04 Religion – Our Relationship with Other Humans

Most of Our Time is spent in Relationship with Other Human Beings! This is True whether We take the Family or the Work-Space. And this Accord follows certain Lines. Even Our ‘Recreation’ is governed by Our Mindset on this Interconnection with Others.

For instance, I know an Oldish gentleman who used to play Football (Soccer). Below his knee he has quite a number of Scars. He says he got them during his ‘Football days!’ Opposition players would not ‘mind’ Trampling down on the legs of their competitors. …There’s a Relationship for You!

Women, Almost a Total Half of the Human race, are said to have No Souls, No Rights, and are seen as ‘Playthings;’ and as ‘Support’ for heroes in movies. Worse, Woman has Acid thrown at her, is Raped, and is made to ‘Answer’ for these attacks, as if She is Responsible for them. As per its definition,  All this makes for Very Bad Religion!

Slavery, Forced Labour, Child Labour, Not Paying Equitable Wages, Unjust Working Hours and Conditions, All spring from the Mindset which believes that Some Humans are worth Less.

Those who have come to Power by the use of Money or Numbers, as in the case of the ‘mafia,’ choose to think ‘Nothing’ of Others. politicians, judges and the police, who often misuse the Authority bestowed on them by the Citizenry, seem to think that People are there to ‘serve’ them.

The List can be Very Long. All Established Religions state what is Right and what is Not. The Sad part of it is that in some cases, it is held that some things are Ok if done to Others, but which should not be done to one’s own!

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In Practice, We see People practicing Love, the Most Harmonious kinship possible. We would find that MOST People are Ready to Help, Ready to Reach out a Helping Hand, whatever their Doctrine. 

Religion is Not what pastor W says, nor what bishop X does; not even what guru Y or mullah Z Suddenly announces one day, even if it becomes a trend.

The pharisee at right in the picture below was saying to God: “I Fast Two days a week, and I give You a Tenth of All my income.” (Luke 18:12). Evidently he thought God did not Know that! Haha! He must have ‘prayed’ too, and a lot, I am sure. But Jesus was Not Impressed by the pharisee.

Christ gives the pharisee’s example to show just How this man had Failed. The pharisee had completed All the Rituals, but, like Most of his kind of his age, had been Lacking in his Concern for his Fellow Man.

Image from: http://www.lookandlearn.com

In Conclusion, True Religion is that which Holds, and Teaches Us, among other things, to Have a Healthy and Positive Relationship with Our Fellow Human Beings.

[This article is part of a series on ‘Religion.’ To go to the Next one, please click here. …To go to the First of this series, please click here.]

03 Religion – and our Relationship with the Universe!

I start with the word UNIVERSE. For this post, this word shall mean all that is known and accepted as the Universe, Except for God and Man. These two shall be treated in separate posts. This is done for the sake of Convenience.

As We are into the subject of Relationships, We do not have to go too far into the Universe! Unless somebody wants to worship some star or something. But then that would take it into the realm of ‘god.’

We can afford to be Much Simpler than that. If We use the word ‘Nature’ instead of the universe, it becomes simpler still, so We shall do that.

Religion and the Universe would come down to whether We Believe in NURTURING NATURE, or are CARELESS about it, or even Destructive in our Behaviour. I do believe the Graphics make it quite Clear.

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Deforestation. Image from: labspace.open.ac.uk

And its effects; The picture of the Chimps does speak Volumes, I think.

Image from: www.telegraph.co.uk

Mankind is almost blindly going about Destroying its own habitat. Mankind chooses to forget that destroying the forests is Harmful Not Only to the Animal kingdom.

Forests getting destroyed. Graphic from: pic.twitter.com/XuyPpSUotk

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And two Examples about Cruelty to Animals.

Image: www.bbc.co.uk

I find this particularly Poignant because the Dog seems to be of a Good breed (Greyhound?), and it seems to belong to people who seem to be well off!

At the same time, Just How can We Condone what We see below? Cruelty is Cruelty; and Uncaringness is Uncaringness.

Image: www.salon.com

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Let us Thank God that there is Goodness too!

…As in the CHIPKO MOVEMENT, which has become Instrumental in Saving Senseless Destruction of Trees and the Forests. Chipko means ‘To Stick.’ We see in this picture some of the Pioneers of the movement, who ‘Stuck’ themselves to the Trees, Challenging the contractors to cut them down. Image from Wiki.

GREENPEACE is doing Great work in this regard. We have to be Grateful to them, and I do Express my Sincere Appreciation towards them here.

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How We Behave with Respect to Nature is the Outcome of our Beliefs. It is quite possible that We have not formulated them into a system, or even thought much about this. It would be good to pay attention to it and Change our Value Systems.

Having a Good Relationship with the Universe would make ‘Our’ Religion a Good one!

[This article is part of a series on Religion. To go to the Next one, please click here. …For the first one on this series, Please click here.]

02 What Is Religion?

This can also be named: The Meaning of the word ‘Religion.’

The word has its roots in the Latin term, ‘Religare,’ which stands for ‘Relationship.’ It relates to Just How You and I decide to Relate to: God, the Universe, and Man. In Other words,

RELIGION IS THE RELATIONSHIP ONE HOLDS WITH REGARD TO GOD, MAN AND THE UNIVERSE.

In Other Words,

RELIGION IS EACH PERSON’S SYSTEM OF RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNIVERSE, THE HUMAN KIND, AND GOD.

I had to learn the meaning of the word ‘Religion,’ at one stage of my life. If We are going to Use Any word, Others should at least Understand What We Mean by It!

Every Religion has a Word for GOD, and Every religion also seems to have Its Own Understanding of God! We shall see at least a little bit of it in other posts.

…MAN here means, Other Human Beings. And Man is considered in a separate category because Interpersonal Relationships with Human Beings is quite a bit more complicated than with the Universe, for which We can use another name, ‘Nature.’

The UNIVERSE again needs to be given some definition.

We shall see all this in separate posts. To go to the Next article in this series, namely, ‘Religion – and our Relationship with the Universe,’ please click here. …To see the First article in this series, please click here.