Finding (or not finding) religion...

guys... a bit off the usual blog entries just an article I threw together after an interesting plane flight... this is by no means meant to be critical of any Religion, rather it is an internal reflection. Apologies if this insults anyone.

After a recent trip to India I was flying back into Bangladesh, the beautiful Islamic country that I now call home. On the flight back into Dhaka I was seated next to a rather conservative Muslim (well at least for Bangladesh standards) who murmured texts of the Koran before and during take off. Not perturbed by his behaviour, I engaged him in basic conversation – where he was from, why he had been overseas… the usual aeroplane chit-chat. He happened to notice that I was reading Mother Teresa’s biography and engaged me in conversation about my religious beliefs.

During my time in Bangladesh I have been often asked about my religion and whether I am Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist etc. I have often tried to not engage in conversation with the questioner as I find it too hard to explain to them how I am Agnostic. This behaviour of mine is because not having any beliefs or a God totally perplexes the devout Bangladeshis but also because I often do not have an answer as to why I never followed the mass of Australian population to find the Christian God.

This time was different, I had a 3 hour flight and I felt it time that I not only answered his questions about why I wasn’t a Christian, but also time for me to understand my rationale for never throwing myself into Christianity. The conversation went down the usual path – “you have to have a religion” and “how can you not have a God?” I tried to explain to him that I have doubts about some of the Christian teachings and that I require a solid rationale backing my beliefs, I cannot just have blind faith. I am not sure if it was our English-Bengali language differences, but somehow these ideas of mine were out of comprehension for my Muslim friend.

Subsequently, I asked him how he knows that the word of Islam is correct for him and that other religions are such not correct. He answered “that the true Prophet, Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon Him), came down as the messenger of Allah… ” although I cannot remember exactly what he stated, it unfortunately did not answer to me why other religions were not correct. I then informed him that even though I have tried my hardest during my time in Bangladesh to understand Islam, I had not learnt enough to say that his Islamic beliefs were not the correct beliefs for me, therefore how could I say that any of my religious beliefs were correct?

This conversation had finally given me the answer to my religious identity. An issue that I had not only struggled with whilst living in Bangladesh, but also growing up as a kid in rural Australia and living in a Christian college whilst at university. Later, whilst I thought more about this conversation I realised that a lack of understanding about each others religions was not just restricted to me and my new Muslim friend 3000 feet in the air, but such lack of understanding exists the world over and is the reason for so much division and hostility.

What was worse was that such ignorance exists in my own country, within a highly educated and multicultural community. I had friends throughout school and university who, at such a young age, would happily walk blindly into Christianity without ever investigating what other religions were available and questioning whether such a religion was the right fit for them. I could never imagine these friends stepping into a lifetime marriage without posing these 2 questions, so how could they commit to a more important relationship with their God without considering them?

What is most important is not what religion I am, it is whether I love thy neighbour and treat all my fellow brother and sisters equally, regardless of religion or any other factor that might differentiate us. Remember it was Mother Teresa, whom a devout Catholic, demonstrated to the world that no matter if we are Hindu, Islamic or any other religion; we are all children of God. Whether that God is Vishnu, Allah or even Mother Nature, it does not matter as we are all fellow human beings.