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INCONVENIENT FACTS, INCORRECT INFERENCES
Every religion in the world is based on a Truth, as perceived by its founders. It is expressed to suit the particular society in historic time ie in particular circumstances. The followers do not usually have the experience of the founder, but merely take the truth as expressed by him in their own way as the Gospel. Then they apply it to different societies , with different cultural backgrounds and seek to convert them to their ways. Buddhism did it first - it is the first missionary religion in the world. Christ came 500 years later. Mohammad came 600 years after Christ.
Buddhists did it merely by word of mouth. Christians did it with political and commercial power and force. Muslims did it by the sword.
It so happens that Christians and Muslims have conquered the whole world and divided it between themselves. Where the two meet has been the area of war, violence and trouble for the last 1300 years.They are the two biggest religions in the world.
In the last hundred years or so, people in the West with a liberal education are increasingly drawing away from organised Christianity. Most educated persons who study the official Christian dogma, and even the Bible with an open mind find it difficult to believe in those doctrines and dogma. There are many people in the world who still feel strongly that there is Some Power in or behind the Universe, but they refuse to identify it with an anthropomorphic figure, like an old Man sitting on the throne, with his Son on his right! Such people call themselves 'Spiritual but not religious' and now constitute the third largest group in the world. They live mostly in the Christian West.
From: www.age-of-the-sage.org
Perhaps, Einstein expressed the idea best.
My comprehension of God comes from the deeply felt conviction of a superior intelligence that reveals itself in the knowable world. In common terms, one can describe it as "pantheistic". (Spinoza)
I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals.......My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend of the knowable world.
It is very difficult to elucidate this ( cosmic religious) feeling to any one who is entirely without it....The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image;so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it.
I will call it the cosmic religious sense. This is hard to make clear to those who do not experience it, since it does not involve an anthropomorphic idea of God.
From: The New Quotable Einstein, Collected and Edited by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, 2005.
Einstein at 25. By Lucien Chavan.
This became possible in the case of Christianity because in the last 4 centuries great intellectual churning has been taking place in those lands . They have turned the torch of enquiry inward, toward their own beliefs and dogma, books and institutions, and found them wanting. On the one hand, political and social institutions were questioned and uprooted; on the other religious dogma and hierarchy were also questioned. Perhaps, Martin Luther fired the first salvo, unwittingly. He wanted to reform the Catholic Church, but ended up dividing it. The split has been multiplying ever since. But dogma as such has not been given up. Only, they have done away with clergy and their head, Pope. They believe in the primacy of the Bible, and the immediacy of God: they can communicate directly, without the intervention of the clergy. They do not need the Saints or their intervention. They don't need a Pope to pardon their sins: God would do it directly, through faith in Christ. Only He could do it!
Jan Hus, who demanded reform in the Roman Catholic church , before Martin Luther being executed,1415.
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Subsequently, the advancement of science has made official beliefs unacceptable . Religion without reason cannot appeal to an educated mind.
Islam has not been affected by such waves of enlightenment. Where it has come to power, it has curbed all attempts at an intellectual appraisal.It claims to follow exactly what Mohammad said and did. Though Islam lacks a clergy, it is full of clerics who alone are authorised to interpret the basic books and issue rules called Fatwas which then become binding.These are mainly in Arabic and require further exposition by clerics- the Ulema.
Those who question it are heretics; those who leave are guilty of apostasy. Both face death as punishment. Thus the basic structure of Islam is enforced with force. While Islam, like Christianity, is split into numerous divisions, who are often hostile to each other, the form that is now emerging up-front is called Wahhabism, the original Saudi Arabian brand, which is funded worldwide by Saudi money.
Both Christianity and Islam destroyed all earlier religions in the areas which they captured, calling them idolaters, Pagans, Animists, pantheists,etc. As people differ in their temperaments and tastes, a religion has to provide for all. Christianity has a level with rituals for ordinary people, but allows life of contemplation for those who like it. Islam has no such problems: it is one rule for all. The Greeks, Romans and other ancient civilisations allowed their people to worship as they liked; thus they could keep everyone satisfied. Edward Gibbon, who wrote his monumental history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire points this out as an important factor in the stability of the Empire. He said:
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world,were all considered by the people , as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false;and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.
So the empire endured. Christianity, by their rabid intolerance, disturbed this balance, destroyed other religions and contributed to the decline of the empire!
Edward Gibbon. Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Public Domain, wikimedia commons.
At one level, we outsiders may say that Christianity and Islam have been destructive on the whole. But why did God, whom all religions worshipped in whatever manner, allow this to happen? For instance why were the Native Indians of America allowed to be killed by the millions? Was God cruel? or partial to the conquerors? or had those old religions outlived their usefulness? If so, could they not have been dealt with by The Great Spirit in a more merciful manner?
Site of an ancient Pagan Temple destroyed by the Judeo-Christians in Europe- one of the thousands. Thank God: Paganism is rising again, and Europeans are rediscovering their pre-Christian ancestry.
From: https:://thuleanperspective.files Wordpress.com/2014
Coming to India, why did God allow our temples to be destroyed by the thousands? Why did God allow even Ayodhya,Kashi, Mathura to be desecrated? Why did our people have to take away and hide the Images from many temples during the Muslim invasion-ie, we had to protect the Deities instead of the deities protecting us?
There is an incident connected with Vivekananda. On his wanderings in the North, he came across a Devi temple destroyed by the Muslims. He became very emotional and remarked that had he been alive, he would not have allowed this to happen. That night, Devi appeared to him in a dream and asked him whether he was protecting Her or She was protecting him! He then understood that it was the will of God.
Martand Sun Temple, in Kashmir, destroyed by the Muslims.
Who can understand these issues and give answers?
Does it mean that Hitler killing 6 million Jews was also an act of God? Was Hitler then an agent of God or of Destruction? This is a sinister philosophy. On this basis, nothing will ever be considered wrong!
We are complaining of the thousands of temples destroyed by the Muslims. But look at the hundreds of temples, small and big, dotting the countryside in Tamil Nad, especially in the Cauvery delta, which are without proper ritual worship! And look at the way the secular govt is administering Hindu temples, and interfering with our rituals! Is this not one type of destruction? And why should Hindu temples be under the Archaeological survey?
"Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple Entrance By KARTY JaaZ (own work)CCBY-SA 4.0 (http:://creative commons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]via wikimedia Commons.
Our Pontiffs are appealing periodically for the ceremonial renovation of the temples, and people are also generously contributing. But no one has addressed the basic issue: the communities which formed the nucleus of the worshippers and supported the rituals have almost totally deserted the villages. They all claim their family deities from these temples, but they are not prepared to settle down there even after retirement! This is a modern sociological problem and no mutt can solve it. In Europe, Churches are being abandoned, because people do not attend- this is due to dwindling faith in organised religion. We say we are still spiritual, but have abandoned our village temples!
The hoary Shiva Temple at Achalpuram where one of the four great Saiva Saints, Tirujnana Sambandha
merged in the Lord with all his followers on the day of his marriage! This temple is called "Tirunallur Perumanam"- the noble place of the 'great marriage': Jnanasambandha did not like worldly marriage, he wanted to merge in the Lord! It has few residents and visitors today!
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