Kamangir (Archer)

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The Mandatory Religious Experience

Kamangir | November 10, 2006 | Category Iran

Religion, especially Islam, and it effects on the individual and the society have been a constant subject for my posts, in my blog and elsewhere. Having asked the same questions over and over, I have come up with typical answers.

To justify the claim that religion has nothing to do with the daily pictures of terror and oppression, some people claim that religion is “just a habit” (see). Some others prescribe that people should “follow their religion as it is rather than how a religious leader wants it to be” (see). As I am not a religious person, I can’t discuss these ideas. However, from reading portions of Quran, mainly because I’ve had to, I can say I have never found Quran drawing such a low-profile picture of itself. For example, when trying to show that Quran’s direct privilege to men to beat their wives is only a necessity for a thousand years ago, some people claim that parts of Quran had not meant to be applied to all generations. Whereas, the same book asserts that it is for all the times and all the places.

The important part is that these comments are not written for a post that is arguing that religion should be exterminated. In contrary, I have always tried to show that, like everything else, religion should be rigorously regularized. For example, its course of action should be clearly defined. As an example, actually a very sad one for me, I have tried to show how oppressive it is to force children to engage in religious activities, while they are so submissive to their parents. One typical answer to this question is “Donâ€™t worry, children have fun in these occasions” (see). A more personal comment states, “when I was a child, I loved my religious experiences” (see).

As an outsider, my understanding is that, submission to a religious idea is through faith, and not a scientific-style investigation. The faith seems to start from “religious experiences”. I have heard of “talking to an Imam [holy figure in Shia Islam]“, “having a sense of connection to the world”, or even “a light came into my room” as examples of such experiences. I am sure we can include psychology and ufology in the discussion and reach to interesting results. But, as a personal experience, we all know people for whom Nicole Kidman is the focal point of the world, and I don’t think any of us is going to slap them in the face and try to return them to the “truth”. Thus, the personal religious experience, while is personal, is personal and none of anyone’s business.

Whenever I see a horror movie at night, I see related nightmares, even though I am holding my wife’s hand. I am sure if I ever attend a two-hour Islamic (Shia) event I would have a very genuine religious experience. I don’t know why people take religious experiences so seriously, and I respect that. My point is that, the importance of the religious experience does not justify pushing people to have one.

The last type of comments I get are the least intellectual ones. “AND IF you truly search, GOD will aid your search and you will be rewarded” (see), “even your saying that you are not Muslim, does not make you any less Muslim in the heart”, (see), “you are substantially muslim in the heart” (see). I leave it to you to interpret these comments.

This post is also published in Mideast Youth (see).

Reader's Comments

mahii | November 11th, 2006 at 12:59 am
Comapring the underagede sextual experiences with kids religion practices are kind of shallow comparison. Exposing the child who doesn’t have mental and physical ability to the sexual experince or scene do have a real destructive effects on childeren which have been studied But how did you come out whith the same destructive or let’s say just destructive effetcs on children with religion practice, do you have any justification or just the pictures of the childeren who don’t enjoy religious practice.
I do agree with you that the religion practices are not the best place for childeren to enjoy and play but as a child they don’t see all the contradictions that their reliogion (let’s say Islam) has with the real world. for them it is just the time to be with their parents or if they are older (and don’t like the practice) just becuse it is a discipline from thier parents.so they would hate doing it as they hate washing the dishes.( except the exetremes like the “Tabtabayi” 6 year old ? child who teaches Islamic subjects which I think is just like some parents who force their genius child to study younger than others. or school’s rule in Iran for participation in Islamic events just as a political strategy).
again, I don’t say it doesn’t have destructive effect at all because simlpy I don’t know. I haven’t seen any article which study the effect of underaged expose to religious practices.
Another thing, Other religoions have this habbit of taking the child to religious events too, for beeing fair I think it would be great if you put some of their pictures too.If it is really as dangerous as you think all the catholic schools(which have catholic education service from kindergarten to high school) should vanish.

OOps, I read my comment, I seem really harsh religion:)
mahii | November 11th, 2006 at 1:08 am
hrash religious!!! and sorry for all spelling mistakes:)))
kamangir | November 12th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Mahii,
Just imagine what fraction of Iranians were Muslim if they were not forcefully and solely exposed to Islam. That says something. The fact that the Iranian supreme leader is in charge is partly because most of the Iranians are Shia Muslims. And that’s because they are gently and deliberately forced to be.
Try to imagine this bizarre scene; adults are smoking pot and kids are around because its a social gathering. Most of these kids will become smokers. So, through a very social and even maybe happy experience we have pushed them under the umbrella of pot smokers. I see a very similar pattern with Islam.
Obviously, I haven’t seen any study either. Whereas, I have definitely seen the majority of Iranians supporting Islam more or less. And yes, some other religions do it. That’s right. So, why don’t we do it? Is that what you mean?
mahii | November 12th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
If you are an anti-religion( who thinks religion is dangereous and harmful) your discussion is completly right. But if you don’t have problem with religion I need to clarify some points.:))
Again I have problem with the comparison:)))
Pot smoker knows his act isn’t good and doesn’t want to expose his child to the act which is harmful for his body and mind and if he does, his mind has been dysfunctional because of drug.
So,back to religion Is being religious is something bad and harmful??it is not( or at least I think it is not). Is being religious make parents mind dysfunctional not to see the harms for their child?
As I got you, you means exposing to religious practice means forcing the children in a direction which they might not want or is harmful for them. I told you if by harm you mean just being religious ( I mean just because they have had religous parents, they beocome religious) , I don’t see anything wrong or harmful with it. We get so many habbits(good or bad) from our parents, we got so many customs and traditions, even the way that we see our world mostly comes from our parents. religion is part of many things we got from them.Our education and communication with outside or I say environment balance these habbits.
But if by harm you mean something more, something that makes the child’s mind dysfuntional. I doubt it too. I don’t say religion doesn’t resonate some mental problems.We have so many radical religious people in every religion which have been caused so many destruction in world. for example newest one is “Bin Laden”. The best way is to study and see how much the childhood exposure to religion, cause their mental problems or if they had one how much it effects the illness .because sometimes even If they have been exposed to neutral environment they might have become serial killer or other kind of extremist.
Again I don’t see any problem with majoriy of iranian people being muslims (because of anything). I like to see an statistics to show how much of Iranian say they are muslim but not strictly. If government let people to be what they really want to be I doubt mostly wants to change their religion they might just doesn’t want to work as hard as their religion ordered.:)))

thanks for your good discussion.:))
kamangir | November 17th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Mahii,
All I am saying is that Religion is a personal matter. That’s it.