The Role of Religion

Among the various human rights, the right that appears to be much abused is the right to the Freedom of Religion. Equally abused are the rights afforded to the Minorities on grounds of their religious affiliation. It is interesting to note that religious and minority rights are used so interchangeably that all other forms of minority statuses are in fact deliberately ignored and undermined. Take the case of Gays. Though gays are statistically defined as ten percent of any given population, their rights are never viewed as 'rights of a minority'.

The underlying principle in relation to the rights provided to religious minorities is the "Freedom of Thought and Conscience". However, when reviewing the role currently being played by the “religious right” in all Societies (developed and under-developed) it raises the moot question: Do Religions really promote Freedom of Thought and Conscience?

Being raised in the Catholic Church we were taught that ours was the “One True Faith” and everyone else was damned to hell. Really? That was tough to think about, because some non-Catholics and non-Christians I had known seemed like pretty nice folks—well, most of them, anyway.

Tens of millions of Americans are part of a diffuse and unruly movement known as the Christian right. They seek to create a theocratic state based on "biblical law", and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a defiant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace their interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy them are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. The followers of deviant faiths, from Judaism to Islam, must be converted or repressed. The deviant media, the deviant public schools, the deviant entertainment industry, the deviant secular humanist government and judiciary and the deviant churches are to be reformed or closed.

"God is (only) on our side" nonsense infects pretty much every belief system. Religious extremism is seen in the Islamic world and also back home amongst the Hindutva forces. Those who embrace these movements see life as an epic battle against forces of evil and Satanism. The world is black and white. They need to feel, even if they are not, that they are victims surrounded by dark and sinister groups bent on their destruction. They need to believe they know the will of God and can fulfill it, even through violence. They seek total cultural and political domination. They are using the space within the open society to destroy it. Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader sets an example on true Spiritual leadership when he says:
It is good for children to learn to love their country, their religion, their culture, and so on. But the danger comes when this develops into narrow-minded nationalism, ethnocentricity, and religious bigotry.

Apart from religion being a source of political power for the Clergy and Politicians, it is also a source for profits. Religious occasions—dime a dozen in all societies—help the corporate world. According to one UN study, religion is currently the world’s fourth largest enterprise, after armaments, drugs, and education.

However, religions for the majority believers who are moderate and do not share the frenzy of the bigots; is neither a path to mo¬ral¬ity, nor sub¬sti¬tute for a sci¬en¬tif¬ic un¬der¬stand¬ing of na¬ture. Its chief vir¬tue is being a "coping mechanism" for their trou¬bles. There is however a difference between moderate believers and many within the religious right in how they use their faith as a coping mechanism. In case of the believers on the extreme right, the Scripture as interpreted for them by the Clerics with direct connection to God, cannot be questioned and is their handbook for daily life.

"Don’t simply believe what I say without question, but use it as a basis for personal reflection and, in that way, develop your understanding of the Dharma" - Dalai Lama

The above words of Dalai Lama are a likely slap across the face of his counterparts in other religions, especially Catholicism and Islamism. It flies blatantly in the face of diehard notions like infallibility, blasphemy and heresy. Religions that do not allow its members have the freedom of thought and conscience fail miserably in playing the role of a “coping mechanism”. Unlike the Abrahamic religions that have split hairs on the notion of God, Buddha had said. “The supreme reality is indescribable and unutterable”.

Instead of believing in the God, the Buddhists believe in humanity. They believe that each human being is precious and important and all have a potential to develop into a Buddha - a perfect human being by replacing hatred, anger, spite and jealousy with love, patience, generosity and kindness. Even the Buddha had said, “No one saves us but ourselves”. Instead of teaching its followers what to think, it encourages one to learn how to think. It does not ask people to trust someone else, but invites all to trust themselves. It teaches people to question everything, and to combine head and heart to form a conscious connection to the source of all that is. Among the main goals of Buddhism is getting to know ourselves. To know who we are, we need to understand that we have two natures. Buddhism calls one “ordinary nature” made up of unpleasant feelings such as fear, anger, and jealousy and the other, “true nature; the part of us that is pure, wise, and perfect.

Buddhism being less hierarchical tends to be more spiritual and hence more therapeutic and effective as a “coping mechanism”, where all the mainstream religions fail. The inherent limitation of the mainstream religions is best captured in the following words of Dalai Lama: It is important to recognize that there are two levels of spirituality, one with religious faith, and one without. With the latter, we simply try to be a warm-hearted person.