Religious Diversity
and Biodiversity
BY DAVID
FRAWLEY
The Place of Religion
Religion in the true sense of the word is probably the
most important aspect of human life. After all, it most clearly addresses our
eternal concerns, while the other aspects of life are more transient in their
outlook. Religion is perhaps the essence of all human culture and striving, our
seeking to transcend ourselves to something of enduring and universal value. It
represents the highest urges of humanity, our effort s to reach what is holy,
perfect and pure, what grants peace, happiness and the end of suffering for all
beings.
Religion, properly understood, is a means of linking the
individual with the Divine or higher consciousness, whatever one may call it.
This is the same definition as Yoga in the context of Indic thought, which
refers to linking the individual soul with the Supreme Self or universal soul.
Therefore, true religion naturally leads us to spirituality or internal
practices to contact the Divine like meditation and self-inquiry. True
religious culture creates a wealth of spiritual practices like the many systems
of Yoga or the many forms of mysticism worldwide. It causes us to look within
to change our consciousness. It shows us the importance of conquering ourselves
rather than conquering the world.
Unfortunately, religion has also fallen under the distortions
of the human ego and its obstinate demand for power and position. It has become
a means of social control used by various vested interests that are more
political than truly religious in nature. People have also limited religion to
their own circumscribed beliefs. They have confused the religious urge—which is
universal—with the calling of a particular faith that is temporally and
culturally limited. Instead of emphasizing internal practices to become one
with the Divine, they promote external methods, at time coercion, to convert
the world to their particular belief, label or institution. This has turned
religion—which should be a nectar that unites us—into a poison that separates
us into hostile camps. It has led to every sort of violence, war and genocide,
which is still going on in the world today in the name of God.
The Natural Religion
There is a certain natural religion that is common to all
beings, an internal sense of the Divine, the universal and the eternal, along
with an external recognition of the sacred in nature. It includes all human
aspiration to find the truth, spirit or totality, not just formal religion but
also philosophy, science, art and even personal aspiration of an undefined
type. This natural religion develops differently in different cultures, which
can enhance or distort it, but can never create or own it. However, we tend to
identify our inherent religious urge with that of the religion we are born
into, not realizing that the latter must be to some degree limited and cannot
represent that religious urge for everyone.
The religious urge belongs to all human beings and is
reflected through each individual and their unique life-experience and seeking.
It is similar to the artistic urge and our creative tendencies. Those trained
in one culture may have difficulty understanding the religious forms of another
culture, just as they may have difficulty understanding its art forms. But if
they make an effort it is easy to see that the same basic urges can take many
forms. Such differences are not a matter of regret but contribute to the
richness of our shared human experience.
To create a real harmony between the world’s many
cultures we must honor this natural religion above and beyond the organized,
formal or institutional religions that have sought to embody it. No historical,
codified religion can claim to be the sole representative of the natural
religion of humanity. All particular religions can only be forms or facets of
it. This is the same as how as no school of art can claim to represent art in
humanity as a whole. We must value the religious experience, which is a
personal matter, more so than any particular religious structures or dogma.
In this regard, we should look to Hinduism, the great
religious tradition of India, which has looked to the concept of Sanatana
Dharma—an eternal or universal tradition of truth—not to a particular
historical revelation in order to define itself. We need such an inclusive
sense of Sanatana Dharma or a universal natural religion for all humanity. Only
such a broad, open and synthetic view can do justice to our diverse religious
approaches as a species that continue to grow and change along with our
culture.
Yet we must also remember the localism that goes along
with universalism, as in the ecological adage, “think globally, act locally.” A
universal dharma would not impose a single religion, however broad in its
scope, on everyone. It would encourage local traditions that embody each
culture’s need and ability to contact the universal in harmony with the soil on
which it grows. This is the real harmony between the individual and the
universe that we must seek.
Religion and Culture
Most cultures have a religious foundation, with aspects
of religion pervading them on many different levels, like sacred music and
dance. This is particularly true of traditional cultures that have developed
out of nature and the spirit, rather than out of science, technology, economics
or politics as has modern civilization. Most traditional cultures see the
sacred everywhere and are therefore highly religious, even if the people within
them do not belong to one of the so-called major religions of the world.
Each culture, however small, has its unique contribution
to the human religious experience and our greater connection with the sacred.
Even so-called aboriginal cultures have much to offer in terms of earth wisdom
that our present dominant world culture—in its present state of isolation from
nature and ecological crisis—can benefit from. True religion comes from life
and nature; it is not an invention of ideas or ambitions. One could argue that
pre-technological people are more spiritual or truly religious than those today
who are trained to look at the world with a scientific or commercial vision.
Even today we still look to our oldest books, not our latest inventions, for
our greatest spiritual guidance.
Religion is the core factor of most cultures. Therefore,
to preserve cultural diversity, religious diversity must also be maintained. To
show members of all countries taking on the same religious belief is not an
example of tolerance or multiculturalism but the domination of one religion
over the others. It is a mark of spiritual poverty, an inability to see the
richness of the human religious experience and the reduction of it to one line
only. It resembles colonialism as a form of cultural conquest, not a true
sensitivity to the human experience in all its abundance.
The Parallel Between Cultural
Diversity and Biodiversity
Scientists and ecologists all over the world today
recognize the importance of biodiversity for the health and well-being of the
planet and all the creatures living on it. A rich biodiversity sustains a
healthy ecosystem in which the different interdependent species promote the
overall evolution of life on the planet.
When the number of species declines, as is the case
today, all of nature suffers. First, the particular plant and animal species
are lost along with their important genetic information developed over millions
of years that cannot be replaced. Second, the whole biosystem suffers, deprived
of the unique contribution of the particular species, like a chain with a
broken link. The process of natural evolution is halted or reduced.
The same is true with cultural and religious diversity.
Each cultural group carries an aspect of our human heritage just as each
species contains a certain aspect of nature. Cultures develop over time and
carry a wealth of information and wisdom. When a culture is marginalized or
destroyed, the process of social evolution is also reduced and halted.
The destruction of biodiversity occurs along with the
destruction of natural habitats and ecosystems. Similarly, the destruction of
cultural diversity is occurring along with a destruction of cultural habits and
social orders. It is not surprising today that cultural and religious diversity
is getting reduced along with biodiversity. It reflects the same alienation
from nature and lack of contact with a higher consciousness necessary to
synthesize the many sides of life. The result is that we are creating an
environment for future generations of both a devastated natural environment and
a religious and cultural vacuum or uniformity as well.
Culture, Our Mother
Culture is the field in which we are born, take root and
develop. A rich culture like a rich soil allows for the full flowering of all
individual potentials. Maintaining cultural and religious diversity is
essential to social health and to intellectual and spiritual progress for all
humanity. A rich cultural field aids in individual growth and is essential for
any real global civilization that must accommodate the many different peoples
in the world.
The hallmark of true civilization is diversity, having a
variety of peoples, ideas, arts, crafts, foods and goods accessible to all. It
represents and honors many cultures—this is what is behind being cosmopolitan
as opposed to be provincial. Those who are truly civilized can appreciate
different foods, languages, art forms and religions. They are not like the
proverbial frog in the well that believes that his well is the sea. For real
progress, therefore, we must affirm pluralism in culture and religion as a
global value, just as we affirm pluralism in dress, languages or styles of art.
Today our cultural soil is as abused and depleted as our
farmlands. Our cultural seeds are being destroyed just as are our agricultural
seeds. Instead of sharing the richness of culture, the current globalism tries
to impose a materialistic and commercial culture on the entire world, to the
detriment of older and deeper traditions. It similarly has certain stereotyped
and mass produced religious beliefs that it is seeking to impose worldwide.
The Dangers of Monoculture
Today our cultural sphere has been as severely diminished
as much as our biosphere. Multinational business, political and religious
interests have eliminated much cultural and religious variations in the name of
progress and are seeking to eliminate even more as they plan to dominate the
world market. Just as the world’s forests are being cut down at an alarming
rate, so too cultural forests are being eliminated, not even knowing the wealth
that they contain. We are facing not only bleak natural landscapes after
deforestation but our social landscapes are also devoid of nature and the
spirit. They are similarly turning into urban and technological wastelands.
This is causing various social and psychological problems, like the epidemic of
depression among all age groups that is currently occurring in the United
States. The solution to these problems is not better drugs to treat them but a
restoration of our internal and external connections with nature, the universe
and our true selves.
The modern world is rapidly moving towards a monoculture.
People all over the world are adapting the values and life-style of the western
commercial world. We see how blue jeans, Coca-Cola, Barbie dolls and western
pop music are everywhere and where they go indigenous forms of food, dress and
behavior get marginalized or eliminated. The new commercial religion is the
stock market, shopping malls and sports arenas. Such a monoculture sets in
motion a process of ‘deculturalization’, in which local cultures are
subordinated or destroyed. It is also destroying traditional religions
worldwide, because they inherently resist commercialization and
standardization.
Missionary monotheism remains the dominant formal
religion of the modern monoculture, just as it was the thrust of colonialism.
This is not surprising, as the monoculture is simply colonialism in a new form.
As a type of monocultural religion, missionary monotheism has one belief, book
and savior or prophet for everyone—a similar mass production and franchising as
in the business world. It is hostile to indigenous religions that are locally
based and represent independent cultural centers and allow independent
spiritual experience among their members. Wherever it goes traditional cultures
are subordinated or destroyed. At best they are made into tools or ornaments of
the church or the faith. At worst they are removed altogether as unholy.
The Danger of Proselytizing
Cultures today are being destroyed in two primary ways.
The first is through economic development that promotes western civilization
and its sensate values. The second is through religious proselytizing that
causes people to give up their native religious culture and take on a
mainstream western religious belief instead. We will address more the second
cause, as it is a more direct attack. However, the missionary business is
formulated and works like a multinational corporation, with global conversion
strategies broadcast on the Internet, so that there is an overlap between both
factors.
Proselytizing consists of externally approaching others
and seeking to change their religious belief, under the conviction that one’s
religion is the highest truth and that whatever religion other people may
follow is inferior, wrong or unholy. Proselytizing is a weapon of richer cultures
to take over poorer cultures. It is often combined with charitable help,
material reward, or promises of social advancement or a better life for new
converts. It is not an inner quest for spiritual realization but an outer
effort to increase the numbers of the faithful, as if outer religious labels
were what really counted. Proselytizing is a rejection and denial of pluralism.
Once traditional people change their religious practices, their religious and
spiritual heritage is lost, and along with it, generally their entire culture.
We must honor pluralism in religion in order to save
traditional cultures. Pluralism is arguably the essence of religion that
consists of honoring the Divine—which transcends name and form—in all names and
forms. How can we even speak of the Divine, the infinite and eternal, if we
cannot acknowledge different approaches to it among human beings? Relative to
the unlimited, where can limitations be made and who has the authority to
impose them on others? Such religion is a form of spiritual materialism that
confuses formless inner truth with fixed outer forms.
However, honoring pluralism in religion is not an attempt
to end dialogue and debate between religions, which is a great necessity. It
does not mean that we must think that all religions are the same, that we
cannot have differing views on religion, or that no one should be allowed to
change their religion or even live without religion. It means that we should
honor freedom of religion as a spiritual as well as a political principle. We
must honor the right of others to follow a different path than our own, even if
we may not agree with them.
Many of the churches today that claim to honor political
freedom do not honor spiritual freedom or diversity of religion. They don’t
really believe in spiritual freedom but use political freedom to impose
spiritual uniformity on others. They think that theirs is the only path and use
a political freedom of religion not to promote spiritual freedom, but to
convert the entire world to their particular belief. This freedom to convert is
really a form of cultural aggression and prejudice in disguise. It has nothing
to do with human rights and all to do with vested interests.
In fact, we need much more discussion between religious
groups, but to find the truth, not to allow one group or church to triumph in
the outer world. We need an open and free dialogue between religious leaders in
order to preserve and develop our spiritual heritage as a species.
Proselytizing, on the other hand, targets the poor, weak and uneducated; those
who are defenseless on an intellectual or spiritual level, like tribal people
in Africa and Asia. It promotes denigration and disinformation about other
religious traditions, upholding prejudicial stereotypes of native beliefs as
backward, idolatrous or superstitious. It works covertly, in the dark, where it
cannot be easily challenged. The missionary comes with a mind made up, not to
learn but to teach, not to be converted but only to convert.
Cultural Depredation
The destruction of traditional cultures, whether through
religious or military conquest, often leaves devastation in its wake, like a
plant that has been uprooted. Traditional people whose culture has been
denigrated or destroyed are like individuals who have been abused. They easily
fall into negative behavioral patterns, violence, social division, and
addiction to alcohol and drugs. The result is that a vibrant traditional
society in harmony with its natural environment ends up as a ghetto of
alienated people who often even lose the ability to feed themselves. We have
seen this on the Native American reservations in the USA but in many other
places in the world as well.
Cultural depredation can be economically, politically or
socially advantageous to certain groups. It has been used to gain territory,
power and wealth in various ways. But even that done in the name of God is a
sin against humanity and nature. It is a violation of the natural order that
must lead us all to grief over time. To truly honor the Divine is to recognize
the Divine in all beings and let them work out their own destiny without our
interference, whatever religious approach they may chose to develop.
Cultures are best preserved by keeping them alive and
independent, letting their own members develop and adapt their traditional ways
to the demands of the modern world. Some efforts at ‘cultural preservation’
consist of turning cultures into museum pieces or shows for the tourists. This
is also a subversion of culture, turning entire cultures into sideshows for
western civilization.
Missionary religions also try to appear to be more
sensitive to traditional cultures by adapting their forms, like Christian forms
of traditional Indian dance to show that Christianity is not against Indian
culture. This process is called ‘acculturation’ and consists of giving local
cultural forms for the missionary belief in order to make it seem less
intrusive. It tries to separate native cultures from native religions in order
to make conversion easier, which is dishonest because the two are organically
and historically inseparable. This is not real cultural respect but another
form of cultural depredation, co-opting culture to another agenda like how a
franchise takes over a local business in order to aid in its expansion. We can
compare it to McDonalds offering vegetarian burgers in India in order to appear
more sensitive to the concerns of Hindus who don’t eat meat. It is still the
promotion of the same multinational company that wants to make money however
and wherever it can. Similarly, the religions that follow such an approach are
showing that they are seeking converts in whatever way they can.
The Need for Indigenous Solutions:
Modernization without Westernization
Native or traditional cultures are often materially
backwards in the modern world for various reasons, mainly economic or
technological in nature. There is the idea—developed during the colonial
era—that for traditional societies to advance, they must adopt western culture,
including western religion. This has been connected to the further thought that
their religion and spirituality is the cause of their backwardness. Therefore,
a change of religion is proposed to advance traditional societies in civilization.
This idea, however, has been disproven in recent decades. Many traditional
peoples have become successful in the modern world without giving up their
culture or their native religion. Similarly, many countries have changed their
religion to those of the West, without gaining a corresponding economic or
social advancement through it.
Japan, for example, has become an economic power by
adopting strong economic policies not by giving up its Buddhist and Shinto
background for Christianity. On the other hand, the Philippines has remained
economically backward because of poor economic policies regardless of becoming
Christian some centuries ago. The same is true of the many Catholic countries
of Central and South America that remain among the poorest and most backward in
the world.
Hindus have shown how they can become successful in the
modern world without having to lose their religion or culture. In fact they
have found it to be a point of strength, with Hindu family and educational
values aiding in a high level of achievement among Hindu students. Hindus in
UK, USA and India are successful in every field including modern science and
the computer world and yet have remained spiritual and philosophical Hindus.
India today is beginning to develop economically by taking up sound economic
policies and giving up the old socialist model that kept it down the same way
socialist policies kept down the economies of eastern Europe. India’s current
economic revival has nothing to do with a change of religion but in fact is
coinciding with a revival of Hinduism in the country.
In addition, many traditional spiritual teachings are
becoming popular in the western world to fill the spiritual vacuum created by
modern materialistic civilization. There is now an entire western counterculture
of Yoga, Buddhism, Shamanism, traditional medicine and native practices of all
types done not by primitive people but by the elite of the western world. It
appears that the western world is looking to such native traditions for a
spirituality in harmony with the coming planetary age, not at its own older
religious traditions that are often more historically or culturally limited.
The very traditions previously considered backward are not looked at as
possessing the keys to the future.
Therefore, we must emphasize ‘indigenous solutions’ to
the problems of traditional societies today, including for economic or social
advancement. Traditional cultures can become modern without losing their
religion or culture. In fact, they can experience a renaissance in the modern
world by sharing their spiritual traditions and more organic culture with the
world as a whole.
The tendency to equate the advances in science and
technology with western culture and religion is clearly wrong. People of
various cultures and religions are successful today in science and technology.
Modern science is not necessarily out of harmony with eastern or native
beliefs, nor is something that belongs to the religions of the West, which in
fact have often historically opposed it. Religions like Hinduism that recognize
consciousness as the ground of a universe and date the universe as many
billions of years old are more in harmony with modern science than orthodox
religious views that the universe was created by God some few thousand years
ago. Many modern physicists have found inspiration in such eastern teachings.
One could argue that native societies have better
preserved the spiritual traditions of humanity, just as the West has better
developed our material capacities. What we need at this juncture of history is
to combine the two in a complementary way. Traditional spirituality can be a
source for new ideas in science, culture and religion such as the entire world
needs for the dawning planetary age.
The ecological movement is another example of a modern
trend that borrows much from indigenous cultures. The emphasis on the Earth as
our mother is a common theme in traditional societies from America to India.
Ecologists look to tribal societies for ways of living in harmony with nature.
They stress the need for organic social systems that include unity and
diversity and that sustain ways of interacting with nature with reverence and
sustainability.
Religious Exclusivism, Colonialism and
Racism
Religious pluralism accepts that the fact that there are
many ways to God or Truth and that ultimately spirituality is an individual
affair. It cannot accept any single belief, tradition or ritual or prayer as
best for everyone. The idea that only one religion is true and that only its
members are entitled to salvation is a prejudice akin to racism and
colonialism, with which it was associated in the nineteenth century. While
globally we have rejected racism and colonialism as prejudices we are still
allowing religious exclusivism to go on unchallenged, or even honored as
somehow holy or capable of uniting humanity.
Religious exclusivism, in spite of all of its talk of One
God, divides humanity into the believers and the non-believers, with the latter
and all their spiritual and religious traditions made unholy. This exclusive
and social division sows the seeds of violence. As long as it continues, peace
and understanding cannot be possible between the members of different
religions. As a species we must recognize the danger of religious exclusivism
and no longer seek to promote it. The whole idea of one religion as the only
truth is contrary to the very meaning of religion, which is meant to connect us
with the universal, nameless, formless and infinite. Religious exclusivism is
an attempt by one culture to create a monopoly of religion for itself. Yet
religion is the spiritual or immaterial side of our culture that cannot be
owned, dispensed or controlled by anyone.
Place and Limitation of Secularism
Religious and spiritual freedom is as important as
political freedom. There should be no state control, no authoritarian
institution or dogma about spiritual truth any more than about scientific
truth. Therefore, it is good that modern society has reduced the power of
religious institutions, particularly in terms of politics and education. But
secularism should not result in banishing the sacred from life or the
commercialization of everything.
We need to avoid the control of society by particular
religious institutions and beliefs, but at the same time we should cultivate a
spiritual approach to life, honoring the religious experience in all of its
forms, rather than seeking to impose one form of it on everyone. Then we can
create a society that is both free and also spiritual. We should remember that
as human beings we are part of the greater universe. A secular humanism that
destroys the natural world is inhumane and species wise a form of arrogance. A
sacred universalism is the real need of the times.
The Way Forward
- We must aim at preserving
religious diversity just as preserving biodiversity.
- We must expose the forces
attacking religious diversity and make them accountable, just as we are
challenging the forces damaging our natural environment.
- We must challenge disinformation
in religion that stereotypes certain religions as pagan, heathen and
idolatrous, just as we challenge disinformation about race or ethnicity.
- Leaders of all religions should
affirm that there are many paths to the infinite and that no one path is
the only one or the best for all.
- Religious leaders should
emphasize seeking the Divine directly within ourselves through meditation,
not looking externally to an institution or a book, or projecting a need
to convert the world to a single religion.
The triumph that we must seek is the victory of truth,
not that of one set of ideas, beliefs or another. It is not one religion or
another that will save humanity from its present crisis but an honoring of the
spiritual life in all of its forms, particularly in our daily lives and
personal interactions. We must restore our harmony both with the world of
nature on the outside and the world of nature, the Divine Self within. We must
restore our natural and spiritual order with the sacred in order to go forwards
as a species. All religions can contribute to this, if they go back to the real
intention of religion to connect with the infinite and give up their fixation
on outer names and forms.
