Practically, all the religions of the world preach righteousness. They preach of life after death, in which it is clearly stated that whatever a man sows, that he must reap. Righteousness is the state of being lawful and morally good. With this, every religion believes that the righteous will inherit the sweeter part of life after death.
Looking through the various religions of the world, one will see the different views on what one stands to gain for being righteous or the punishments that await the unrighteous ones. Why then do we still observe religious intolerance in our society?
In Hinduism for instance, there is the belief in the caste system. With this, everyone will have a life after death. The class which one will belong will be greatly determined by his conducts in his previous existence. That is, when a man dies in sin, he will come back to life in a lower form, for instance like goat, cow or any lower animal depending on the weight of his sin in his previous existence. That’s one of the main reasons they don’t kill animals.
In the African traditional religion, the sensitization on being righteous is paramount. In their belief, people who commit sin, great diseases befall them and when they eventually die, they will not be welcomed in the kingdom of their ancestors instead they will be wandering in the surface of the earth and suffering for their sins. They create awareness on the need for someone to be morally guided or face the wrath of the gods.
Islam on the other hand has strong belief about life to be lived after someone must have died. In their own view, there is heaven and there is hell. Heaven is a place specially designed for God, his angels and all those who played their good roles while on earth, hell on the other hand is a purifying state where someone is punished accordingly for his sins while on earth after which the angels will come to his rescue when the weight of his sufferings must have balanced with that of his sins.
Similarly in Christianity, there is also the belief in heaven and hell. The only difference is that hell is where one will be burnt forever without any pity.
Every other religion in the world preaches similar things and pointing at the punishment that will be faced by a sinner and what a righteous person stands to gain.
One is therefore perturbed to see a nation that has almost all the percentage of her populace involved in the practices of one of these religions, still out of ignorance, fight, destroy and kill each other all in the name of religion. At the slightest religious provocation, people raise arms to strike. Is it not the same message of good moral living that the whole religions are passing out?
In Nigeria for instance, there are three major religions-Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion. This means that almost every one falls within one of these categories. How then do we have a lot of difficulties in understanding one another? The most surprising aspect of it is to see a fight between two religions in a faraway country gingering up a crisis here in our society. We are people of the same geographical location who are supposed to love, care and be our brothers’ keepers. This is a clear indication of hate.
Our tourist sites which were formally avenues for generating revenues for the government have been abandoned because no one dares to patronize them out of fear that they might be killed in the process. Farmers no longer feel free to cultivate more food, making the cost of food produce very high. Children are dropped out from schools. In such a society one can ask which way forward?
The reality is that everything still backfires on us. Let’s prove that we have grown to a civilized world with the knowledge of what the concept of life is. Religious intolerance must be stopped and the only time to stop is this moment!
Written by SYLVESTER NNOLI
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