Myself and Harish(my project-mate) had this very interesting discussion with an erudite colleague of ours. He has studied Philosophy in detail and was very thorough in what he said. I hadn’t thought out much of what I said and now have relaised my ignorance of much of Religion.
The discussion was about his disbelief in Religion. He says that Religion purports to do things, which it cannot do. Religion introduces the element of the mystic, which doesn’t prevent anyone from explaining away anything as mystic, even murder in the name of religion. Also Religion doesn’t lend to rationality and makes in it claims irrational jumps where it says things it doesn’t explain rationally.
I am very tempted to put the discussion verbatim. But that is unnecessary as I believe any discussion in which there is a difference of opinion, it is only necessary to arrive at one or many exactly defined statements where there is difference of opinion. What was exactly said till then is not very important. After arriving at such statements where one says “It is so” and the other “It is not so” then there should be rational exchange by each to justify his stand. The statement we arrived at is, “Religion is fundamentally wrong”. He says since Religion is fundamentally wrong it should be done away with. We said that it is not so.
He says Religion is fundamentally wrong because for example it says it can take you to Spiritual Enlightenment, to an Elevated state of Understanding the Infinite etc. These are not properly defined and are not rational and the whole thing is just a farce for some people to fool others and remain in power. Basically Religion is a different form of politics. People even justify murder in the name of Religion and say it is the will of the God.
What I said to that is that Religion for me is Hinduism. I haven’t had the good fortune to study other Religions(and I do not believe that such belief is mutually exclusive). And in Hinduism irrational description of an elevated state and using the fear of common man and promising him Heaven and thus somebody who wants Power keeping him under control etc etc is the not the intent. Hinduism believes in reasoning and change and allows it. My colleague has asked me then “What do you mean by Spiritual Enlightenment and how do I know when I have attained it or somebody else has attained it?”. I am in the process of learning and preparing a good answer to this question.
