Ours is an age that provides great skepticism to religion. It is no more an age of the crusades, the inquisition or others like these, which curtailed man's free inquiry or examination. It is an age that has seen tremendous growth in science, when man uses his capacity to think to the utmost. His intelligence makes him prone to the process of reasoning and opposes acceptance of things that require complete faith. In other words, man is today more a thinking being than he ever was.
Society is the endeavour of man to live harmoniously irrespective of thinking, religious belief, sex, race, etc. It is a state of living, which strives to adhere to the principle of `unity in diversity'. Religion is that concept which accepts the existence of a single Godhead and is seen in various forms because of different faiths that strive to realise God differently -- owing to different proponents and geographical and historical factors. Religion and society are closely linked to each other. We find religion in society and society in religion.
Religion today is more a matter of faith because of the lapse of time when it was first propounded by its prophets and religious teachers, to now when man is not a witness to the writing of the scriptures or the presence of its first proponents. Since man is a thinking being capable of rationality and reason, he is bound to question things. In fact the wisdom of questioning has become the wisdom of knowing. This questioning will also pertain to religious scriptures, beliefs and their validity.
Religion is not an attribute like breathing and seeing. A child after its birth will breathe, see, cry, but will not show signs of being religious. Thus, an infant is devoid of religion and is therefore introduced to it in his family life as a conception, a faith.
The transition from a child to an adult brings about a change in his mind, which now becomes a mature and thinking one. This transition in mind will bring changes in his acceptance of the concept of religion or scriptures, as he now becomes a being of free will, exercising his thought power. This becomes a situation where one can give free will to faith, but not faith to free will. It is here that religion cannot become a compulsion and must be acceptable on consent. When religion (the realisation of God) becomes a compulsion, it contradicts the free will of man (given by God).
This change in the man makes him form his own opinions, ideas and convictions. These he would like to share with others through the natural tendency of communication, be it through writing or through speech. Since his thoughts may not conform to the scriptures or beliefs in totality, it may come in conflict with one who conforms (a person, A) to a great extent, if not wholly. This non-conformity may be seen as blasphemous by A, who then thinks it his duty to defend his faith by rendering to the non-conformist a punishment, in this case, death.
It is here that A should realise the utter unreasonableness of his thinking, because it must be known that just as one is free to conform, the other is free to differ. We cannot condemn a non-believer or examiner, as faith normally has subjective proof and not objective proof.
Religion is a medium for helping one attain the realisation of the perfect state of being and to attain this perfection, imperfection has to be experienced invariably. But to defend itself, religion cannot employ the imperfect means of baseness, but those that rise above it.
Death may result out of a physical necessity. Thoughts and their expression cannot be subject to the physical act of killing. Killing cannot be used as a means to defend against blasphemy, since blasphemy arises out of thinking, it is this blasphemous way of thinking that should be done away with through the means of discussion, objection and persuasion, and not the person who thinks that way. We cannot end a man's life for being blasphemous, but we can try to change the person's thinking.
Since religion is a concept on faith, a concept which appeals most to subjectivity and less to objectivity, a thinking man will very naturally differ in this manner of faith. The need for religion to be tolerant is greater today than it ever was. Tolerance must be based on the consideration that a subjective experience must be compatible with objectivity.
(This essay was written while at college and at the time when a fatwa of death was declared against the author of Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie.)
Copyright © Taarun Dalaya
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