THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION
Did God invent us, or did we invent God?
Eddie Izzard
Religion is about morality. The purpose of religion is to make humans moral and virtuous beings, not extremists. It is to spread peace in the world. It is to develop a society of rich virtuous culture, providing motivation for creating positive social change.
THE REAL PURPOSE OF RELIGION
Every religion in the world talks about peace. The only and first purpose of religion is to build humanity in humans. Word Humanity is derived from Humans so Humans are meant for humanity. Worships, visiting temples and churches, and offering prayers come second. If there is no humanity in one, he or she has no reason to follow a religion or to call himself a religious person. The identity of a religious person is not marked by wearing a cassock, hijab, turban, burqa, and other traditional religious attires but it is marked by a person’s virtues, acts, moral values, generosity, gentleness, and modesty. Food is meant for energy, Science is meant for technology, Houses are meant for shelter, Education is meant for intellectuality likewise religion is meant for peace only.
Religion without humanity is a poor human stuff.
Sojourner Truth
KILLING IN THE NAME OF GOD
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.
Mahatma Gandhi
People have considered the wrong meaning of religion from day one. The religion that came to create peace and tranquility in the world and whose purpose was to remove ignorance from human beings and create humanity in them was the same religion that caused many big wars in the world and which has become a center of conflict even after several thousand years have passed. George Carlin once said, “More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason.” People have forgotten the real meaning of religion, they have destroyed the peace of the religion and have led to conflicts and wars. Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod in their 3-volume encyclopedia of wars identify 1,763 separate wars as forming the entire history of recorded warfare out of 123 were classified as having a religious cause. It means 7% of the total wars have been fought for a religious cause (twice the entire population of the United States killed in religious wars).
Some of the most deadly religious wars fought in history:
9/11(September 11,2001): The most recent 9/11 was the result of the violent reaction of the Muslim extremist group Al-Qaeda. They hijacked four planes and crashed them into the most important buildings of the U.S. WORLD TRADE Center and PENTAGON. They attacked because of the US support for Israel which led to a total of 60 to 70 million casualties.
The Crusades (11th-13th centuries): A series of wars fought between Christians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land. The Crusades were sanctioned by the Catholic Church and saw Western European Christians invade the Middle East. Estimated around 1.2 million casualties.
The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648): A war fought in central Europe between Protestants and Catholics. It was one of the deadliest European wars and had a massive death toll, estimated at 5–11 million people.
These are examples of some of the most violent wars ever fought in the name of religion by which nothing, in the end, was obtained but only instability, casualties, destruction of peace, social disturbance, and hysteria are created in the environment. The incident of 9/11 mentioned above is the most recent example of such religious wars which was the result of the violent reaction of the Muslim extremist group Al-Qaeda that created massive instability, economic loss, affected trade relations, hysteria in the country. To their violent reaction, not only the concerned country but the whole world suffered. Al-Qaeda gained nothing from that action, but the world started to dislike them and people started to hate Muslims and started considering Islam as a violent religion. In response American troops invaded Afghanistan to eliminate terrorist groups which obscured the development in Afghanistan as Afghanistan is included in the UN’s grouping of least-developed countries. Hate crimes against Muslims increased around the world, a study claimed: “Before 9/11 there were only 11 reported crimes but a year following 9/11, there were 173 hate crime cases reported”. Hysteria arose in people’s hearts against Muslims, Similarly, in response to the actions of extremists, they received extremism.
There is a famous saying;
EXTREMISM LEADS to EXTREMISM
Fighting and quarreling over a pointless matter has brought nothing but destruction and instability. Killing each other and fighting wars in the name of religion, whose purpose is to spread peace and prosperity, is only ignorance.
· A list of religions that caused the number of casualties in the world is mentioned in the Book WAR AND PEACE IN ISALM (Professor Mohammad Hashim Kamali )
· Christian civilization’s share of this is the largest with between 119.42 million and 236.66 million victims.
· In second place is the Antitheist civilization which has contributed to 124.41 million deaths.
· The Sinic civilization is third with 107.92 million deaths (median).
· Fourth is the Buddhist civilization with 87.95 million deaths.
· Fifth is the Primal-Indigenous civilization with 45.56 million deaths.
· Sixth is the Islamic civilization with 31.02 million deaths.
· Finally, seventh and last, is the Indic civilization with just under 2.39 million deaths.
Did God invent us, or did we invent God?
Eddie Izzard
CULTURE AND RELIGION
Culture is the lifestyle, thoughts, social beliefs, language, Taste, Architecture, Environment, and Practices of people in a particular area. Culture varies from place to place.
Religion is the spiritual and divine beliefs of people. Religion is a utopian approach.
How culture is related to religion
Culture and religion are both different. CULTURE IS REALISTIC. Culture depends on the mindset of people. As people think so will the culture that’s why culture contains various social evils, abusive and disrespectful elements. RELIGION IS IDEALISTIC. In religion, the solution to every social issue has been explained so that people can understand and bring positive social change to their society.
How culture affects religion
In today’s world, people have mixed religion with culture. Culture is dominated over religion. The religion that is supposed to bring positive social change is repressed by culture. People consider and interpret religious teachings according to their thinking and instead of changing the wrong customs of their society, they use the name of religion and create more social evils. There are different religious beliefs for the same religion in different places. (For example, In Afghanistan Muslim women are banned from education while in other Muslim countries, women can freely enjoy education) It is not religion that has banned education for women but it is their culture that does not allow women to get the education. This is a prime example of how religion varies from place to place.
Every dictator uses religion as a prop to keep himself in power.
Benazir Bhutto
RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY
Nature is diverse. There is huge diversity on Earth. There are a variety of fruits, vegetables, animals, insects, seasons, colors, languages, cultures, traditions, Food, Architecture, Ideologies, opinions, and arts. Everything has its own unique properties, Taste, advantages, disadvantages, beauty, specialty, etc. Everything has something new to learn in it, Likewise, there is diversity in Religion, every religion has its own beauty, every religion contains a message of peace in its own way, every religion has something unique and different from others, and every religion has its good points, every religion deserves respect because at the end every religion delivers a message of peace, humanity, kindness, modesty, humility, honesty to form a peaceful and civilized society. But unfortunately in reality, there is nothing like that people compare their religion to others and consider themselves superior and other religions and their people as inferior. They hate people of other religions, kill them, don’t like to be friends with them and burn their places of worship but they forget that in the end we are all human beings, we are all human beings who are divided into different groups in the name of caste, color, and religion.
There is a saying
“RESPECT THE DIFFERENCE OF OPINION”
For me, this line is completely correct but incomplete let’s, rewrite it;
“RESPECT THE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION, RELIGION, CULTURE, IDEOLOGIES, THOUGHTS, AND TRADITIONS”
Inshot,
“RESPECT THE DIVERSITY”
Life is a name of learning. Instead of criticizing other’s differences try to understand and learn from them, and try always to explore something new and different. It will only be possible when you create enough elasticity and flexibility in yourself to respect and accept others’ differences.
CONCLUSION
Earth is a Global village. We need to connect and engage with each other rather than dividing into different tribes and groups on the basis of religion, caste, color, and race. Scientists have made a lot of progress but there are still many social evils in the world that need to be eliminated and it will only be possible with a strong union. It was the responsibility of Scientists to get rid of the Stone Age in which they are 100% successful, but it is the responsibility of humanity to get rid of social evils in which we are still far behind. Let us work together for the betterment of this world and not divide into separate parts for things like color, caste, and religion, and not create hatred and chaos for each other in the world. There is no religion, no belief, and no ideology superior to humanity. If you do not have humanity, you are not human. Let’s be a good person together, let’s make peace in this world together, let’s make this world a better place together, let’s work on our weaknesses together, let’s share love together. Let’s become humans.
Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power, religion gives man wisdom which is control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
