Truth and Faith in the age of Facebook and Whatsapp

Retaining respect for people is a tough job, especially in the age of Facebook and Whatsapp. Just a few minutes back I came across two Facebook status updates from two of my acquaintances and I found it impossible to suppress contempt. One was from a Christian who maintained that there was no truth other than what his religion taught. The other was from a Hindu who asserted that whatever the Judiciary might decide, no woman from his family between the age of 10 and 50 would ever visit the Sabarimala temple.

While arrogation of truth to itself is one of Christianity’s congenital diseases, the Sabarimala issue came up now because the Supreme Court recently defended all women’s right to pray in that temple which has hitherto prohibited entry to menstruating women. Both my acquaintances are ‘true’ believers in their respective religion. Their faith is staunch. It is blind.

Such blindness is becoming a serious problem in today’s India. There are millions of Indians who have suddenly discovered that their faith is the only right faith, their truths are the only possible truths, and so on.

I have no problem if any person wants to worship a potato as his god and creates a religion called, say, Potatoism. He can believe that the potato is the ultimate truth, the redeemer of mankind, the paragon of delicacy, or whatever. He can worship it five times a day. He can make it his only food. He can construct temples for the potato. He may do whatever he wishes. But when he insists on my accepting all that credo as mine too, there will certainly be a problem. Why can’t I be a Tomatoist?

If tomato offers me salvation, who can question its validity? Tomato gives me peace when there is strife all around me. Tomato brings me hope where there is despair. Tomato is my ultimate joy, my truth, the very essence of my life. Well, who can question that as long as I don’t shove my tomato down your throat?

Religious faith should be a personal affair. Religion is merely a way of finding meaning in life. There are other ways such as philosophy, literature, music, work (karma yoga, for instance), and so on. When it comes to life’s meaning, it is nothing if not entirely personal. My thinking, attitudes and experiences all go into the construction of my meaning of life. I gave up religion because I found it absolutely inconsistent with my intellectual faculty. In fact, even my instincts revolt against religion. How can anyone then expect me to find religion to be of any use to me? I’d love to keep myself as far away from religion as possible. My happiness is directly proportional to my distance from religion. Yet I attend certain religious rituals for the sake of harmony in my workplace or other places where I have to survive by sheer necessity. I don’t believe in anything of what I do in such places. I am a hypocrite for the sake of peace and harmony. That hypocrisy is part of my magnanimity.

But shoving the potato down my throat day in and day out is too much of an assault on my magnanimity. Disgust is not a healthy feeling. Save me from that, please.