Let us imagine a world with a single religion.
Would it be better off than the world today ?
While not a firm believer in religious diktats, I think it would have been better if Adam had propagated a single religious belief along with Eve. Or, for that matter, any other ancient human from the earliest religion which ever came into being.
After all, religion is the creation of man. We seem to forget often this fact.
Today, the world is harping from one extreme to the other, due to religious differences. It is hard to believe this in a world which has moved in an enlightened fashion towards the 21st Century. Man has gone from one huge scientific achievement to yet another breakthrough……almost continuously over the past few decades. Even decoded the human gene ! Synthesised animal lives !!
But, we don’t seem to be able to overcome the passions which are resplendent in human emotions when it comes to dealing with our religions. We are overcome by these emotions, which temporarily desensitize us to human misery.
There are several unnecessary wars going on in this world, as we meet in this blog……mostly waste of human lives, driven by passions, not susceptible to advanced human judgement, passively watched by an impotent United Nations and the rest of the world.
If the world were to have one religion, would it have resulted in the mitigation of such misery ? World’s three leading religions, except Hinduism, seem to be at perennial war (current estimated count of Hindus – 700 million).
Let us avoid religious influences of a negative type when it comes to educating our children, and getting them ready for the next century – I mean the 21st Century, what is left of it.
Hope man’s erudition, wisdom and judgement will take over soon.
Let us pray for the lives which have been plucked out of this world for no reason whatsoever.
Praise the single God, whoever He or She is ! Let Him or Her advise the world at large to resolve its inherent differences by mediating through Kofi Annan, ouch, through the UN Security Council !!
One God is better than Many ! This is what the world has taught us.
Have a great week ahead,
Vijay Srinivasan
6th August 2006
Mumbai
You echo my thoughts which I shared with JBW and which he blogged about a couple of weeks ago….
appa, you don’t understand. what you have described is a VERY hypothetical situation. there is NO POSSIBILITY of there being only one religion in this world because of the simple reason that: different people believe in different things. it is not possible to spread the beliefs of one religion throughout the entire world’s population – impossible and not feasible either. what you have described in your post is something that, as amma would say, idealistic and not at all realistic.
and even if it were possible to force/coerce/persuade all the governments in the world to follow one religion, this would, in fact, escalate terrorist activities, especially because of people whose religion was abandoned in favour of the religion that has taken over. many of these people will feel outraged/betrayed and will definitely strike back and this, in my opinion, will work against the world’s current efforts against terrorism.
It’s interesting, but why not think of the different religions as already being one religion but only being different on the surface. This keeps us from judging the other religion I.e.: Every religion has a good and a bad right? A God and a Satan. And yes, I have to admit I’m a Christian
Interesting stuff!
In response to newmw, of course the thing to consider is the difference between mono-theistic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) and religions that are pluralistic (Buddhism, Hinduism).
The mono-theistic religions basically will not accept other religions so having a global religion will be hard unless all parties align to a mono-theistic religion.
Having said that, I also agree with newmw on the bit about not-judging. I too, am a Christian which is mono-theistic but at the same time, we are commanded not to judge.
So, while a mono-theistic world is an ideal solution, as long as that is not possible, tolerance and non-judgmentalism is the key.
Totally agree with your post and conclusion danesh (‘while a mono-theistic world is an ideal solution, as long as that is not possible, tolerance and non-judgmentalism is the key’). And yes, the thing to consider is indeed the difference between monotheistic and pluralistic religions.