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.
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