Everytime I got a chance to introspect & understand various worldviews through discussions or reading. I have come to a conclusion that it is not easy to articulate its teachings once and for all. One should always keep in mind the factors which influences the worldviews such as situations, places, people and things.
The value of the next world is higher than that of the present one - a universal ice-breaker for people of different worldviews to start a meaningful conversation. I believe that each cast, creed and religion has its own worldviews about its rites and rituals, which is absolutely fine. I had a discussion on worldviews today based on the common premise that one should discourage people from provoking any sort of conflicts on worldviews by virtue of ethics, morality and principle. People who claim or pretend to be the custodian of its worldviews often end up cheating people for their own benefits and such practices should be discouraged. There was an agreement with this view that everytime a community following a worldview tried to dominate others - perished!
Somehow, the thought of "Holier than thou" paved way into this discussion with a series of criticism for people who copied the best practices of a particular worldview and claimed it as their own. One of the follower reinforced the beliefs based on monotheistic worldview, which is articulated by its text and is considered to be the verbatim word of God.
I felt that the discussion lost its significance the moment this person suggested that cremation (burning not burying) as a flawed ritual by the followers of one of the worldviews. This is a contradictory statement in itself as every religion believes in the concept of ‘life’ after death. It is true that the ritualists of every cast, creed and religion are very much anxious to have the funerals performed with meticulous care as all worldviews believe that somehow, the ‘individual’ keeps living, goes somewhere else, or will eventually ‘rise’ and reach heaven or hell.
It was a provocative statement in itself. I wanted to point out that this particular worldview believes in a concept of reincarnation and it is closely linked with cremation i.e. burning of a person's dead body as it is therefore, supposed to rid the departed soul of any attachments to the body it previously resided in.
It is important for individuals representing their worldviews to draw a clear distinction between faith and morality. "Faith" can be described as belief, confidence or trust in a person, object, religion, idea or view whereas "Morality" is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are good or right and those that are bad or wrong.
I am neither afraid nor tolerant. I chose to avoid any sort of confrontation because I am aware that it is important to maintain discretion between faith and morality as the former establishes its connection with God and the latter with People. In my opinion, it is not the text but its consideration as a verbatim of God which governs Morality in totality triggered such a provocative statement.
I had my peace of mind when I shared later that once there was a cleric who chose to understand different worldviews. After following a series of worldviews, that cleric expressed that each of the worldviews are different paths; leading towards the same destination. I'm sure the readers have guessed the name by now.
I'd therefore advice my readers to introspect once again the perils of worldviews based merely on faith and equating it with morality. It has led to a series of triggered religious conflicts till date and its consequences are well known to us.
