2007-12-26

About Religions

The problem: A lot of conflicts and even wars happen having the religion as a main trigger.
In the history a lot of wars were fought in the name of god and faith. And this although they are all talking about peace and charity.

The reason: There are multiple reasons causing wrong usage of religions.
  • There are a few people misunderstanding the religion they practice.
    In addition to that some are misusing and manipulating the faith of other people practicing the same religion.
  • People are uncertain about themselves and other religions cause anxiety to them.
    This mostly leads to arguing about other religions trying to decry them.
  • People are too certain about themselves and therefore only their way must be the correct one.
    They forget that different people need different medicines for healing their different illnesses. This does not mean that the final goal is the same for everybody - personal happiness.

The solution: We must understand that the intention of the religions are all the same: They are systems of rules and world-view to assist people living together in peace to support the surviving.
Single individuals are in the very most cases not able to live independently from other people. We all depend from other people supporting us with clothes, food and so on. The conjunction let us understand that if other people stay well and be happy will have affect also on our own happiness.
We should respect the fact that different ways may lead to the same final destination - a world full of peace and love. We should therefore pay respect to all religions. You should accept that the religion you practice is not the only possible way and there are different interpretations. Even people not practicing any religion may follow similar rules or at least have the same intention of living together in peace and love with the others - and maybe those people have chosen to practice none of the religions only because they would have liked to join all of them...

When you go to a land or location where other religions are practiced then treat them with respect. Maybe it is not doing harm to you trying one or the other practice of that religion. Celebrating with others improves the understanding the others but does not mean that you cannot have your own view of the world. It is a matter of respect and empathy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I disagree.

Perhaps you mistake "religion" for personal faith. I cannot comment on the former, but the latter are grown collection of values, not
immutable things.

In my opinion, relgions are (by now) systems to exert control over people, in order to gain power for the few at the top.

All rules of the big religions foster this main principle.

Examples:
-top to bottom hierarchy
-obedience to higher ranks
-prohibition to question or discuss rules or
decisions from above ("dogma")
-taxes
-creation of psychological dependency ("original
sin", confession, need for priests can do some
things, threat of punishment if bad,
announcement of -immaterial!- rewards if good
-installation of "needed" rituals for every
important social event (birth, death,
marriage), to further monetary income and
consolidate control, psychological dependency
-no to birth control (more members, more power)
-no children for priests (no monetary claims
from descendants)
-claim to be the only "right" religion (aimed
at competition; "You shall have no other gods
before me")

Especially the last example is classic, directly contradicts the claim above, "They are systems of rules and world-view to assist people living together in peace to support the surviving."

Which I find naive to assume. I think people should be treated with respect, but religions should not. They should be abolished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

Anonymous said...

Well perhaps we both mean the same. Perhaps I misunderstood your point about "intention of religion".

Martin Wildam said...

Yes, I think we are thinking of two different "intentions". I meant with "intention" the intention by the creators of the religion - those for sure even were/are very convinced of their system. This is such as vendors of products usually tell everybody that their system is simply the best.

"Intention" as you mentioned is the intention of those who more or less control those systems nowadays.

An association I have right now after your comment (thanks BTW and I will watch the video later), is the difference between an inventor and those who know how to get capital from the invention and those who finally use the invention (paying more or less for the product or service).

Martin Wildam said...

Watched the video. In fact I did a lot of praying when I was a really little boy. But then I realized that the core trigger for change is not prayer but my own action. That's when I started focusing on my own thinking and my own action.

That said, how do you get to healthy thinking and healthy action?

a) You follow some rules that are proven to be helpful. You can find good rules in nearly every religion (not talking about the whole thing).

b) You find your own rules.


Talking about rules, my experience is, that principles are more important than rules and direction is more important than goals. This is where it comes to intention and state of mind. All this can be influenced by your environment, but you have control over this and your decisions are based on principles and goals. So in the very core you are responsible on your own.

This is probably scary for some people...