What it means to be religious?

Engineer

pp. 31-33

in: Ananta K. Giri (ed), Practical spirituality and human development, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

There is great misunderstanding among both believers and non-believers about what it means to be religious. For most of the believers religion is a set of rituals, appearance or even a set of dogmas and superstitions whereas for non-believers (rationalists and empiricists) it is nothing but irrational beliefs, dogmas and superstitions which impede human progress and also cause violence and destruction. Even terrorism, they believe, is due to religion. This chapter tries to dispel such misunderstandings by arguing how love, justice and care are at the root of religious life.