Different people have different religion and religions are here to stay. But as history has shown us, as time goes by, old religions do fade away and new, improved and updated religions take their place. Though I see the strong possibility that new generations will follow new cultures, reformed traditions & updated religions, I see very less possibility that there will be no religion at all in future. Even many of the most intelligent people of the world like to have faith in the supernatural being. That’s because we have emotional and psychological needs. Religion meets those needs. Not only I do not try to disprove Religion; I have allied myself with all the religions. I am not against Faith. I am against Hate.
Some people suggest that all people across the world should follow one religion and they criticize and find faults in every other religion. Also, there are people who follow no doctrine and expect EVERYONE to leave their religion. In my opinion, Leaving religion altogether is very difficult and frankly I am not sure that it is a good thing either. I believe humans need, not only spirituality, but also morality. And since morality is for many, indelibly linked to religion, abandoning religion completely could push many into immorality and that is an evil even worse than believing in irrationality.
Truth is also one, yet each person understands it differently. We see the truth in different ways; each sees a facet of it. Who can decry the facet that someone holds true and dear to his heart? The Truth is one and only, but because each person’s mental capacity, social and cultural background is different, that same Truth for each person has a different flavor. The variety is not in the Truth itself but in its containers.
I have no doubt that people are sincere in their search for Truth. No one chooses to be misled willingly. It is foolish to assume that people instinctively know the truth and choose to rebel because they have pride in themselves.
Then one may ask: “If they are all sincere why don’t they all follow the same religion?” It is because their understanding is different. Religion is a personal thing. They rely on their own logic (or they rely on other’s logic). Since they are humans and their logic, just like yours and mine, is defective, they choose wrong paths, they follow a wrong guru, and they pray to a wrong god. If every one else is prone to such mistakes why should you or I be exempt? This is an important question. This humbling realization that the Truth is much greater to be understood by an imperfect human being like me makes me accepting of other people, listen to what they have to say, be less arrogant and more aware.
Take for example the rays of the sun. It is all pure white. But when it hits the Earth it manifests itself in millions of colors. The differences are in the capacity of the objects reflecting the rays of the sun. If you mix together all these colors of light, you get back the pure white again. Likewise, the Truth manifests itself in the world of humanity in different hues.
“Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion -human religion- but any number of faiths.” – Gandhi