Forcing a faith

„We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another“. Jonathan swift.

Shocked to read news last December 25th in Spigel.de about an Indian student being attacked and his tongue slashed. What is the reason? Only because, he refused to get converted to Islam.

He was attacked on Christmas Eve when he was on the way to his place in Bonn. The men enquired about his religion and asked him to convert to Islam, warning him they would cut his tongue if he refused, Der Spiegel reported.  The attackers beat him up and slashed his tongue and fled in a car. People have become crazy on religion. „The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world“. Georgia Harkness rightly said that.

When people practice religion without human affection and dignity, educated and rational ones start hating even that word religion. I may not be wrong if I say that religions have brought more violence and death rather than peace on earth. People believe in religion rather than on God. The point of discontent for Karl Marx was not God but religion and the God that religion created. No objection to what he said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses”.

I may not be wrong if I quote Dalai Lama whom I see more authentic and spiritual than some of the other religious heads. “We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection”.

A take home message would be: please do experience God in whatever faith you are or without a faith in religion, but please don’t insist on the same experience on others forcefully.