Is there a peaceful religion?

It is a cop out to say that religion is perfect and humans are not. There is not one major religious holy text that was ‘handwritten’ by the deity concerned.

AsamLaksa

I meant to submit this article after finding out and watching the Oxford University debate titled “Islam a Peaceful Religion” from 2013 but could not find the time.

Firstly, I am an atheist. I have respect for the teachings of various faiths but I am, on the spectrum of stance, inclined towards anti-religion. I have nothing against faith as you see, I separate the teachings from doctrine and I see faith as a personal belief. So to me, everyone has a faith including myself. I think regulating faith should be made a crime.

Anyway, when I first heard the title of the debate, I shook my head thinking the Proposer had a big advantage over the Opposer. I then watched in dismay as one after another of the Opposer made shallow arguments. I mean, come on, you have weeks to prepare and you come out with arguments that you can pick out from tabloids? The Proposer rightly won as they produced a fine performance – kudos.

But I think the debate does not answer the topic. In fact, I was not convinced that Islam was a peaceful religion as I am not convinced there is any peaceful religion.

Religion is fundamentally a practice of a set of beliefs, nothing more and nothing less. It is people be they followers or not who come up with linking religion to peace or violence; if you want to find peace, then you will find peace; if you want to find violence then you will find violence. I recall an article of an international Christian youth convention where people from different countries produced their depiction of Jesus and people from different cultures depicted Jesus based on their culture – the Chinese Jesus looked like Kwan In, the African Jesus was black African and so on. The metaphysical Jesus can be anything you want Him to be.

Thus it is disingenuous to count how many references of peace versus violence in the holy texts and decide a religion is peaceful – it means nothing. The million dollar question is why have any references to violence to begin with? All it takes is a handful of violent references to inspire a violent movement if anyone is so inclined.

It is a cop out to say that religion is perfect and humans are not. There is not one major religious holy text that was ‘handwritten’ by the deity concerned. None! Just like how someone said man is imperfect and all fruit of man is imperfect, well guess who penned the holy texts? You’ve got to have consistency!

Let’s come back to reality. Are there people inspired by religion to act peacefully? Yes. Are there people inspired by religion to act violently? Yes. This is the reality; religion can be anything you want it to be. There is no peaceful or violent religion, religion just is. Religion is a tool and the master has always been man. It is mass denial that prevents people from seeing this.

Sadly, there is an ingrained sympathy towards religion by the majority of people, even amongst atheists. Everyone is comfortable in treating religion with kid gloves which added to the above Opposer’s disadvantage. Religious leaders are given special consideration even by those from different religions but find it difficult to explain why they deserve such respect. Most people are uncomfortable in criticising religion and shy away as it would expose their own religion’s hypocrisy. And who can all agree who is really absolutely undeniably swear-to-god right or wrong?

I assume many would strongly disagree with my views. You may ask: what do I want? I want people to face reality so that we can fix this mess. Mass denial and defensive attitudes never satisfactorily solved problems. Why bother with interfaith dialogues when you cannot honestly exchange ideas?

You may ask: am I disrespecting religion? Not really. I just do not place much regard for religion as the majority of the world do. To me religion is a concept. Why should I regard it higher than let’s say Keynesian economics?

So what does it mean to take religion as just is? Well, I do not place any special consideration on religion and disentangle religion from problems facing society. When faced with a problem, the honest result would be for one side to stop dissenting and agreeing with the other because there can only be one answer to a problem. Both sides will argue back and forth, exchanging opinions, facts and ideas till there is clarity. In reality what we get instead is dishonesty in the opposing parties where each side keeps something from the other or will not change position even when faced with overwhelming truth and we end up with compromises closer to the honest answer. Compromises can work. But throw in religion and you get even less honesty in both parties and a working solution is less likely found. This is because of entrenchment of thought with religion.

This has practical considerations. The peace process in Northern Ireland began with acts done by religious persons that nullified the religious difference and only then can both sides talk about common problems and find solutions. You can see it in the differences in Pakatan Rakyat where religion will always be the boogeyman. Pakatan Rakyat can only last if they can get religion out of the equation like Barisan Nasional where there is no open argument on religion. Nobody wins when you add religious consideration into your problems.

By the way, I do not expect to win back reverts (you see everyone was born an atheist). I am comfortable living amongst people of religion because they are simply people. I do not really wish an end of religion or any belief system as such as it is futile to do so. There are many good things done in the name of religion; if that is what rocks your boat, then so be it. I have no inclination to dictate to others. I just wish everyone would practice humanist principles as a guide in their everyday lives. Often people forget that the teachings of the prophets are not about finding the way to Paradise in the afterlife but about treating fellow humans well.