The Guardians of God

Religion is often defined as the fundamental belief in and worship of an almighty God or Gods controlling and sustaining the universe and it is as old as the human existence. Every religion teaches us to “be good and do good” and it is very pragmatic that God is the most interesting idea of human beings and man is the only social animal who worships, believes and spiritualizes God the way he wants to rationalize his concepts. Since the inception, man has worshiped God in different ways, following his superiors, and this faith concept has been transformed with time and age. If we take a look at different religions on the concept of God, every religion claims “God is one and he is great”, whether it is Allah in Islam or Vishnu in Hinduism or Jesus in Christianity; all regions give a message to human to follow the right path and be righteous. So, all religious faiths are ideologically important to their respective followers.

Hinduism, the oldest religion in the world, considers the world as one single family and it is a vital part of the Hindu philosophy. But the question is how many of us have the same ideology about the world? The continuous religious conflicts among different faiths across the world have called for the importance of spiritual priests, religious leaders and the so-called the people who often claim be the guardians of God, and how these actions and allegations shaping our societies and impacting our future generations are the burning questions today.

The human history has witnessed series of conflicts among polytheism, monotheism and agnosticism. With the multi-spiritualism, man is becoming a victim of superstitions developing personal Gods. To realize God, Man has created Gods of religions. Man likes to see God everywhere, at home or in the church, mosque, temple or gurdwara, his curiosity to know God has never been exhausting. Whether it is home God, temple God, and man is still confused that God is one and he likes to call him in different names.

Religious conflicts are on rise across the world and the human society has observed this age-old conflicts not only among various religions but also among territories centering the religious bigotry. Whether it is Israel-Palestine, Pakistan-India, Abyssinia-Somalia, Nigerian conflict, Chinese conflict, Lebanese civil war, Yugoslav wars and Sudanese civil war, ethnoreligious conflict has been the center stage of these commandment carnage. The continuous savage of religious violence across the world has raised several questions that how can we bring a balance among different faiths in today’s hyper techno-science world? Should we take the help of science to bring peace among the divinities? Or, Can the technology be of help to balance the religious differences? And how can we ultimately assemble a path of harmonious arrangement and a legitimate secular mechanism in this diverse un-secularized world? And human society needs to resolve these religious conflicts to sustain spiritual peace and morality not for the current generations but for the generations to come.

No religion says to engage in wrong paths, violence, unethical means and conflicts. But, it is sober that a few anti-religious people may create havoc among different faiths which causes conflicts, riots and religious contamination after the malignant of their religious idealism. When we come to the stage of divinity and religious faith, we have to consider all religions equally and there should be no place of abomination whether it is Islam, Christianity, Jewish, Hinduism or Buddhism.

The modern monotheism has profoundly been contributing and developing interfaith fear and hostility, and is emphasizing on the negative side of religion. This religious extremism that contributes in conflict escalation often forms illiberal nationalism which leads to intolerance and discrimination and these conflicts are often of asymmetric order. So is the religious dogmatism that creates belligerent righteousness and marginalizes God and becomes the roots of organized religion and conflict. The concept of freedom of expression is being misused and both religious fundamentalists and atheists come into clashes. We have often noticed an ongoing debate on the existence of God between theists and atheists. Be it the Darwin or Einstein or the British physicist Hawkins, they never let God as a power and creator of the universe but has developed their own theories of the origins of the universe which are yet to be proved. Atheist author Christopher Hitchens’s ‘God is not great’ contends that organized religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, and bigotry, and in The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion.

Religion is not what a person or a group of persons think about, because a cult is often based on ecstasy and moral exemplars. So, hipsters always get flak from devout and religion needs freedom from the science. Above all, free expression should not act as blasphemy and heresy. The Modern monotheism lacks the respect of other faiths which is exacerbating polarization. Whether it is Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ or Sam Bacile’s movie ‘Innocence of Muslims’, they come along as an intense attack on religious bigotry. The modern world that is bestowed with different histories and cultures urges for the ecumenism. Religious peace is very essential for the development of this world, be it science or technology, religion or philosophy, religious harmonization becomes inevitable. Today, man has created many Gods and becomes the guardian of the Gods. Science that often conflicts with religion may not be helpful in religious harmonization but people, government and religious leaders have to unify against all the demigods to spread awareness and religious consciousness among different faiths and to cultivate a culture of religious equality and peace in the world.