Jubeet Kaur

Very often, we come across the question, “Why do people have so many different forms of religion?” A ready and most natural response would be that as children we inherit our religious beliefs from our parents. Even though humans have a free choice in choosing their religion, history indicates that in most instances one’s religion is a product of one’s social environment, especially the family. Philosophically, religious pluralism is the theory that the great world religions constitute varying conceptions of, and responses to, the one ultimate, mysterious divine reality.

In today’s radically changing world, almost all religions are found in everyone’s hometown. In a global reality increasingly dominated by multinationals and ever more linked by International travel, awareness of world religions and the pluralism of human world views has come to touch virtually all of us. Although we still live in a world of nation-states, religious and cultural diversity are now the order of the day.

There are two simple choices that now arise: either the multitude of religions will lead to peaceful co-existence or it may provoke social conflicts along religious lines. The common view of religious pluralism tends to see it (understandably) as something that has enormous potential to wreak havoc on human relationships. It is something associated with the terrible and tragic stories of hatred and violence in Northern Ireland, inter-religious conflict in the Middle East, the murderous tensions between Hindu and Muslim on the Indian subcontinent, violence between Buddhist and non-Buddhist in Tibet.

At the face value, it may then seem that the vital core values of some religions are incompatible with each other. However, as long as people view religion as abstract philosophies of life, there is no threat of conflict despite the differences in the respective philosophies of the religions. In so far as religion is considered to provide a practical ethical guidance for living, people are tolerant of each other’s views. Problems arise only when religious practices are confronted with the forces of other social fields. If the authorities of the political, economic or cultural fields feel challenged by the authorities of the religious field, they may react adversely to narrow the religious domain or to wield their own power.

Issues of religious freedom are mostly discussed as prohibition of state interference in the individual’s religious beliefs. However, religious freedom also implies the right to practice one’s religion freely.

Although it’s exact root is uncertain, the word “religion” is probably derived from the Latin word religare, which literally means “to tie or bind” and the root ligere which has the connotation of “acting with care”. Religion expresses our sense of being “tied and bound” by relations or obligations to whatever powers we believe govern our destiny - whether these powers be natural or supernatural, personal or impersonal, one or many.

Thus, religion as a form of human experience is seen in diverse forms. Some religions consider it with regard to forces of Nature, some to wealth, or political power, or to the forces of history. Others connect religion to “spiritual” things. Whatever it may be, every religion has a set of beliefs which together form a reasonably coherent system. A religion is not in itself true or false. Religion, like any other human institution, is only more or less effective in meeting certain goals. Thus for the Christian this would involve a movement towards God/Jesus, for a Hindu towards Brahman, for a Muslim it is Allah and for a Buddhist the goal is Nirvana. .

Under the present circumstances, different world religions have  been forced to take account of others. The pleasant option now is to develop a new understanding of the relation between world religions and global cultures - one that allows people to share their wisdom with each other through mutual respect and understanding. We know that this alternative - of appreciating what we have in common as well as to acknowledge distinctive differences - is possible because of the examples of great religions figures of the twentieth century such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr .

King in Chicago, 1960 Photo by Francis Miller/LIFE

If we were to think what citizens of the world have in common, the answer would certainly not be religion! Maybe the answer is "love". As Martin Luther King, Jr., once said:

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization.

To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.