Things change everyday. Pen was the dearest instrument of my grandfather when I was a kid. He used to be obsessed to own the best pen in the market. If it fell his day used to have a sepia filter throughout. He would use different pen on different days just to showcase his "pen" collection. He and his group of friends would spend hours together discussing about "who" uses which pen. They would laugh at the next door neighbor for owning a "tic-toc" pen or admire the "elegant Parker" pen of a colleague. Even today, they(ones alive) do the endless silly discussion but the object of interest has changed. Our dear pen has been replaced by "phone". Phone unlike pen is versatile, all-purpose, portable and adaptable. Infact, we can use any (many) adjective to along with phone today. Today, my grandpa takes pride in keeping himself up-to-date with technology In other words, my he represents majority of the population today all across this "clementine" shaped world.
In a time where "tweets" have replaced "diaries", forests by parks, Tapes by iPods, wheels by wheels(may be improved wheels...no wonder its been named the best invention), One thing has remained constant. Religion.
I have been thinking about this from quite sometime now. I am not irreverent about the whole concept of religion. I firmly believe religion is a school in itself. Undoubtedly, it is a product of years of wisdom connected by strings of knowledge. In other words, religion according to me is the guiding light which helps everybody to find happiness in one's life. Some realise it early enough to utilise the light to live a contented life. Eventhough there are so many positives in the concept, It hurts me to see the misuse of such a fantastic institution. This compels me to think if the Religion needs to update itself to cater to the current world.
Many of the practices taught by religious books and scripts were valid 2000 years back when most of the major religions were conceptualized. For example, gender equality. It can be easily deduced that gender inequality was not seen as a problem in those times. May be they had valid reasons at that time to think that women had more important duties at home than to work as a priest or a leader. I find it interesting that one of the major reason one gives to support their argument is menstruation. Menstruation was and is considered as a weakness of a woman. They are not supposed to enter religious places or are excused of practicing religion or working during their periods. In the bygone era, I would take this as a valid point because hygiene was an important aspect and technology was not advanced enough to support women during their cycles. Do we need to still practice these customs today? Why cant we see them as Pope or Imam or Pandit? Why are they forbidden to enter places of worship?
Why is cloning being slammed as anti-religious(although ethically there are valid arguments)? Why is it considered punishable to doubt or raise your voice against some religious practices? Why shouldn't one follow multiple religions/ why should one protect his religion(most misunderstood statement)? Why do we attack homosexuality on the basis of religion? What is need of unethical religious conversions?
I see many such out dated religious practices everyday. It can not be the case that things that were true 2000 years ago need to be true today. The worst part is the interpretation of religion today. People use their linguistic skills to manipulate the concepts of religion for their personal gain. Sometimes a book becomes a mirror of what runs in one's head, so we comprehend a piece of text according to our convenience. Somethings are lost in translation. Incorrect interpretations have led to blind faith following. It feels like we are the "monkeys" in the "5 monkeys and the banana" experiment.
Are we knowledgeable enough to update religion? Can we give power to the ones helming the crown to update? Should we pretend that "all is well" and neglect the realm? How to solve this quintessential problem?
Well, In my opinion, religious tolerance is the solution. We should be matured enough to understand these problems rather than to blindly follow one. Be open to new ideas and to new thoughts. Don't give invalid arguments about how everything is written for a reason. I agree that everything is there for a reason but the times have changed and so do the reasons.
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