Anyone
who follows a religion naturally thinks his
religion is the best, otherwise he wouldn’t
follow it but would turn to another. But how
many people have really investigated and understood
their religion—instead of merely inheriting
it from others—so that they are able to
compare it with other religions, and can therefore
say they have chosen their religion intelligently?
Very, very few, it can be safely said. Most
people have no basis for thinking and saying
that their religion is the best; they just make
unqualified statements and build castles in
the clouds. Thus, it is not surprising that,
even today, religion is largely a thing of dogma
and superstition.
If religion
is not to become an anachronism, it must be
firmly based on fact, and, since it concerns
our relationships with others, we must see beyond
the differences between us and focus on the
obvious similarities, things about which we
cannot disagree. If we do not, or will not,
then religious conflicts will always be with
us—often about things no less stupid than
the war described in the story of Gulliver’s
Travels between those who opened boiled-eggs
at the big end—the ‘Big-Endians’—and
those who opened them at the small end—the
‘Little-Endians’! |
