By Barnes Mawrie
“If there were no religion” is a question that many critics of religion ask themselves. Can human beings survive without a religion? From an anthropological and theological perspective it would seem impossible to think of humanity without religion. Man by nature is a “theological being” which means that naturally he seeks to commune with a supernatural being in whatever manner it could be. Human existence is so full of paradoxes of happiness and sadness, well-being and suffering, life and death etc. It is this paradoxical existence that naturally leads a human being to seek for answers. Does he really find such answers? He asks ontological questions about his existence and the culmination of it. He seeks answers to the problems of suffering and death. Man has never and will never find scientific answers to these fundamental questions. No science or philosophy has come forth with a satisfactory and credible answer to these issues.
In fact, as Paul Tillich has rightly said: “man is a question mark turning to God for the answer.” It is precisely because man cannot find answers in human knowledge, that he realizes the role of the divine reality in furnishing such answers. Man has long ago acknowledged that he has no capability to generate such answers without the involvement of the divine. It is here that man enters into a theological investigation and reflection and comes to acknowledge the existence of a “Being” much superior to himself and in whom he could repose his ultimate hope and aspirations. Even an atheist who denies the existence of God, is unconsciously moved to believe in some sort of supernatural power. Every human being who comes face to face with the fundamental reality of suffering and death, turns to the Ultimate Being for the answer. From these theological questions emerges man’s religion. So religion is therefore inevitable and indispensable.
Although the belief in a supreme being is universal irrespective of race and place, yet the manifestation of this belief varies from one culture to the other. Therefore we have different kinds of religion from the well organized to the more primitive ones. At times, this cultural variation in religions causes serious relational problems. It leads to inter-religious bickering and even wars and bloodshed as history has amply shown. When these cultural religious variations are overemphasized in any particular religion, it tends to nurture religious bigots who show absolute contempt for other religions. As seen today in many Muslim countries and presently in India, such religious fundamentalism is dangerously gaining momentum. The RSS, the BD and other Hindu fundamentalists today tend to identify Hindu religion with Indian culture and so their attempt is to establish Hindutva. Anyone who professes a religion other than this is deemed an enemy of the country. The so called ghar wapsi is not merely a forced conversion but a cultural imposition as well. Is there such a thing as “Hindu culture?” We know there is a Hindu way of life, a Hindu religion, a Hindu community etc, but there is no such a thing as Hindu culture. In fact culture in India is a complex reality because it is characterized by a spectrum of variety. It is utterly foolish to speak of Hindu or Indian culture as such.
Perhaps every religion needs to focus more on the basic beliefs than on the cultural religious variations. The former is the core while the latter is the garb. If every religion investigates into its core belief, it will find that there is only one common element “acceptance of the existence of a supreme Being and man’s ways to relate with that Being.” The belief in some kind of supreme divinity is present even in most polytheistic religions. Man’s relationship with this Being is what manifests itself in laws of moral conduct, spiritual attitude and rituals. So the question is: why do we fight and kill each other because one does not believe in Allah or one does not respect a cow? Is the Supreme Being divided in himself as Allah, God, Yahweh or Brahman? Perhaps when we go to the other world, we may be surprised to behold that the God we call by different names, is the same one Supreme Being.
It is clear that religious fundamentalists have forgotten the basics of their religions because if they know them, they would not behave as they do now. The basics of any religion are “truth, goodness and love.” Take any scripture of any great religion, you will find these divine principles enunciated in different ways. So finally what makes us enemies to each other, is not the core belief (that is so universal) but the variations that we seem to care more. This is what we term a “pseudo religiosity” which compels us to hold on to the periphery and let go the centre. It is time for adherents of every religion to go back to the origin of their religions and discover the basic common beliefs that could unite us all as one human race and de-emphasize those accidental variations which only make us less human in our attitude and behaviour.