I am a fence-sitter. I don’t take sides that easily.
All my life, I have had agnostic leanings in the matters of belief in a supreme-being. I have listened to the atheistic views that organized religion is opium for the masses. I have also listened to how, it is a crutch for those in despair. I believed that organized religion has helped millions live a better life as religion probably makes them inwardly accountable for their actions. Fear of God probably made them live more ethical lives.
Spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. In matters of spirituality, I subscribe to Carl Sagan’s view:
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”
If anything, I am a living example of how one can be deeply spiritual without adhering to the tenets laid out by any organized religion.
Today, I gingerly dipped into the trending #Babrimasjid meme on Twitter and much to my dismay, found Hindus and Muslims provoked and polarized to the point of airing opinions that bordered on delusional. Well, what did I expect?
I noticed that each time Babrimasjid dispute is brought into mainstream debate, it chipped off a little more of my faith in religion.
Dante said, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
A crisis originates from a wrong-doing and from the victim’s perspective, a neutral person is not just indifferent person but a callous person who has been hardened to the point of not being able to empathize. Or, the “neutral” person is a self-centred person wearing the garb of neutrality.
I tried my best over the years to decide whether history should serve as a frame of reference for the way forward or if it should serve as backdrop for righting the wrongs. I failed.
But you know what? My faith in humanity is kindled as I don’t see more mosques being demolished in an assertion of Hindu supremacy. That implies that the thread of humanity runs intact irrespective of the aims of politicized religion. If Dante were alive, he would certainly not have to reserve a hot place in hell for me.
Humanity 1. Religion 0.
