I remember a very learned professor from Sri Lanka, who was an authority when it came to teaching a particular religion to the Masters’ level students in a Sri Lankan University. Fortunately, in his class there were fifteen students, and they all passed their degree programme with distinction. All of them scored over 80% in their final exam. But the ironical side of the issue is that the very next day of their result they became atheists. People gave various reasons but what I have found is the level of understanding they had reached under the wonderful guidance of their teacher.
Why I allude to this episode has its relevance to the issue at hand. Most of the conflicts in this world are the direct or indirect result of religion, culture, language, and social habits. The most significant one is the conflict between Islam and Christianity. Millions have already perished in the name of defending their own creed in past two thousand years, and now the aggression has taken a very grotesque and horrible turn, which threatens the whole humanity.
I believe that a drastic step is now essential to rethink about the educational system all over the world. The cause is religion and the solution will also be found in religion. What I propose is to introduce all the Major Religious Scriptures-Holy Quran, Holy Bible, Buddha Sanhita, Talmud, Ramayana, The Bhagvad Gita, and so called books which still retain the power to sway the sentiments of the masses to the curriculum of schools and colleges at a stage where we think students will be ripe enough to understand them.
When a Christian boy from a British University will be delivering a lecture in Iran or Iraq about the teachings of Prophet Mohammad, and a boy from Iraq will be answering the questions in an American University related to the doctrines of the Christian prophets, it will be a day to be remembered because that day will bring a new light into this chaotic world. When students from a particular religious group will realize that the students from other religions know as much as they do, or in some cases perhaps more, about their religion, they will not try to be religious fanatics. This is the soul of my proposal which has its origin in the very womb of religion.
If all the religions, or at least five major religions, could be introduced as compulsory subjects all over the world, with a consensus , I believe, more than half of the problem would be solved.
But the question is who is bold enough to take this initiative. Will the Hindus in India be ready to let their children read the transcribed version of the Holy Quran, or the Muslim parents ready to let their wards study Ramayana or Mahabharata, or both ready to read and understand the Holy Bible?
The answer is there in these very religions but what we lack is the courage to be unbiased because the age old habit of believing that our own religion is superior to the other prevailing religions is not going to die soon. I for one can boldly declare that I would be the first person to send my children to such schools or colleges where they would have a chance to flourish under the divine, or mystical, light of all the religions. Now, what about you?
