Saturday, September 16, 2006

RELIGION AND CULTURE

Religion and culture are not separate. They are inter-twined. They both combine to influence habits, world-views and lifestyles. Even someone who says who has no belief and lives a materialistic lifestyle actually has a belief - that there is no God and that materialism is the only truth. It is just that the belief is not explicit or understood in a conventional 'religious' way. Even a materialist has a ritual of going shopping every Saturday or decorating the body through beautiful clothes and lovely food and indulgence in desires. Faith and belief influence our daily life whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, modern media try very hard to dissect faith from culture as by and large, they are anti-religion. In reality, they are ignorant of the role of faith and belief in human life. Also they are ignorant of some religions such as Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, which have lived peacefully and tolerantly for millenia.

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