Morals and Perfection in Eastern Philosophies - Essay Example

Religion EASTERN PHILOSOPHIES – Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism all three religions are based on eastern philosophies and this is their common feature. Each religion focuses on how important it is to be peaceful and act compassionately. These religions command people to show kindness to fellow human beings as well as to animals. MORALS, PERFECTION – The followers of the three East Asian religions, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto, concentrate mainly on being a perfect human being and upholding moral behavior. Each of these has a humanist philosophy. MONOTHEISM, BOOK – The common features of the religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are that both believe in one God and both are religions of the book. The latter means that a book was sent to the people of all these religions through their prophets. Generally speaking, with time people are only becoming lesser and lesser interested in religion. The number of atheists is increasing. People are getting further from religion and there may be several reasons behind this phenomenon. Man is always attracted to shiny, happy and fun aspects of life. Many religions are not all about fun. They are about being kind to the fellow human beings, helping others even if you have to go out of your way, and being honest no matter what. Not everyone happily complies with these rules. For instance, many feel that they could be much more successful in life if they don’t follow the humanity rules; they don’t work honestly to earn; they cheat on their customers to see their personal profit; they indulge in illegal work such as smuggling and money laundering. The list is endless. But that is not to say, however, that good people are no longer there today. There still are several good people out there who prefer to be honest over being rich illegally. They treat others nicely and take care of the animals too. They have moral values which they hold on to and uphold. However, one important thing to consider is that we cannot really relate religion to being good or bad. Nowadays there is more to being spiritual than being religious. There are good Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc., and bad too. So we cannot really say that being religious means being good. A person may be ritualistically following a religion without really putting any meaning to it. He may have been brought up in such an environment while his perceptions might be different. There are good and bad atheists too around the world. Coming back to the original discussion, after a century religion would still be there but it would have few followers, and even less of the really true followers. Also, from research it has been concluded that the less religious countries are happier and also have lower crime rates. With the progress of science and technology the people have been more depending on it and leaving religion in the air. It is said that science has been debunking several religious claims. If this is how it goes on and if people consider science to be more reliable – what with all the logical and valid reasons laid down – it is inevitable that more and more people would look up to science and consider religion as unimportant. It is vital to note, however, that though science can take us till the moon, going to heaven is another thing all together, and only religion is what will get us there. Even in today’s world we see there are so many religious conflicts all over the world – some places more than the other, but they are there. People have become intolerant of each other; if someone’s views do not match theirs, they are wrong. This is the general perception. Of course, not everyone acts this way but those who do are enough to bring about violence and conflict as we have seen. We have heard about religious institutions being bombed and attacked and we have heard of people being persecuted because of their chosen religion. This is not limited to a single religion; conflicts exist in every religion. Churches as well as mosques are attacked; Christians as well as Muslims are persecuted. And then there are sectarian differences within religions. These are also a pain in the neck considering the violence they lead to. The tolerance level of many people nowadays has become so low that the world is suffering due to them. People should follow the rule of “live and let live”, but they think that it is important to wipe out those that they think are wrong. Religion both brings together people and pushes them apart too. It definitely brings together the likeminded people, who have similar thoughts and views. But it also brings together the more tolerant people of different perspectives who feel that they need to unite against violence and crimes done in the name of religion. Religion also pushes people apart. Again, the more intolerant people, who cannot stand those who have a different perspective as theirs, get apart. They will lose their friendship and have bad feelings in their heart because of their differences. Such people consider themselves superior to others, and they feel that they are right while everyone else is committing a sin. It is still okay for intolerant people to not like others but keep their views and ideas to themselves; the problem arises when they do just the opposite; they interfere in others’ lives to the extent of forcing them to do as they believe is the right thing. They even resort to violence. This will probably increase in a 100 years from now. Religion is both good and bad to us, depending on how we take it. If we just follow the teachings of our respective religion and not force others into anything then that is fine. There are people who mistake the teachings and do bad things in the name of religion – that is when it is better for such people to be atheists instead. Such people need to be taught the real message of his respective religion, because there does not exist even a single religion which preaches violence and cruelty toward anyone, including animals. Works Cited Jeffrey, Brodd, et al. Invitation to World Religions. Oxford University Press, 2012. Read More