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Finnegan: Religion and Human Frailties
It appears that everyone is talking about religion. This is my two cents
worth
Let me say from the very start that I have no problem with religion, my
problem is with institutionalised religion which usually manifests
itself in the shape of man made places of worship. In fact, I would even
call myself a religious person, because I believe in God. Sorry guys,
there is only one God. No such thing as Christian God, Islam God, Hindu
God, Buddhist God etc etc. God is nothing more than mother nature, the
forces that rule the universe, the heaven, the seas, the earth and all
its creatures. My relationship with God is a direct one, no need for the
middleman.
I heard you cry! what about Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc. Well, these
fine gentlemen are men of great wisdom, insight and courage. They
understood the greatest of human frailty. But nonetheless, they are only
human as well, nothing more, nothing less and they probably faced the
same frailty with trepidation as we all do.
Of all human frailties, the change from life to death, our mortality, is
the one we fear most. We simply do not understand why it is so? What is
life for? What is the meaning of it? What comes after life? The trouble
is NOBODY knows and it is something that we CANNOT avoid. So we seek
CONTINUITY as much as possible and the explanation what comes next. This
is where I take my hat off to those wise gentlemen above. They
understood the true nature of this greatest of all human frailties. They
were the original great psychologists, not Freud, he's a lightweight.
They offered solutions and explanation. Life after death in heaven.
Eternal life. Reincarnation. We live forever. Beautiful. Simple and
beautiful. The most beautiful things in life are simple things.
However, the trouble is, human being cannot help themselves. This is
another one of their frailties. They simply cannot help themselves from
turning something that is beautiful into something that is ugly. Look
around you, how we are destroying our beautiful planet, environment,
creatures, relationships and friendships. So they took the teaching of
those wise men which suppose to liberate us from our greatest frailty
into something that imprisoned us. As Karl Marx would say: "Religion has
become the opium of the masses". It has become a social tool, and by
definition, a political tool, as social interactions inevitably lead to
politics. And political interaction inevitably lead to struggle for
power. Religion has turned ugly, very ugly. It is not the fault of the
religion, it's the human.
The masses has become addicted to religion. Those who want play politics
and the power games are more than happy to keep on feeding the masses
with more religion in order to keep the addiction going. The masses?
Well as any drug addict would tell you, it's the easy way out. The next
life is taking care of as well as the present one. Cool man, gimme more.
Unfortunately, Indonesia is addicted to religion and there are many who
are hunger for power. Dynamite. As BJH said: "Well, mereka berhak untuk
mengatakan hal tersebut. Saya tidak akan membela diri. Mungkin saya
adalah orang yang paling bodoh di Indonesia. Saya bodoh, naif, atau apa
pun. Itu bukan masalah buat saya. Tetapi, kenyataannya adalah saya ini
seorang presiden". I rest my case.
TS Eliot once asked: "where is the life we have lost in living?". I want
to ask: "Where is the religion we have lost in believing?"
Regards - Chai Finnegan, 9/1/99, Somewhere over the rainbow.
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Didistribusikan tgl. 11 Jan 1999 jam 10:02:22 GMT+1
oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.Indo-News.com/
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