Religion.

“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil. But for good people to do evil- it takes religion…”
     Steven Weinberg, in his much celebrated work “The First Three Minutes” gives us a glimpse of his brilliance where he pinpoints the tragedy of modern day humanity. Though the origin of the concept of ‘Religion’ is not the best known, one can definitely say that religion originated to unite human beings. And where do we stand today? Religion is dividing humanity. We have comprehensively defeated the very purpose of religion, and humanity.
     Religion is a very complex concept, too intricate to define. Roughly, it can be called as the fear and fascination of The Divine. It was perhaps a social need of man to get under an umbrella of religion where he could accept the power of The Divine and surrender to it. Slowly and steadily rituals crept in. The whole concept of religion started losing its individualistic nature and became a matter of community. The trouble started here.
     History will tell us how man has betrayed himself in the name of religion. Different religions started fighting with each other. And when there was no one else to fight, the religions started fighting within themselves giving rise to sects and conflicts thereof. The Crusades, the Holocaust, various communal riots and so many such events tell us screaming what cruelty man has unleashed on his fellow brethren in the name of God.
     It is important to have a look at theocracy in this perspective. It was believed that The King is a part of God. He had religious significance. But then, religious institutions took over the reins of State. This further intensified the conflict between various religions. Sometimes the expansionist ambitions of such states were clubbed with religious beliefs which resulted in wars like The Crusades.
     I believe no religion permits violence. If it talks of violence, then it is not true religion, it is a misinterpreted, wrongly presented unholy version of religion. I am no atheist. I believe there is a power which has created the world and which runs it. People call it Bhagwan, Allah, God and even Higgs Boson! It is that Divine One which we all need to worship. And worship does not mean pompous rituals, it means creating one’s own relation with that Divine One. There is only one God and hence, when you insult somebody else’s God, you are insulting your own…