Religion: A Renunciation of Reason?

We are living in an increasingly intolerant world. Actions beget instant and inimical reactions. We cry "hurt" too easily and then eagerly seek to excoriate our apparent enemies. Humanity and Principles be damned! And much of it is in the name of religion!

Haven't we been giving just too much importance to religion? Why have we allowed the religious identity of a person (a circumstance that he had no control over in the first place) decide whether and which opportunities are available to him in life....or at a more basic level....his right to life itself?

Every religion is a Philosophy. A way of understanding and explaining Life and its mystiques. The founder of each religion was indeed a man of exceptional genius and great insight...and a great philosopher and writer too! Someone who could lucidly explain his theories to the masses, in a way that they would understand. And since they did, they venerated that man. These great men deserve all our earnest eulogies. For they could make philosophies that have withstood the test of centuries! It is an ENORMOUS accomplishment indeed to impress the infinite number of people who have read their books since they were written and were convinced enough by their theories and beliefs to adopt them!

Each new religion arose when its founder, being the intelligent man that he was, found cracks within the theories that the religion that he was born into expounded. His dissatisfaction with the existing explanations led him to his own theories and that was how a new line of thought streamed out of the established religion.

Thus each religion has its foundations in Critical Reasoning.
And yet ironically, we know Religion to inspire Blind Faith....a renunciation of all reason, among the multitudes.

The problem starts when we stop analyzing and start believing mechanically in all the priests and the prophets say. Such a meek submission is extolled as Faith and is made into a virtue. And any attempt at reason or questioning is snubbed, not only by the clergy but the society at large, as heretical and iconoclastic.

And this is where Religion starts becoming "an opium of the masses."
The word 'masses' itself is a derogatory reference to a cattle-like herd of people who can be shepherded in any direction, because they won't exercise their own mind and intelligence.

Intellect is the origin of each religion. And so, by corollary, intellect is Above each religion.

Each individual should be taught to respect and exercise his intellect, for indeed, we all have it. And, if one finds certain deficiencies in the philosophy he reads in his religious books, he should be free to reinterpret them and reform them in a way that seems logical to him. He should be given the freedom to question, analyze and theorize upon his religion, or indeed any religion. Equally important is his right to discuss and debate his interpretations with the society at large.

So, Religion should be open to frank and incisive Group Discussions.

People plead "hurt religious sensitivities" as a result of such discussions and debates. They stage processions, protests or worse even carnage to register their "anger". But can we allow such orchestrated conduct to intimidate the freedom of speech and discussion? Indeed this freedom is the very breath of the civilization.

Such a freedom is vital to the spirit of religion as well. Religion enlightens so long as it remains a stream of fluid ideas, indeed so long as it remains personal....YOUR religion should mean the way YOU interpret the thoughts and the theories of the basic religion. You may agree with some, disagree with others, or even propound some platitudes and philosophies of your own!

When this freedom is curbed, when all Reason and Debate is denounced, what we get is the Founder's religion....Nanak's Sikhism, The Prophet's Islam, the Vedas' Hinduism. We are told to take ALL of the philosophy without being given any alternative (not that many would seek it though). Thus religion becomes an impersonal, imposing monolith. It becomes a shackle, rather than a stream. And we become the slaves of our religious identity....our minds led by our religion, when it should have been the other way round!

And, whenever any actual or perceived attack is made on the Founder's philosophy, we are fervently told that the religion is under threat! And amazingly, people do go to all extents to 'protect' their religion.

All of us are aware of far too many instances of this phenomenon. And the more we tolerate such misplaced zealotry, the more we fan it, and the more we confound the problem.

Indeed, Religion is best left alone.....to each one, his own.