My Opinion about Hinduism, Islam and Christianity
In this post I express my opinion about three main religions, which are Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. I don't intend with this post to change your opinion about any of these religions, however I hope that this post will help those who are confused about these religions. Hopefully my post will inspire and empower those lost in religions to think more outside the box and find God in their own unique way.
My opinion about Christianity
I was born into a non-practicing Christian family. From my extended family only my grandmother used to quite regularly go to church. However she was the most "lost" member of my family without even knowing it. She would get angry for nothing and take action as a result of this negativity. Finally she got cancer and died, which wasn't a big surprise for anyone in my family considering how much anger and hatred she stored inside.
In the past I sometimes used to go to church too because my best friend in my childhood was from a religions family and they would go to church every Sunday. Church people, as I came to find as years passed by, was the most narrow-minded bunch I ever came across. They think they are very spiritual but they don't know anything about spirituality. They consider themselves superior to those who don't go to church. They busy themselves with setting others straight whilst they themselves are the biggest sinners.
I'm not saying all church people are the same, but a lot of them commit many sins outside of the church, like talking bad things about others and getting jealous and angry about small things, and then they go to church, confess their sins, say a few prayers and again commit the same sins. This practice is widely accepted in the Christian community.
Some Christians truly believe that disclosing their sins to the priest was all it took to get God's mercy. Isn't that the most childish idea anyone can think of?
Why would God grant the priest an authority to forgive other human beings? Priest is the same human being as me and you – he doesn't have any higher powers or anything else that would make him more God-like than the rest of us.
Those who are sworn Christians are mainly fanatics. They live by the Bible but they don't feel it. They are merely fools ready to fight anyone who doesn't belong to their religion and blindly following the text but not pondering on the meaning of it. That's why they ignore many contradictions that one finds in the Bible and get angry when someone challenges their beliefs. This also makes them one of the most egoic communities you can find around.
I met a few healthy Christian families. They live a good life but their life is fear-based. It seems that the only reason they live a sin-free life is because they are afraid to burn in hell. That's not what real spirituality is about. Anything fear-based is wrong because fear itself is a lie, an illusion.
I dislike many things about Christianity. I don't like that it's said in the Bible that everyone has to accept Christ as their saviour as only then they will go to heaven. It was even once said in the Bible that soul is mortal (though the Bible has been rewritten since then many times) and that the only way to save your soul and make it immortal is to, as I said, accept Christ as your saviour. It's very cruel to fool people this way and waste their lives so that they would stick to this religion.
So basically Christianity claims that all people who haven't got a chance to come into contact with Christianity are doomed. How wrong could that be? Why would God be so cruel as not to give a chance for some people to become aware of Christianity?
When one ponders on this issue for some time, she will most likely to realise that God could not limit itself to only one religion. She is most likely to come to the conclusion that this idea of only one religion being right is man-made and is made for the reason to convert more people into a particular religion.
Religion is profitable for priests, so the more converts they have, the more their churches will prosper.
Now another thing I dislike about Christianity is that it's full of contradictions. Just do one exercise to find this out yourself. Read the accounts of the same event by different saints, like Matthew or John and then tell me how many inconsistencies and even contradictions of the events you will find in the Bible.
I do believe that the Bible is based on truth, but it's been covered by so many false accounts that you are better off not reading it at all. It will only leave you confused, trust me. And those professors who claim that there are no inconsistencies in the Bible are only doing so because they have strong attachments to this religion and their minds cannot allow any denying of this religion to arise.
It's very stupid for Christians to think that people who did not choose this religion will go to hell. This is so close-minded, so childish. Once I had a friend who stopped talking to me when she realised that I'm a non-practicing Christian. How silly.
What I find so annoying in Christianity as I do in Islam is the concept of a sin. The fear of sin prevents people from spiritually progressing, and let me tell you how. For example, if a person has a desire to have multiple sex partners and Christianity prohibits it, he will fear doing it and this fear together with this unrealised desire will freeze his spiritual progress.
Whist if he would have multiple sexual partners and finally experience what it's all about, only then he may see this desire for what it really is and thus move on to higher ideals. Of course some people will get stuck in this desire for ever, but some would become spiritual. Whereas if they would never try this experience none could reach higher spiritual truths.
My opinion about Islam
Although Muslims and Christians always fight with each other, there are many similarities in these two religions. Both religions are made by men because women are considered of less importance in these religions. Both religions have a place called heaven. Both religions think that those who do not belong to their religion are eternally doomed.
The good thing about Quran is that it wasn't changed (this claim is arguable however). But the worse thing about it is that through an ill-mind it can become a lethal weapon, because ill-minds interpret it in an evil way. That's how fanatics of Islam come to being.
In reality both Christians and Muslims are good people. Some of them try their best to convert people to their religion so as to "save" them. This is a good intention, but it's based on the belief that only their religion is right and this cannot be so, because God is fair.
If anyone would ask me which religion is better to blindly follow, Christianity or Islam, I would have to say Islam because their religion contains less contradictions in my opinion. Also many Muslim families are healthy and strong families, as I came to know. But this close-mindedness and less respect for people of other religions and atheists is what I really dislike about this religion.
Once I was in a hospital's prayrer room in India, praying for my close friend who had a spine injury. One Muslim nurse came and started praying. She prayed a few seconds, just because a Muslim has to pray, and then spent the rest of her prayer time talking on her mobile. Then she finished talking, did a few seconds' prayer and went away. Are the rituals is all it takes to be a good Muslim? She would sin less by no praying at all, then by praying just because it's written in the Quran to do so.
That's another thing I find so sad with so called religious people. Muslims as well as Christians follow their sacred texts with minds rather than hearts. This strips off any spirituality that could be felt by following the sacred writings. Any good Muslim or Christian would not be cruel or egoic with others. However many religious people have even childish character traits which, they think, count for nothing as long as they repeat the words of their religious texts and follow the rituals.
My opinion about Hinduism
Out of all the religions I know, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism are closest to my heart. Jainism (but not extreme Jainism where one consciously chooses to slowly die so as not to hurt anything on this planet) makes most sense to me because it's based on non-violence. Then Buddhism is next, because it's based on non-attachment. And then comes Hinduism, because it came into existence through the writings of the sages who cared not to put their names on this religion. It's the religion that was not born out of one person, like Christianity or Islam did.
Hinduism came out of the writings of the Rishis, the "Seers" of India. In my opinion, Vedas, which are the most important sacred writings of the Rishis that
Hinduism is based on, contains least contradictions and makes most sense. The Vedas make most sense logically and when you have spiritual experiences you come to know by the experience of the truth of the Vedas.
Hinduism is the oldest religion and the least cruel religion. It respects other religions and does not try to convert other people into it. Christianity and Islam looks like the religion of barbarians compared to Hinduism.
I'm not saying that Hinduism is the be all and end all, because I don't know everything about this religion. I may never come to know every detail of it, because I don't know the language of Sanskrit, and only if you read the sacred writings in the original language can they reveal themselves to you in their entirety.
But Hiduism is indeed the most truthful religion in my opinion. It doesn't devalue women, firstly, but regards them as completely equal, because they are.
Men could not exist without women and women could not exist without men. Good could not exist without bad. Black could not exist without white. So why are there more promises of goodness given to Muslim men after their sin-free life finishes than there are for women? This is unfair and God is fair. So what does it say about this religion? That it's man-made.
Hinduism provides more spiritual teachings about how the world came into existence than any other religion. For example, Christianity uses a lot of parables or a very basic way of explaining spirituality, as though it's directed to people with low awareness level. For example, it talks about an angry God living in the skies rather than about an impersonal universal intelligence.
When I think about it, such religious texts like those of Christianity are directed to people who cannot understand deep spirituality. And so they are created so that those people who are entirely ignorant of the laws of the universe would not commit sins or cause too much chaos.
For example, some people would not believe or understand that there is a universal law of cause and effect. This law states that if you do something bad you must receive something bad because you put a bad effect into motion which must bear its fruits. But ignorant people may be more affected if they are told that there is an angry God watching their every move from the skies and if they commit a sin they will be punished. So this fear-based teaching may produce a bigger effect on ignorant people than the teaching of an impersonal God and universal laws.
Hinduism is more suited for people with a better understanding of spirituality. Reading Vedas a person becomes empowered and more understanding whilst reading the Bible a person becomes frightened and confused.
In the Vedas and other Hindu spiritual texts there are so many eye-opening statements, there is so much wisdom. For example, in the Bhagavat Gita (another
Hindu sacred text) it is told that a person should work all her life, but she must not become attached to the results of her work, that she should dedicate the fruits of her work to God. Only this way the working person can become happy. Any work done with some kind of expectation leaves one miserable.
Vedas explain everything about this world; This is the only text that in my opinion clearly explains the nature of this reality and the reason for it. This text makes me want to have been born an Indian in this life-time so that I would more deeply understand it.
Hindus in general are very accepting and less egoic people than the rest. For example, there is far less jealousy in a Hindu girl than there is in a Christian or a Muslim girl. There is much less aggression and hatred in Hindu people than in the people of other religions. Most Hindu people live in peace with nature and accept their circumstances. They seem to be quite pure in their hearts and little do they know that they are much happier than the people living in the West whose religion is either Islam or Christianity.
Hindu people care less about materialistic things than Muslims or Christians do. And although they worship gods by worshiping their images, which is prohibited in Christianity or Islam, they are the least evil race I have come across (which makes me doubt this whole belief that it's a sin to worship idols).
What I have read about this idol worship issue and what I believe myself is that it's not a bad thing. It's for those people who cannot grasp this idea of universal intelligence and want a more concrete God. The vast majority of people can't grasp the universal intelligence idea, so choosing to worship a picture or a statue is the only way for them to communicate with God.
From childhood I didn't see the point in praying to a statue. It seemed funny and strange to me. For me it's easy to feel God everywhere and I can pray to God by praying inside my head or by meditation. But I don't judge those who can't grasp this idea, because every person is different and therefore is on different levels of awareness.
Conclusion
I could go on and on about this topic of religion, but in this post I chose to express my most important feelings and notices about each religion. I hope that this blog post will help those still confused about or lost in a certain religion. In my opinion it's better not to belong to any religion but find God in your own unique way, because each of us is unique. Religions, keep in mind, are made by men and not by God.
I choose to follow the path of spirituality on my own terms. I make mistakes of course, but this path, as I came to know, is the most fulfilling one. If you tasted what's like to belong to a religion and didn't find fulfillment in this way of living, I urge you to try to drop your religion and find God using your intuition and your inspiration.
2 comments:
Hinduism is the most tolerant of all religions. India is secular because it is Hindu. India treated its Muslim minority far better than Pakistan and Bangladesh treated their Hindu minorities. For much of India's post independent history, it even paid the Hadj costs of its Muslim pilgrims traveling to Mecca. Nepal is inclusivist for a similar reason. It is predominantly Hindu. Indonesia has an underlying Hindu tradition beneath its Muslim exterior. It is the only Muslim country (excluding the ex-Soviet republics that had crushed Islam) that is secular. And yet, this Hindu tolerance has been abused by Christian missionaries, by the neo Buddhists and Islamic fundamentalists etc. The secular mainstream spews venom on Hindu tradition while remaining silent on Islam or Christianity.
Very relevant article that everyone can learn from.
Thank you Mam for this post.
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