Major developments in human histroy and culture is attributed with
religon. Religion has created some of the greatest achievements of
mankind. It has also destroyed his creations. Destruction of the
Bamiyan Buddha is one. Looking at the world today one sees religious
fundamentalism and intolerance. The Jews fighting with the Muslims,
Hindus fighting with the Muslims, Christians hatred for the Jews and
so on so forth. One realises that the world may be a better place
without religion. However we should not ignore that religious strife
started only from the 19th century. For many centuries religions
co-existed in peace. The Hindus and Muslims lived together fought for
independence together but somehow there is hatred amongst them today.
Reforming a religon is not easy. Look at Hinduism. It started
thousands of years ago being the longest surviving religion and oldest
of the living religions. Hinduism started of as a set of beliefs based
on the vedas. Then there Brahmanism and animal sacrifice and other
things that largely went against the vedas or found no mention in it.
There was an urgent need for reform. Then came Buddha who crticised
casteism and idol worship. Infact he reformed the religion so much
that it brought to the rise of Buddhism. Similarly along with the
Buddha there was mahaveera and Guru Nanak who reformed the religion
furthur and brought rise to Jainism and Sikhism. After the flourish of
Hinduism it faced its Dark Ages. Castesim became a way of life, Sati
was being practised, animal sacrifices went against the basic hindu
belief of non violence. Then came reformists as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and
Dayanand Saraswati who worked towards abolishing sati. Mahatma Gandhi
contributed towards banishing casteism.
The reason for me to take Hinduism as an example is that due to these
reforms the religon has been able to survive inspite of it antiquity.
Many old religions have failed because thier believes were no longer
relevent to the world they were living in. I have noticed that there
has been little reform in Christianity and no reform in Islam. The
Bible still mentions certain things that may be Anti-Semitic. Although
history has proven Jews were not responsible for Christs death, the
followers of Christianity have done nothing towards correcting it.
Similarly Islam once was one of the fasted growing religions in the
world has not reformed at all. It still places the same beliefs on the
people that existed centuries ago. Women in Islam are still being
discriminated. Holy wars are being started in the name of Allah. The
Kuran does say that people should resort to extreme violence to
preotect Allah. Anyone who is critical of Islam and tries to reform it
is FATWAed and probably executed. No religion can flourish if it does
not reform to the growing human thought. Man will not remain ignorant
forever. His beliefs keep changing and the religions need to do the
same. It is inappropriate for a religion to expect people to follow
the same set of beliefs which may seem barbaric today.
I personally would say that Buddhism is the religion that has caught
the attention of the present generations. Buddhism was way ahead of
its time and is very flexible to reform. It will continue to flourish
for many centuries.
Let us reform for the benefit of mankind and his futures.
religon. Religion has created some of the greatest achievements of
mankind. It has also destroyed his creations. Destruction of the
Bamiyan Buddha is one. Looking at the world today one sees religious
fundamentalism and intolerance. The Jews fighting with the Muslims,
Hindus fighting with the Muslims, Christians hatred for the Jews and
so on so forth. One realises that the world may be a better place
without religion. However we should not ignore that religious strife
started only from the 19th century. For many centuries religions
co-existed in peace. The Hindus and Muslims lived together fought for
independence together but somehow there is hatred amongst them today.
Reforming a religon is not easy. Look at Hinduism. It started
thousands of years ago being the longest surviving religion and oldest
of the living religions. Hinduism started of as a set of beliefs based
on the vedas. Then there Brahmanism and animal sacrifice and other
things that largely went against the vedas or found no mention in it.
There was an urgent need for reform. Then came Buddha who crticised
casteism and idol worship. Infact he reformed the religion so much
that it brought to the rise of Buddhism. Similarly along with the
Buddha there was mahaveera and Guru Nanak who reformed the religion
furthur and brought rise to Jainism and Sikhism. After the flourish of
Hinduism it faced its Dark Ages. Castesim became a way of life, Sati
was being practised, animal sacrifices went against the basic hindu
belief of non violence. Then came reformists as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and
Dayanand Saraswati who worked towards abolishing sati. Mahatma Gandhi
contributed towards banishing casteism.
The reason for me to take Hinduism as an example is that due to these
reforms the religon has been able to survive inspite of it antiquity.
Many old religions have failed because thier believes were no longer
relevent to the world they were living in. I have noticed that there
has been little reform in Christianity and no reform in Islam. The
Bible still mentions certain things that may be Anti-Semitic. Although
history has proven Jews were not responsible for Christs death, the
followers of Christianity have done nothing towards correcting it.
Similarly Islam once was one of the fasted growing religions in the
world has not reformed at all. It still places the same beliefs on the
people that existed centuries ago. Women in Islam are still being
discriminated. Holy wars are being started in the name of Allah. The
Kuran does say that people should resort to extreme violence to
preotect Allah. Anyone who is critical of Islam and tries to reform it
is FATWAed and probably executed. No religion can flourish if it does
not reform to the growing human thought. Man will not remain ignorant
forever. His beliefs keep changing and the religions need to do the
same. It is inappropriate for a religion to expect people to follow
the same set of beliefs which may seem barbaric today.
I personally would say that Buddhism is the religion that has caught
the attention of the present generations. Buddhism was way ahead of
its time and is very flexible to reform. It will continue to flourish
for many centuries.
Let us reform for the benefit of mankind and his futures.
