RELIGION: THE OTHER SIDE

I am not religious and I don’t follow any religion just to please my parents or other people in the society. I've always been criticizing the preachers of any religion for being blind and illogical in their approach. But strangely, sometimes apart from just inculcating blind faith and as to what I think, irrationality, religion has an innate quality of being able to transfer morality and hope where people have lost faith in the socio-political and economic system of the society they live in. We are a part of a world which is dominated by inequalities- social, economical, political and cultural. And when I talk about this side of religion, I am referring to societies where the above mentioned institutions have miserably failed to provide the people with the basic amenities and requirements to lead their life. Societies which prevail in the third world countries, like some in Africa and Asia, where people are dying of hunger, women roaming around naked, babies abandoned by their mothers lying around in their own feces, children sorting out the garbage just to find some petty thing to eat, where its not uncommon to find people with multiple forms of malaria, tuberculosis, etc., where people murder each other just to earn a piece of bread, where even the most educated people are left with no opportunities. In these societies people are left with nothing except hope which is what religion provides them. It binds them with morality so that they don’t commit crimes-thefts, murders, kidnappings, rapes and what not.
I don’t think that following a religion changes this scenario, but it does give people something to hold on to…faith and hope that they could lead a better life without surrendering into the world of crime and death. All I can say is that I am lucky enough to have been born in a society where I can lead a life without having to believe in the very existence of god.