I was born in a Hindu family. I practice no religion apart from being forcibly made to follow some rituals because my grandmother was very religious. Since my father passed away last year, I haven't followed a single so called 'tradition' that Hinduism dictates, since then as I don't have to appease anyone anymore. Instead of going to Haridwar and getting looted by the greedy priests, we have been sponsoring the education of a girl child in my father's name as I feel that that will be a more fitting way to remember my father than give Bhoj to 110 priests.
Religion has since long been converted and convoluted by the so called 'keepers of religion'. They saw the power they had over the common sheep-folk and have since then used it to subdue people and meanwhile themselves get rich.
The real saints, whether it was Jesus, Mohammed or our many Rishis have been few and far between and certainly very very few in our age.
Religious wars have always been fought by false idols and if we can't see that even today, then it is a big point of shame for our race.
True religious leaders have always shunned violence and worked for the betterment of the common people.
China has no religion and they also try to quash any religious sentiments that seem detrimental to the good of the society. They follow the words of their philosophers but they are not foolish enough to take them to heart. When they realized that their population was getting out of control, they didn't hesitate to put in place a policy, no matter how autocratic it seemed at that time, that tried to control the problem.
In my view, apart from acting as a ray of hope in bad times, religion has no practicality in a modern world like ours. Religion, was always a civil code that was in tune with the times when it was written. Apart from the moral teachings, it shouldn't be taken as something set in stone and the people should decide on what the current civil code should be and keep updating it with time for the betterment of the society.
