[An article of a group of students supervised and edited under the instruction of their facilitator (Rehan Fernando) at Lanka Bible College: Sahani, Lasitha, Caleb and Thiru]

Preamble

Religion is now used for many occasions perhaps to justify people’s cases, defend and be protective, settle disputes etc. Religion has become a tool for many defense mechanisms. In other words, we could conclude religion as a prostitute used by several political, religious social, economic trends and phenomenon. Religion is always associated with fulfilling rituals and rites. Afterward, believers come to internal satisfaction thinking that they completed the essence of religions. It is superstitious mythical conduct of ordinary people. I think there is a greater need to get rid of such an illusion.

Battle between religion and Dhamma/dharmaya [Sahani]

According to three Gallup polls taken in 2008, 2009, and 2015, Sri Lanka was identified as one of the five most religious countries in the world. In 2023, Vesak alone 7160 ‘dansal’ served the community. Venerable Wanawasi Rahula Thero, the founder of the Jathika Namal Uyana, remarks that some temples receive donations exceeding Rs 3.5 million at a press conference in Anuradhapura.

Yet 6.3 million people (30% of the Sri Lankan population) suffer from food insecurity (Source: World Food Programme, August 2022) and around 800,000 families out of 6 million families suffer from poor housing conditions (Source: UN-Habitat Sri Lanka Country Report 2023). However, the ritualistic ‘giving’ discussed above has been ineffective to reflect the true religiosity of ‘dhamma’ that must lead people towards freedom from suffering. The ‘dhamma’ that the Buddhists teach of ‘maithree’- compassion, the Hindus teach ‘ahimsa’- the absence of cruelty, the Islamic teaching of ‘peace’ and the Christian purpose of ‘agape’- the love is found in a constant struggle to overcome the barriers of rituals and achieve the goals of freedom that may deliver a spirituality of full humanity, so that the religion may be able to effectuate the gap between the ‘goodwill’ and the ‘common good’.

Theory and praxis toward religion [Caleb]

Praxis is the starting and ending point of all theologies. Praxis helps to understand the real essence of the theory of religion.  In general, Asian religious theories focus on faith, love, morality, etc. Believing in the classical approach of religious theories as it is the absolute idea, absolute theory, and necessary reality will give a primacy state to religious theories. People in Asia naturally give primacy to the theories and are often prone to religious manipulations. The uncertainty of the availability of realistic interpretations of religious theories has severe consequences in practice. The history of religions in Asia remains a witness to such consequences. Many destructions in the past are the results of practicing misinterpretations and elevating the theories to a supreme state. It also causes psychological and sociological distress to the followers and the communities. But approaching the theories through practical aspects and having two-way analysis such as Theory to praxis and praxis to theory, will liberate us to accept public theologies for the greater good or redemption. It will help to build real Love, Faith, and Morality while developing religious theories. Also, it will reveal the purpose of our lives and ultimately lead to God.   

Plurality of religions for collective living [Lasitha]

When we are living in a multicultural and multireligious country. We must all accept other religions’ views. A plurality of religion and collective living cannot be achieved if we do not let other religions coexist with us. Some religious practices can be viewed as very different from our views. For example, Muslim women wearing the Hajib can be viewed differently by our cultures and religion. How they wear, marry and eat is essential to keeping their religious practices alive. We know for a fact that these practices were alienated and had conflicts of interest that started a new type of terrorism in Sri Lanka that harmed religious plurality. Another point is people should have the freedom to change religion without getting alienated from their people. It is also a must to encourage religious plurality in culture. If not there will be division between their own people provoking conflicts with each other. Religion is a personal choice that an individual should have. We cannot force a person to accept or deny one religion or else it will bring in conflict between people. Next, we should allow other religions to preach their dharma freely, openly, and peacefully. Freedom of expressing dharma is essential to coexist with each other. Only then we can achieve the plurality of religion in our country. We should allow other religions to coexist so people can collectively live together without fearing our neighbors and live peacefully together as one.

Contextual application [Thiru]

Generally, we have a measurement for measuring many things in the world, but I don’t have a measurement for the last twenty-seven years in my Christian life because it has been a massive struggle within the premises of my Christian churches. I am ashamed as a Sri Lankan because our people haven’t had any changes in their life. Christians or Hindus or Sinhala or Muslims whoever everybody is in the same situation; for example, in the local war and very closely 2018 in Kandy, Teldeniya in the 2019 Bomb explosion Sinhala against Tamil, Sinhala against Muslim and Muslim against Christians; what’s happening in the country? This a relevant question but no answer.  It’s been a matter of promoting one’s religion or religious culture, which is a superfluous attempt in our days. This is where fundamentalism of terrorism has begun. Sri Lanka will never heal its religious terrorism until people sit and dialogue more in a peaceful manner. When the conflicts are settled with arm powers, what could we expect?

Conclusion [Rehan]

People are superfluously attached to religions and their ritualism. Covid-19, in my opinion, has proved that religion fades away, only Dhamma remains the same. People who live in myth never had a chance to exercise any type of mythical activity during the peak time of Covid 19, but they all lived peacefully. It indicated the temporal side of religions and their rituals. What is essential is to remain and practice Dharmaya. There is no doubt that religion and its essence might surely serve the world better. My point here is that believers have created many subcultures in the name of religion. That version of religion has become a hindrance.