In the name of God?

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SOMEONE once said, “Religion is a gift from God. It is like a manual to enable us to navigate through the complexities of life. It’s a guide to lead us to the kingdom of heaven.”

If indeed that is the case, Malaysia is greatly blessed. We have been given the gift of all the major religions in the world. By virtue of that we should be sailing hunky dory to the pearly gates.

At the other end of the scale, we have someone like Stephen Fry, the strident atheist, who said something to the effect that we expect bad people to do bad things but it takes religion to make a good person do bad things. I can see where he is coming from. There is a suggestion that more people have been killed in the name of God than all the pestilence of the world. Yes, indeed, throughout history men have justified their foul deeds as being mandated by their God.

As if to push that point further, terrorists have taken to shouting “God is great” while they perpetrate their mayhem. No wonder songwriters like John Lennon were driven to write such songs as ‘Imagine’, which says that without religion all the people can live life in peace.

Others have posed the question, “Is it possible that man actually created God to seek solace and to give him courage and hope at that final moment of his life?” Having created God, it is said, we then build up a whole plethora of stories and myths and teachings around God as a guide for living in this world so that we can conform to what is expected of a good person and we can go to heaven.

Well, it does seem to make sense. It is a fact we are too aware that we are mortal and that death, like taxes, is a certainty. We may not want to be reminded but from the minute we are born we have begun the relentless march towards our end. So, it is indeed comforting to believe there is a God – the almighty, the merciful and the loving – who will take us into his bosom to lead us to the next phase of our lives.

My friend Richard posted a quote recently, perhaps in response to the events going on in the world of late. “If your religion compels you to hate another person, you need to find another religion.”

This is a different take from the Stephen Fry school of thought. Fry and Lennon’s position is akin to “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” – because some people misuse religion and therefore we should condemn all religions.

Well, I don’t quite agree with both. I believe all religions teach the universal truth. Let me qualify that – the essence of all religious teachings, stripped of all the barnacles added on by man to serve his worldly needs, are sublime and intransmutable. They serve to guide us in our conduct in relation to our fellow humans, creatures and the world.

Let me reiterate – I believe all major religions teach goodness, which is supposed to be a guide for us to carry ourselves in this world. Of course, all of them in their respective holy book express their messages slightly differently – conditioned as they are by history, circumstance, language and culture. But in essence, they are meant to be guides for us to live in the most beneficial way in relation to all other creatures.

So in answer to Richard about choosing another religion I would say, no, you don’t have to choose another religion. Rather if the so-called experts, the religious teachers, tell you that your religion compels you to hate another person, that to prove the validity of your religion you must denigrate others, choose another preacher to believe.

There is this story about a conversation between one philosopher and the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama was asked, “Which is the best religion?”

He answered: “The best religion is that one that makes you a better person.”

So let us make our religion the best religion. Let us not just proclaim our religiousness, our piety and the righteousness of our specific religion. Rather, let us live our lives true to the sublime teaching of our religion and let our lives be the exemplars of the nobleness of our faith.

There are millions of words from the hundreds of good books of all religions. I don’t pretend to know all of them. I was brought up as a Christian and it is appropriate that I quote from the Bible.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend all the Laws and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40

So whatever is our specific religion, and by whatever name we call our God, let us just celebrate his name through our lives. Let our love for the Almighty be manifested by our love for the world and its creatures.