A Faithless Journey

I'm at a friend's place for lunch (she follows Jehovah's Witnesses and this gathering consisted of many of her so-called Kingdom Hall friends). One guy walks up to me and asks 'hey Keshi what is your Religion?'. I say 'I was brought up in a Buddhist and Hindu background, went to a Christian school, one of my best friends is a Muslim - so yeah, I respect all religions and I believe in living life in peace, not in a text book full of rules'. He looks at me and says 'oh but it's not good to worship statues and did u realise that India and Sri Lanka though they follow Buddhism/Hinduism, are 2 of the most violent countries in terms of hatred/war and bloodshed?'. I was surprised at his straight face and his wannabe-divine facial expressions as he blurted out that stupid sentence. I really did feel like zipping him up in a freezer bag and shipping him to Uranus, not because I was insulted by what he said (I don't get insulted by un-informed beings) but because I felt miserable about his rather severe cranium deficiency. Anyways, I didn't say anything to upset him but I did say smilingly 'you know what, it doesnt bother me what you believe in so why should it bother you what I believe in?', simply because I didnt even want to waste my breath on someone who had such a limited psyche. He just smiled and said 'Sorry'.....I think he got my message or did he, ummm who knows - if not now, then some day he will.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make any 'Religion' (personally I'm beginning to dislike that word) sound better/worse than mine. In real I have many friends of many different faiths - just like here in the blog world, and I have no problem in what they believe in as long as I can see good people in them. What I'm trying to say is that even though 'Religion' was initially created to put man on a purer path in life, it has now become quite the opposite. 'Cos it's 'Religion' that divides people and it's 'Religion' that makes people clash with each other, burn churches/temples, slam aeroplanes into buildings, drop bombs on innocent people and call it co-lateral damage, spark racial intolerance etc - yes it's 'Religion' that's become the purpose of violence now. The reason why the Jews are hated, the reason why some religions are divided within themselves, the reason for the Israeli-Palastenian conflict, the reason for the Pakistani-Indian clashes, the reason for Sri Lanka's ongoing Sinhala-Tamil war, the reason for US-Iraq wars, the reason for recent and sudden growth of fanatic Muslim extremists, the reason for Irish-English clashes etc etc my dear folks IS 'Religion'. The mere differences in 'Beliefs' can lead to so much damage in an individual, society and the whole world - how sad is that!

Think about this...we as human beings are prone to many problems in life. We can become victims of natural disasters, diseases and man. Therefore we can be victims of anything and anyone. That is a fact. Just beacuse your beliefs are different from mine, that doesn't give you the right to insult me, murder me or even burn down my entire community. People must realise that beliefs are just beliefs...and they are going to be hell of alot different from person to person. Your beliefs are a mixture of what you have been brought up to believe in and your own experiences. My beliefs are a mixture of what I was brought up to believe in and my own experiences. So you and I can never be in each others' shoes. Therefore someone else being 'different' doesnt mean you are right and the other is wrong. 'Religion' should be a way of life...it should bring peace to you and others...it's not only about praying infront of a God...it is also about respecting another's religion...it should not harm other people and violate their rights to their beliefs. It should make you a better person in thought, word and deed, not a blood-thirsty criminal. It should make you enlightened in each possible way, not deteriorate you day by day. Most of all, it should make you more tolerant of other people and their beliefs that are different to your's. After all, if you cant tolerate someone else's 'beliefs', do you honestly think your 'Religion' has helped you or that you have helped your 'Religion'?

You may be a Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Jain, Jehovah's Witness, Muslim whatever...you may be trying hard to practise your faith perfectly according to whatever the leader of your faith has passed on to generations of it's followers. And I believe that no 'Religion' teaches you to kill or make a mockery out of others (not that I have heard of such religions). But if you cant tolerate another person's faith or you harm people just 'cos they are different, then I reckon you haven't realised what faith is all about. Such people I believe have no faith whatsoever and are doing shame to their own so-called 'Religion'. 'Cos a 'Religion' should bring peace to you and others around you. So do justice to your faith...give others the freedom of peace and the peace of freedom.