People who seem to be rather puzzled by this statement, are constantly asking me why I’m so critical of religion. Well My Friend, if you had watched with me a program on PBS T.V. about the constant fighting in The State of Gujarat in India, between Muslims and Hindus, you really would need no explanation. This program was one of the most sickening sights, I’ve ever witnessed.
I watched in disbelief and tremendous sadness, as I saw Hindus attack Muslims and destroy their Mosques, their place of sacred worship. I saw Muslims attack, burn and kill innocent Indians, whose only crime was that they were Hindus, and they were seeking revenge on them. This mind you was supposed to be all in the name of God. They were all Indians who were full of hate for their Indian brothers and sisters, because of their religious beliefs.
In Northern Ireland, we have witnessed the same thing for generations, where Protestant Irish people attack, main and kill other Irish people, simply because they’re Catholic, and visa versa. As the title of this article suggests, this surely is absolute madness! To me, the God whom I have come to know over the years, is a ‘God of Love’. God as far as I’m concerned is ‘LOVE’! So how can any group of people who are members of a particular religion, be operating their lives with so much hate in their heart for others? Surely the type of hateful behaviour that can be seen in India, Northern Ireland, and indeed in many other parts of the world too, all in the name of religion, is totally ungodly in nature. This My Friend, is why I’m so adverse to religion, for in so many cases down through history, it has bred bigotry and intolerance, which is indeed a sad sight to behold.
Yes My Friend, it is indeed ‘Absolute Madness’, when religions breed this kind of hatred, which they have unfortunately done down through the years. Each one has it’s book, which it claims is the absolute word of God. The Christians have ‘The Bible’, the Muslims have ‘The Koran’, the Hindus have ‘The Bagvad Gita’, the Buddhists have ‘The Teachings of Buddha’, etc, etc. Each has a human figure whom they have elevated to Godly status, many who came into this world by means of a so called ‘Virgin Birth’, be it a Jesus, a Buddha, a Mohammad or a Krishna. Each group is so dogmatic in it’s beliefs, each professing that they are God’s ‘Chosen Children’, and that everyone else is totally wrong in their belief system. And My Friend, many of them are prepared to kill others, who do not believe as they do.
The irony of it all, is that all these ‘Misguided’, in my mind, people, claim to be doing what they’re doing, all in the name of a loving God. They use such contradictory phrases as ‘Spiritual Warfare’. I wonder when, if ever, this ungodly nonsense will end.
THINK ABOUT IT!
A Letter To The Editor
Dr. D. Paul Reilly’s radio programme Time To Think is aired each Monday through Friday on both ZNS 1 1540 AM and ZNS 3 810 AM at 7:15 AM each morning.
