The individual and his ideology or faith

To belong to a religion you must choose. You might say, “I was born into my religion. I did not choose.” Initially you may have not chosen. But later in life you have chosen to stay. A religion is not a race of people. All races of people can belong to a religion. You can’t rescind from belonging to a race of people but you can revoke or invalidate your membership to a religion. You can’t shred your Chinese heritage but as a Chinese you can be a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or whatever. You can be half Chinese and half African. But you can’t be half Muslim and half Christian or half Jew and half Hindu. There is no such creature as half and half of a religion.

The follower of a religion is very protective of his/her religion. Many will give up their lives for their religion. So when a religion gets criticized most of its followers will go after the criticizer to the point of doing bodily harm.

Most followers of religions fail to realize that a religion is simply an organization. That it is only a group of people who agreed to follow a certain dogma. A dogma created by the organizers of the religion. A religion is not an individual. It has no soul. It dies once it runs out of members. A religion survives only when it has members or followers.

When critical articles are written about a religion, rarely is it about its followers. It is about the religion. When bad things are mentioned about your religion, it does hurt and you may instinctively retaliate. But you must exercise prudence because the criticism is not about you personally. It is about your religion. Do not let your vanity lead you. This is where many fail to understand the difference. The criticism is not about your family or about you. It is about your religion, which is an insensitive organization that will continue to exist long after you or your family are dead. It will exist as long as it continues to have members. Your religion only exists in this corporeal world it has no soul as you do. So never put your religion above humanity. Humans have souls, religions don’t.

Religions do not have feelings. People do. Do not let your vanity get in the way. Instead of acting emotional, argue back by present the facts to support the correctness of your religion. If you can’t then it is obvious that your religion is wrong.

Make your religion stand out with pride with your good deeds. Your religion doesn’t do good deeds, you do. If a religion (organization) discriminates others, then that religion will be criticized. You as the individual is not being criticized, your religion is.

Some will argue that citizens will rise to protect the honor of a country and so why not the religion. Well, citizens of a country do not only comprise of one religion. Many religions are under the umbrella of a country. That is why many countries insist on the separation of government from religion.

let us all learn to differentiate.