Whether Religion is Always a Source of Conflict?

Religion is nowadays quite often associated with conflicts and intolerance. The war between Israel and Philistine and extreme violence exhibited by ISIS militants against other religions and even against some sects of Muslims are drawing the attention of the world towards the negative side of religion.

Recently, Mr. Ram Gopal Verma, the Film Producer of Bollywood, created sensation as he tweeted about Lord Ganesha: ‘The guy who couldn't save his own head from being cut , how he will save others heads is my question? But Happy Ganpathi day to morons!’

His remark has evoked expected reactions from people cutting across all political affiliations. While Shaina of the BJP called it "blasphemous and insensitive", Congress' former MP from Mumbai Sanjay Nirupam demanded police action against him for violating the law of the land and hurting the sentiments of Hindus. If he is still not behind bars, it is because he is a Hindu and he has criticized his own God.

Can you imagine the reaction of people, if he would have been a Muslim or Christian?

Such extreme reactions of people in the matter of religion often make some people ask, ‘if the world would be better without religion?’ Can we not live by scientific truths rather than believing on something which is devoid of any scientific evidence?

I think that science and religion has to coexist together even though they seem contradictory to each other. Science tells us only the facts-- 'what it is', while religions and other ideologies tell us about our desires and aspirations--'what it should be'. Science tells us where we are but only religion or ideology can tell us where we should go in our life. If there is no religion or ideology, men would not know where to go and that would lead to chaos and conflict of different kind –between individuals.

The common theme of all religion is to create a society that follows a value system which can serve the interest of the group of the followers of the religion. Religions unite people under one roof just like the concept of nation unites people within a geographical area.

No religion is universal as it is created for the purpose of forming a group within a larger group. It usually has double standards:  one set of values for the members of their group and different (often opposite) for the rest (nonbelievers). All religions do not subscribe to the same set of values. That is why conflicts between different religions and often within same religion between different sects.

The same double standards are followed by modern secularists and atheists when they define believe in other man-made ideals like "nationalism" --where people justifies all actions in the national interest while the same actions are criticized when followed by others. As an example, if few thousand (innocent) people are killed in 9/11, Islamic countries and ideologies are blamed, but when the Allied forces killed many times more (innocent) people in Islamic countries, it was considered to be logical and justified. The fact is that in both cases many innocents died.

Can You Live Without Faith?
Man is a social animal and he wishes to live in groups. When you join a group, you have to adopt the values of the group (religion, nationalism, communism etc.). Religious values are often inculcated in our mind since your childhood and these thoughts go into our subconscious mind as we grow. Hence even when you are grown up, such thoughts become your personality and identity. You can't challenge them as they have become part of you. Hence anyone who questions that faith, you get angry and agitated.

While it is easy for the secular people to get agitated for the irrational behaviour of religious people, they also do the same when it comes to their beliefs about the sanctity of their –isms. We have seen tremendous hostile reaction when Saina Mirza chose to marry an Pakistani man of the same religion by the ‘nationalists’.

All –ISMS unite people under one umbrella but also segregate them from other people. Thus all faiths one side provide us protection and security, they also make us vulnerable to other – isms. Thus the good and evil of religion and faith can’t be separated. When you choose one end, you also choose the other end.   Only when you follow no –ism, you become universal. However, that is always a personal choice as you have to in turn sacrifice the security of the group.