If religions were to build bridges rather than walls-by Bertrand Russell
Source:Island
The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.-
Throughout our history, religions have divided people much more than they have united them. In a world where the most urgent need is unity resulting from fellow feelings, religions, in their multiplicity, have unwittingly cultivated in people a sense of alienation. Emphasising the fact that world religions have to make a concerted effort to unite the divided world, Lynn Ockersz in his article “Ongoing ‘International Disorder’ and the role of religions” in The Island of 22 May, writes, “The success of such an enterprise depends on the ability of religions to go beyond the formal observance of religion and inculcate in hearts and minds everywhere a ‘Reverence for Life’.” Unfortunately, ‘reverence for life’ doesn’t seem to prosper in the way we have chosen to get on with religions.
The fact that religions have failed to make people sensitive is intrinsic to the way we have been made to approach religion for centuries. As a result of our accustomed ways of practicing them, religions have hardened the ‘faith’ in us – their followers – rather than make us try to understand its doctrine with that spontaneity and excitement with which we approach other subjects. At least that’s true of millions of followers of any religion. Those who wish to go deeply into the doctrine of the religion are the exception, not the norm. The weight of convention determines the way we relate ourselves to religion. The antiquated approach to religion, which we have inherited from previous generations, doesn’t allow us to go beyond our comfortable superficial relationships with it.
The very fact that we have been using the word “dogma” to refer to the core of every religion reveals our normalised reserve towards approaching the doctrine of our religions. As a result, the teachings of religion remain unquestioned and stagnant unlike most other fields of inquiry in the world. Few are those who have time, opportunity or urge to look at the doctrine with any seriousness, for our struggle with life’s issues takes all our time. Universally, the idea of being religious implies our engagement with the ceremonial aspects of religion; not our commitment towards learning it or abiding by the precepts. The results of this are everywhere to be seen – societies divided based on dogma, which has been kept as an area beyond scrutiny or discussion. And the importance given in every religious community to its rituals has become, for many of us, the easiest way to feel ‘religious’.
In all those long years, we have been keen on emphasising the religion’s formal aspects which we expect primarily to improve the ‘life’ on the other side of death. But it has not brought about the urgently needed empathy between individuals – an empathy transcending our petty faith-based ‘othering’ of those who don’t share their faith. According to Ludwig Wittgenstein, ” “The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves”. Most of the religious habits we have acquired from our elders are formulaic, and they are more often than not woven with our inherited notions of afterlife, and have precious little to do with life, if you like, ‘this life’. Aside. In literature and in many other subjects, we use ‘life’ with no room for confusion, but we can’t afford that luxury when it comes to religion where we must add ‘this’ to avoid – let’s say – a learned ‘confusion’.
Religion’s appeal is more emotional than intellectual. That people are overwhelmed by sighting anything associated with their religion, which they consider sacred – image, relic, or symbol – shows this. Instances where we are moved to tears when we get a sudden insight into the religion’s doctrine are rare. The rituals, forms of worship, festivals and the formal rites connected with religion, which constitute much of what we call our religious life have little or no influence on our understanding of its teachings, but they contribute a lot to strengthening our emotional attachment to our religion and to everything connected with it. All these facets that form the popular outer crust of religious practice being reinforced in their countless mechanical repetitions, for one thing, do not so much deepen our knowledge about its doctrine as they do our faith and emotionality. For another, almost all of them have undertones for improving one’s ‘afterlife’ and have little relevance to the improvement of mundane life. And unhappily, the essence of our religion, which should have improved our moral conduct and empathy with one another, has been the most readily forgotten aspect of our religious activism. Worldly interests keep us fully occupied till the winter years in which we tend to be more interested in the envisaged ‘continuation of life’ after death. Till we come to this final phase most of us rely more on self-help books and career guidance programmes than on guidance from religion. Surely, that’s not unnatural, given the stark realities. After all, even matrimony columns, education, salary, job, connections and social status have a better market value than piety. Reasonable, you may say.
According to Prof. Ninian Smart religion has seven dimensions – namely, (1) the doctrinal or philosophical, (2) the mythical, (3) the , (4) the experiential, (5) the , (6) the social, and (7) the material. Although the first aspect – the doctrinal or philosophical component must be integral to any religion, unfortunately it has lost much of its appeal and the capacity for enlightening us as evidenced in its gradual downslide to dogma. This has happened obviously because of our emotional attachment to our religion which prevents us from opening it for unimpassioned scrutiny in the light of reason. Of course, the argument goes in some quarters that religion is beyond all logic and reason. Even if this is a fact, the patent outcome of relying on this ‘higher order of understanding’ has not made any contribution to improving the goodwill among people on the planet. Rather it has made people arrogant and assertive in their convictions and led to an unhealthy fragmentation of society, the ‘sin’ of which is borne by millions of innocent people all over the world. We wouldn’t be helplessly witnessing the heartrending scenes in Gaza right at this moment, if the usual practices of religion have mellowed the hearts of those who seem to regard the pursuit of power as a more profitable religion.
All human beings have the same ambitions, dreams and goals. More than anything else, they wish to live happily. With all the world’s religions being kept alive and kicking by our commitment to our own respective religious practices, we are sadly estranged. The much-needed empathy is conspicuous by its absence although religious passion is ascending by the hour if the glamorous formalities are any indication.
Religions are the receptacles of ethics. If the influence religions have on us continues to diminish, time will come, sooner than later, for us to look for alternatives to invite ethics into our lives, preferably with no labels of any sort attached to them.