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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Re: [mukto-mona] How to follow religions correctly



  • Both Jiten Roy and Sukhamaya Bain need to read my message on the "practiced" version of a religion. Peaceful coexistence is not a myth (exampe, Hindus vs Muslims in Bengal). Peace has sometimes been broken by nasty politics. During communal riots the members of the two different religious communities give shelter to one another. We just need to reflect on the past and the present as well. 
  • Religion is not a unique thing. It has infinite versions. There are infinite levels of religious belief. If you want to program your GPS, make sure where you want to go, in other words, which version of religion is your destination.
  • Here you go Mr. Roy: "Whatever tolerance we see is due to societal laws, and out of human compassion." That is what I am talking about: this is the practiced religion. You have mentioned only two determinants. There are many more forces that tend to keep religions universally appealing. That helps build communal harmony. But there is always a risk.


From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] How to follow religions correctly

 

Religion is like a GPS device, if you follow the turn-by-turn direction of it, you will end up in a predefined culture. This part is well tested and verified. Anything else is just guesswork or pipedream.
 
Religion, being a GPS system that can only take you to a predefined culture, cannot be used as a political system for a multicultural society. If you do, you will enforce a particular culture onto a multicultural society, and the outcome will be chaos and calamity in an otherwise peaceful society.
 
When we talk about religious tolerance, we should also remember that religion is a business also. Do you think any business like competitors? Whatever tolerance we see is due to societal laws, and out of human compassion. In my view, religion is a cultural hegemony, nothing more. As a result, the history of religious coexistence is written in blood.
 
Jiten Roy
--- On Wed, 2/8/12, Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] How to follow religions correctly
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 8:26 PM

 
I would like to comment on the following two comments:
 
S. Chakrabarty: "Every religion teaches tolerance about other religions."
 
J. Roy: "Most people believe in Allah in their own way."
 
S. Bain: Mr. Chakrabarty is very wrong here. I like Dr. Roy's statement. Please see below for some elaborations of these two comments.
 
None of the Abrahamic religions tolerate idolatry, which is a Hindu religious practice. People who identify themselves in terms of an Abrahamic religion, yet tolerate idolatry, do it in spite of their religion, not because of it. For example, many Christian communities in the USA allow Durga Puja in the churches because they have advanced enough to ignore some of the aspects of their religion, not because Christianity is not against idolatry. Enough reading and honest interpretations of the fundamentals of religions would show that many religions consider the following of other religions to be inappropriate, wrong, sinful and even punishable. I am personally reluctant to dig deeper into that. But I am sure Mr. Chakrabarty would find the example of idolatry that I noted here to be a valid one.
 
While almost all Muslims use the Arabic word Allah for the English word God, the word Allah was in use long before Islam came into being. Thus, Muslims really do not have a proprietary right on the word Allah. When a Christian or a Hindu prays to God, he is praying to Allah. In fact the Arab Christians do call God Allah. A Hindu should be able to use the Arabic word Allah as much as he uses the English word God to do his way of praying, including what would be clearly un-Islamic. A Bangalee Muslim should have no problem using the word "Ishwar" instead of the word "Allah." That should not cause anyone to lose his Islam.
 
Well, that's all for now.
 
Sukhamaya Bain
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".                -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
               -Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190



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