Relevance of religion in today’s world

By Spandan Bora.

“Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” – The Bible, James 1:26
Religion ought to be a social cultural system of human behaviours that relates humanity to spiritual, supernatural and transcendental elements. In antiquity, ‘religio’ stood for a sense of right, or for moral obligations. However, in the medieval times the Latin word religio came to be associated with individual virtue of worship. In the 17th century because of events like the division of Christianity during the Protestant Reform and globalisation, modern religion as an abstract concept of distinct set of beliefs and doctrines came up.
Christianity believes in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as stated in the New Testament, Islam is likewise based on the life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad as stated in the Quran. Hinduism like the other two is not a monotheistic religion and is actually an amalgamation of separate philosophies called the Sanatana Dharma. If we go through the teaching of all these three religions we will find that the basis of their teachings is the same, i.e. asking people to follow the path of truth and to stay away from any kind of evil deeds. However, this has not been true in recent times. People have started to draw lines amongst themselves in the name of religion. The concept of religious fundamentalism has come up which relates to the use of terrorism as a tactic to spread violence and fear among the people.

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ISIL’s prime goal has been the establishment of a Sunni Islamic State, i.e. an Islamic state led by the Caliph. According to a German reporter the ISIL shall execute all those who do not live by the rules of the group’s interpretation of the Quran, which they did once they captured Raqqa in Syria.
In the 1920s an increasing number of Baptists adopted a premillennialist interpretation of the Bible that promised the second coming of Christ, if Jews were given covenantal rights to the land of Israel. This led to radically different policies of the Trump administration from that of its predecessors, and sent massive funds to Israel for their fight against Palestine for territory and have helped Israelites set up settlements in the West Bank by violating international laws.
In India, despite having secularism guaranteed to us by the constitution, we sometimes fail to abide by it. The demolition of Babri masjid and the consequent communal violence is a prime example of this.

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Thus, we can see that religion in the present times has only played the role of a tyrant leader who seems to favour some and disapprove of any deviance from its philosophies. Instead of giving people hope, we see it bringing grief to the minority. Maybe it is time we get over with the old customs and start seeing beyond our religious beliefs. It’s time we give rise to a religion of humanity from the ashes of the destruction brought about by its present iteration.