existence of a deity or multiple deities.Religion is meant to be uplifting and to console people during difficult times.It is meant to bring communities and nations together and to strengthen them.Religion generally inspires the world to be a better place by it’s very nature.
Sometimes though religion can also be negative and destructive.It can tear nations apart, fueling wars and causing mass destruction and mass genocide.Religion can cause people to feel ashamed of things they shouldn’t, it can cause extreme fear and guilt, intolerance, lowered self esteem, dangerous obsessions and perfectionist attitudes.
Religion is often forced upon people, especially children.Often time these people grow up feeling alienated and like they don’t belong.They are led to feel guilty if they don’t feel enthusiastic or right about their religion.Guilt ensues and sometimes they become suicidal.People should always have the right to choose their religion, even children.
People sometimes use religion as a weapon, an excuse to hate certain groups of people.Christian groups have targeted pagans and witchcraft, the LGBT community, the Muslim community, and many others.Extremist Islamic groups have use religion as an excuse to attack Christians and Christian nations.People have often murdered and committed great atrocities in the name of religion since the beginning of time.There will always be those who will pervert and corrupt religion to their own selfish ends.
People often abuse religion.People often use religion to justify violence and wars.They use it for personal gain and to advance political or economic agendas.The abuse of religion has always been around and always will be.
Religion should never make you feel hateful, guilty, insecure, shameful, obsessive, or negative in general.It should never lead you to commit or want to commit ill acts against another human being.Religion should foster spiritual growth and development as well as improving the health of the mind, body and spirit.It should unite people and empower them to enrich their lives and the world around them.
If your religion doesn’t do these things for you and it makes you feel negative or oppressed, then perhaps you need to find another group or church within your religion or perhaps even find a new religion completely.Never let religion harm you in any way.It was never meant to be used as a weapon.
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Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Science. His most recent book is Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2004). Professor Diamond argues that religion has encompassed at least four independent components that have arisen or disappeared at different stages of development of human societies over the last 10000 years. … usc college crcc center for religion and civic culture university of southern california creativity jared …
Why do these Christians keep believing that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus? Thats just one particular fictional character for that religion. Every other religion has some other idea that they will go to heaven and everyone else who doesnt follow them will go to hell. What makes every religion believe only theirs is right while all others are wrong? Its just a mere accident at birth that you were this religion. Which belief could be right and which is wrong? I dont get how people could continue to believe in this while all the other religions are against them.
REM ao vivo, no Canadá. REM live in Canada.