Great Ideas ranjeet on 07 Dec 2006 09:59 am
Rationalism and Religion
(note : originally written in 2002)
All right. I’ll keep this short and sweet because I have great difficulties keeping this idea eloquent if I let it become long and bitter. The great idea is : No religion until you’re 18.
Why? Because I think that when you indoctrinate little kids with religion, you’re asking for trouble. As kids, they aren’t very rational so you generally have to tell things are the way they are just because that’s the way they are. And these kids will grow up believing that their way is the only right way, and these are the people that will start religious wars. Simplistic, I know, but I think religious tolerance would travel quite a bit farther if we all choose our religions (or non-religions) at a time where we could be reasonably expected to actually be rational. We’d look around the religion fair, talk to the various representatives, look at brochures, and learn about what all the different religions really mean. And then we’d pick. We’d hear what all the religions would have to say instead of having prejudices due to many years of being told about any one religion, and we’d pick sensible ones. The extremists who proclaim that all non-adherents must die would be looked at like the freaks that they are, and the tolerant reasonable religions would look better and better.
Okay, so its very simplistic. But I, for one, could never really understand what made one religion more right than another. Christians and Muslims both believe that they are right, and I can’t really figure out a reason to pick one over the other. Maybe if we all had the option to examine and choose a religion, we’d all realize that we’re the same underneath.