The separation of religion and state will lead to our downfall.
There, I have said it. Sounds ridiculous?
It’s not. I’ll explain.
Singapore allows for full religious freedom, which means as long as you do not insult the other religions or cause tension, you’re fine to do basically anything you want. What Josie and gang did to AWARE was frowned upon because it was obviously religiously motivated.
Religions are allowed to adapt, evolve and compete for followers. Persuasive and outwardly modern religions like Christianity and Catholicism are clear winners while seemingly less progressive religions like Taoism and Buddhism are left by the wayside.
Go to the large churches and you would forgiven if you think you’re in a rock concert with hundreds singing and clapping and speaking in tongues.
It is ironic, considering the teachings of most religions span millennia, what has become modern is not the teachings but the way it is taught.
Allowing religions to run free feeds the ideology that religion is mainstream while those without religion are amoral. The religious symbols like the fish, the wheel, the cross are apparent on car decals perpetuates this thinking further.
We have become a nation of religious hypocrites. We quote the good book only when it is helpful. The majority are cultural religious who like the warm, fuzzy notions that come along with a god belief while ignoring whatever they do not like.
What immediately comes to mind are those that pray to Taoist Gods for 4D numbers, but cannot even get the gist of the Way of Tao, or those who binge drink but consider themselves Christians when it is explicitly stated that your body is a Temple of God and you should not desecrate it. I could come out with an entire page of what I see as religious hypocrisy.
The way our government has been treating religion has been giving them sense of security. The most obvious case has been the knocking of creationist ideas on our classroom doors. Hinduism has its own pretty wacky ideas of how this universe came into being but does it go challenging the Big Bang Theory? Religion and Science, should be kept separate.
Last reported, there were 10 primary schools using a Creationist Based Textbook.
The religious community has been given respect beyond reason and have started to encroach on the grounds of our secular Singapore.
This why rational people, anti-religionists must come out of the closet and assert ourselves. After all, the true devils of extremism draw their legitimacy from the silent support of their millions of fellow believers.