Thursday 27 May 2004

Pic of the day: Who created all the flowers? I don't think that really matters if the knowledge does not lead to improvement in our personal lives.

Religions

I have made it no secret that I consider myself a Christian of sorts, albeit a heretic. But let us perform a thought experiment. Let us say that I am given a cosmic dial, on which I select the religion of all humanity. As soon as I flip the switch, everyone in the world will be brainwashed instantly into this religion. The cosmic dial and all memory of it will disappear from the world. Would I select Christianity? I don't think so. My vote goes to Buddhism.

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Why is this? The problem with Christianity is that it is a faith-based religion. As such, it is unavoidable that the following will happen, at the very best after a few years: Someone will get a revelation about some point of doctrine, and consider it enormously important. Since everyone must necessarily believe the correct thing or go to hell, he will use any means necessary, including bloody war and poisoning the water supply, to increase the number of believers and reduce the number of unbelievers. This will happen again and again at random intervals, ensuring hate and war for as long as humanity is fated to exist.

While Christianity is faith-based, Islam is based on obedience. In theory the obedience is all to Allah, of course, who is generally portrayed in a very positive light. But history shows that there are always people eager to go between and be lieutenants for Allah, distributing his orders to people who don't trust themselves to know Allah's will. And we've seen pretty clearly of late how this turns out. So, thanks but no thanks.

Judaism, apart from being kinda a national religion, is a religion of tradition. While there is much good to say about Judaism, it is also schismatic by nature. On the bright side, it is so divided that there are no factions big enough to try to take over the whole thing. As the saying goes, in a room with two Jews there are at least three opinions.

Hinduism, apart from also being kinda a national religion, is based on organization. It does not matter much what aspect of divinity you worship and how, as long as you respect the fundamental way in which society is organized. (What we ignorant foreigners usually refer to as the "caste system".) The problem with this is that it basically locks a lot of people into an inferior position, up to and including starvation and pain, because of an accident of birth. (Except they don't consider it an accident – your next birth is your most important choice in life! But I don't buy that argument, obviously.)

In contrast, Buddhism is an experience-based religion. Admittedly, most people practice it much like any other religion, worshiping godlike beings (buddhas and bodhisattvas) based on tradition or preference. But the more seriously one takes the religion, the better it gets. With non-violence at the core of the religion, there is little chance of religious wars even when people disagree.

Or perhaps it just looks good because it is on the other side of the Earth so I don't get to see its ugly side. Your input is as always welcome.

***

Yes, there is the consideration that if I were to select Buddhism on the cosmic dial, millions of people would go to Hell who would otherwise believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. This is a problem. But I decided, if God really is that dumb, it is better we go to Hell with a pure heart than go to Heaven with blood of innocents on our hands.

But as it is, I personally prefer to enjoy the best of both worlds: To be a Christian with focus on personal growth instead of doctrine and witch-hunting. It works well so far and I can recommend it to everyone. I wish you could all become as I am today (only less celibate). But whether this really is Christianity ... I think there are different opinions on that.

Seriously, I think Christianity had the potential to become a non violent experience-based religion with focus on personal development too. Several Christian groups have started out like that, based on the original scriptures, and by all we know this was the original form of Christianity before it became a state religion. But for the most part, Christianity is compromised beyond repair by separating personal life from faith. It is a human flaw that we are able to speculate much more grandly than we are able to live.