British Poll: Religion More Harm than Good
More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension – greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.
The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities.
Religion: loved and hated
I think British’s sceptical attitude towards religion represents the larger picture of developed country in general and Western Europe in particular. And it’s understandable; interestingly it’s not the case in the US. So, if similar survey is conducted in a developing country, say Indonesia, the result will be altogether different.
On grass-root level, some, if not most, people regard religion like a would-be-divorce couple who desperately need a psychologist to sort their problem out. It’s only needed when your mental strength is weakening to the extent that you cannot rely partly or mostly to your own brain. And hence you need a higher Being, whatever it might and could be, to depend and trust upon. This might explain why even the most backward people in the stone era still followed a kind of ’religion’ of their own. Hence, to some agnostic thinkers, religion is like a temporary escape from reality and religious believers are considered to be attaching to ’unscientific’ attitude and mindset.
People in the developed country feel ’powerful’ enough mentally to not rely on other Being, despite there’re some tendencies in the West or to any agnostic people in this matter, who revert to religion in their later life when their strong independent mind evaporate by ages. John Naisbitt in Megatrend 2000 told some interesting facts in which even during the golden era of Soviet Union, many Atheists in the country invite the priests to pray for them in their deathbed.
Religion, Conflict and Violence
The sceptical opinion of the British towards religion could be driven also by the fact that many conflicts currently occurred in our world are emanated from religion or have a religious flavour in it: terrorism, civil wars, inter-religious proselytization, etc. A BA political science student once asked me: why is so many violence and conflict in the name of religion? I gave her a rather cliche answer:
The fact of the matter is it’s not religion that has caused many conflicts along history lane. Religion is quiet symbolized by its quiet holy books. It’s the religious followers, or to be exact the religious leaders or non-religous leaders claiming to be ones, who mix their greedy-lustful ego with religous flavor.
Religion is holy, pure and peaceful. Any religion: be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc. Ironically, it’s because of its purity and holiness that many rogue people feel safely hiding behind it. And that’s exactly what’s happening and prevalent in todays world.
Make no mistake, when I say inter-religious conflict, it’s not only confined to violent physical conflict, it includes also the conflict which comes from blind religous-driven or money-driven ego of particular writers and/or bloggers who spread inter-religous hatred in their writings, elegantly or harshly. To some extent, these people are more dangerous because they drive your mind toward the same feeling or at least inter-religous misunderstanding. Sound people will rubbish such kind of writings or blogs. It’ll lead you nowhere.
A good Muslim will never attack their brothers and sisters of other faiths. Likewise, for a good Christian and Judaism. A good Christian will most likely be a good friend of good Muslim and Judaism and so forth. The main purpose of any religion is to purify your heart from any evil feeling: hatred, domination, and conflict. Any evil acts carried out by any particular religious followers in the form of physical or non-physical violence (like writing a hatred piece) in the name of religion is self-contradictiory in itself
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