THIS IS a very controversial topic to discuss and at best, can get you enough enemies, but again who said one won’t have enemies for his beliefs and principles? Would you die for your religion?  As an example, if you were on an airplane and it was being taken over by a religious group (other than yours) and one of them puts a gun to your head and says, "Reject your God or take a bullet?” What would you do?

Now, before I die for my religion, I need to ask myself, is religion worth dying for? Don’t get me wrong here. Believing in religion and believing in God are two totally different things. I might be willing to believe that God exists but not willing to subscribe to any religion. The best thing that religion has managed to do is provide an opportunity for people to brainwash and oppress others. 

Let’s first take a look at some of these so-called religious leaders who are busy misleading innocent sheep. The Catholic Church forbids priests from getting married but there have been some nauseating sodomy tales about the Church. We have Born-Again Christians who have mercilessly fleeced their impoverished flock and now own mansions, expensive cars and travel first-class on planes. 

One of the lessons taught by religion is tolerance but why is Sudan (an Islamic state) willing to hang a mother because she grew up there – albeit having a Christian mother who raised her after her Moslem father abandoned them? Actually, the Bible itself contains stories that don’t add up but that is a story for another day. 

There’s an old saying "religion is the opium of the poor” which pretty much paints a good picture of what religion is all about. It is addictive and blinds people from looking beyond the surface. I don’t believe that Jesus died for a particular religion but we are willing to kill each other for the sake of converting others. And who said that religion will save mankind? It will not and never will because religion is not God.  

I get chills up my spin when I think about how today’s generation of those who were colonised, imprisoned, genocided, exploited, tormented and burnt to death in inquisitions and crusades, stoned to death for thought crimes, now embrace the religion of the tyrants. I’m not saying that indigenous and pagan religions were perfect and universally moral, but they were generally better than what came after. 

Religion is now heavily based on "blind faith” other than living or seeing the world the way Jesus saw it, it has become more about religious laws than building souls, it is used for political and financial gain. We no longer look at religion as a path to God but a means of survival. This has been done at the expense of our principles, dignity and compassion. If I was to die, the former three would make more sense.