WHAT HAS RELIGION
BECOME?
by Anusha Kumar
The leaves
float around you in the gentle fall breeze that blows by. The rusty, crunchy
sounds of the dried flowers under your feet provide a soothing background to
your evening walk. As the sun sets behind the beautiful ornate mosque ahead,
the evening prayers began to resonate from the tall white pillars and envelope
you in a sense of warmth and peace.
Religion can
be so beautiful, but the scars on the backs of millions of people say
different.
Buddhist
monks mummify themselves. Some Muslim men beat themselves with a chain till
their back bleeds red to their toes. Some Christians crucify themselves. People
put themselves through genital mutilation. Animals are sacrificed. People are
sacrificed.
All in the
name of god.
What is religion?
What has religion become? As you flip to the next page, open your eyes to a new
perspective. To the horrors, you never knew existed in the world you call home.
Let’s start
simple. There is a Hindu ritual of pouring milk over black granite statues
called ‘shivlinga’ to supposedly please the deity Shiva. This is where that
milk ends up-
Did you know
that 42% of malnourished children in the entire world live in India? The same
country where tons of food is made every day to be presented to a 5-foot solid
gold statue in temples of every city. What are we doing? We say there is god in
every human, but we sure don’t act like it. We offer food and money to temples
in the name of god while hundreds of people sit outside starving and struggling
to survive. It is simple practices like these that we unwittingly carry out
that make no sense and help no one. But this is just the pain we are unknowingly,
indirectly inflicting.
Impaling is
a ritual practice carried out in India, Thailand and other south Asian
countries where the body parts of the participant is pierced with sharp objects
like needles, swords, iron rods, spears etc.
self- flagellation
is a ritual of religious significance done in the name of atonement of one's
sins is practiced widely even today by Christians who believe it will help them
achieve a higher place in heaven, and by Muslims of the Shia sect who practice
this for self-atonement. This is a ritual involving hitting oneself with a whip
or whips of chains with attached blades.
Fire walking
is one of the most widely practiced rituals in several countries such as
Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Pakistan, India etc. in this ritual the devotee is made
to walk barefoot on a bed of embers or stone that are set on fire and are at an
extremely high temperature.
Genital
mutilation is practiced in Muslim, Christian and Jewish faith. It is the
removal of exterior skin of female and male genital organs and is believed to
purify and prevent illicit sexual actions as per the religion.
These are
just a few of the hundreds of horrifying rituals that devotees to several
religions put themselves through.
Religion
means belief in god, it is a way of showing faith and worship towards something
you believe will protect you. What has religion become? People are putting
themselves through immense pain and torture to please god. It is said that god
created us, watches over us, is righteous, generous and almighty. For such a
powerful and kind being, what sense does it make to inflict such pain? How
would that please a deity of such good nature who is said to protect us?
You may say
that this is what they believe in and it is their choice to carry out whichever
practice they want to, however this is not the choice of the millions of
animals sacrificed every year to appease a deity. It is not the choice of the
babies who are thrown off the roofs of Karnataka homes to supposedly bring
peace to their culture.it is not the choice of the many humans sacrificed by
their own families because they are bad luck. It is not the choice of the new
generation of children who don’t want to blindly follow their cultures
practices that they don’t believe in. Even for those who chose these practices
willingly, the religions never stated for such extreme measures to be taken. If
god created us and looks over us, its certain that he/she would never want us
torture ourselves in this manner.
Lastly,
there is conflict between religions. The crusades and the India- Pakistan
separation is just a few of the major conflicts caused by religion that has
resulted in the bloodshed of millions. there is no actual proof of any deity
therefore all we have is beliefs. The fact that we kill each other over it is
ridiculous to me. Why not just respect each other’s beliefs and let religion be
as peaceful as it was intended to be?
From all
this we see one thing- the meaning and reason for religion is being lost.
Somewhere between the crazy rituals, the fighting over beliefs and astounding
donations to corrupt temples, the real purpose of religion is being diluted in
our minds. Diluted to a fear instead of love, kill instead of protect, ignore
instead of help, death instead of life.
I would like
to conclude by saying that when you worship and pay offerings to a deity, don’t
just think about pleasing your god, keep in mind the starving children who need
your help more than a statue you give your donations to. After all there is god
in every living thing.
So, I leave you with this- What has religion
become and what can we do about it?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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