Death of Religion

Last time I posted, I left you with a question some of us may have asked ourselves. Even perhaps as young children trying to get to grips with the death of a dear pet or, somewhat more troubling to us, the death of a relative or close family member. I admit that I was too young to remember the death of my brother. But the fact that I never got to know him as a person has prompted me to ask the question why do we have to die on many occasions in the past. Not that I'm in any way a necrophile, or a lover of death, but that there are times when I feel that I need to retreat and examine my life.

There is much truth in the Socratic statement positing that the unexamined life is not worth living. Indeed, I have gone through times when I was absorbed in my own bubble, thinking I knew all that I needed to know and tied to a rigid view of the world. You probably know the name of this period in life. Adolescence.! It's a great tine when you can afford to be idealistic, perfectionistic in my case and very preoccupied with fitting in. Drop in some arrogance and a good dose of hard headedness and you have it: the teenage mindset. Yes, I was perhaps being too hard on my past self for it was a time when I could dream without much concern about any practical consideration.

I don't want this blog to become an autobiography. But the point here that when we are young, we tend to believe that we will live forever. Then again, I knew that wasn't the case and people die. For no reason and at no defined time. And while death saddens us, the realization that our lives are temporal and finite should make us appreciate the unique opportunity we have to be alive. Mind you, there have been dark moments in my life when I felt that the pain caused by sickness and poor health or, equally painful, the sense of abandonment and isolation that I felt then, I would rather have avoided.

On the other hand, this doesn't mean that they were devoid of any value. They did help me wake up to the fact that I had fallen into a vortex of cynicism and apathy. I was going through this life of mine without purpose. However, when I got close to death on the summer of 1998, I knew that my life had hit the bottom and started sinking. I started to ask myself whether my life would end soon. I was unsure of what to expect on the other side. My Catholic upbringing taught me about heaven and hell, Jesus and the plan for salvation. Or damnation!

Of course, I knew that Christianity went beyond simply heaven and hell. Indeed, Christian faith like Judaism before it, manifested a human hope for a better today and tomorrow, even after our lives are apparently ended. Unfortunately, even if I knew that the basic principles of both Judaism and Christianity were the same - to bring love and compassion - history is replete by use of violence to impose dogma and belief on another people. This, however, is not unique to Christianity but has happened in the case of Islam and Hinduism in history. It is also happening today.

But how do religions based on love and compassion end up causing so much death and destruction?