Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Religion as a basis for hate

Religion at its root is the best of all propaganda. Since, the propaganda is about something(God) that cannot be seen or shown, basically everything works. The need for meaning is real, so I do not attempt to make a case of existense of God or otherwise. What I am interested in is the 'propaganda' part of religion. Non-believers must be brought ot line, your life in propagation of religion will take you to god, you are a messenger of god...all this plays to a persons ego. The problem is not when this ego is used individually, but when it becomes a collective manifestation. (of course the problem will be corrected only if approached at the individual level). When combined with the nascent urge in people to hide under the 'face' of the mob, what you have is violence. And it can go to any extreme. The religious riots in different part of the world are a testament to this. Of course my argument is a gross simplification. There are factors like religious and political leaders, persecution, race, caste, economic conditions etc. Can religion be fought at the mass level?
Not until a person who can prove divine qualities across religions and says that he has met all god and they are equal ( ya right). But for the problem ot decrease in magnitude:
1) Make everyone play sports. Most of games tend to detriorate into wars anwyays. The pent up energy will go out. While this is seemingly stupid the argument has some merits. We rarely take out some of our emotions out and mob violence is a kind of response ot it. Maybe games.
2) Make people go after money like there is no t'row. Group violence tends to have economic under currents to it. In an equal society will that be the case?
3) Abolish religion, make it go underground. The extreme case.

No comments: