{"id":109215,"date":"2020-12-01T00:29:39","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T06:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109215"},"modified":"2020-11-30T17:06:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T00:06:08","slug":"were-religious-differences-contributed-to-the-disunity-of-sri-lankans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/01\/were-religious-differences-contributed-to-the-disunity-of-sri-lankans\/","title":{"rendered":"WERE RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES CONTRIBUTED TO THE DISUNITY OF SRI LANKANS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It\nconsiders the unity among different community groups in a country will be an\nessential condition and ingredient for prosperity and strength, either in\neconomic achievements or political stability. When critically tests the era of\nKing Parakramabahu the Great, the idea is confirmed with much evidence.  The archetype had in mind of people in\nhistory as no challenging forces against the unity of communities, and people\nlived consistently maintaining unity. Before convincing Buddhism in Sri Lanka,\nhad primitive religious beliefs, and they were not a concrete factor for\ndividing people, and people associated with primitive beliefs to gain mental\nrelief when they discomfort with mental stress in day-to-day life. Before\ncoming to the country Buddhist religious preachers and the organised religions,\nit seemed people enjoyed the spirit and purposes of religions and responded to\nreligious messages as they were beneficial to mentally well-balanced and living\ntogether in a harmonious society.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nsocial media, many self-designated experts about the history of Sri Lanka asseverate\na contradictory opinion about historical findings on the civilization or affability\naspects of people who lived in the country. \nThe idea has less probability or negative probability to acceptance, and\nself-designated experts describe and preach, and attempt to make exaggerated\nviews to populate despite right confirmation for arguments. This situation may\nhave created as social media allows to express independent views without\nauthenticity. Who gives the right direction for these experts is a difficult\ntask to determine, but a point that could agree with them is that people had\nlived in the country before arriving Vijaya with a group from India who influenced\nand contributed to change the culture of people in history, and have no\nevidence to prove that historical community in the country were different\npeople who had a distinct culture that deviated from the Indian culture.  To prove the cultural aspects of ancient\ninhabitants of Sri Lanka need clear evidence from archaeological findings, and\nthe gratifying truth was they were a part of the Indian culture and practiced\nthe heritage of knowledge and skills gained from Indian society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culture\nmeans rules and regulations of society that inflicted to respect and discipline\nthe behavior of people, and supported to build civilization. I noticed that all\nthose so-called historians agree with an idea that homo sapiens lived in Sri\nLanka who did not divide on an ethnic or religious basis. The culture of homo\nsapiens may have homogeneous nature all over the world or deviated from one\nplace to another. The vital aspect of the dispute connecting society believed\nexisted in Sri Lanka might be valued to conclude homo sapiens converted to\nmodern humans, with deviated culture arrived from other parts of the world, so-called\nhistory teachers or adroit have not specifically disclosed, interpreted, and\nviewed on behavioural aspects of homo sapiens and historical people, therefore,\nit is logical to express people lived in historical Sri Lankan society had a\nunique association with humans who lived in India. This was the reason to\ndesignate humans who lived in Sri Lanka were anthropological Indians.        <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhist\nreligion arrived in Sri Lanka with an organised spiritual structure, and its\nnon-violence policy attracted people, and gradually, it became an organised\nreligious institution working along with the political administration of the\nkings and queens. Buddhism did not want to collide with Hinduism as the origin\nof Buddhism was through Hinduism, and many concepts such as God, reincarnation,\nworshiping Gods, and many practical aspects of both religions related to each\nother. The origin of Hinduism also has evidenced its cradled ancient religious\nbeliefs such as Greek and other cultures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buddhism\nstrongly supported the unity of people, and the third time visit of Lord Buddha\nto Sri Lanka reported it purposed to settle a conflict among two community\nleaders of the country, and people accepted the role played Buddha and the\nreligion, and the political administration of the country did not want to clash\nwith Buddhism, and people agreed to go forward with Buddhist policies. From the\npoint of view of many scholars, Buddhism attempted to maintain the unity of\npeople despite the philosophical differences of a variety of religions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christianity\nand Islam arrived in Sri Lanka with a unique style of beliefs and\nstrategies.  Both religions were originated\nin the middle eastern culture, which had obvious historical conflicts with each\nother, and the philosophy and religious beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism\ncontradicted with Christianity and Islam. The concept of a sovereign God in\nboth religions, Christianity and Islam is analogous, but practitioners attempt\nto show that they were distinct. No religious scholar has shown that both\nreligions, Christianity and Islam are philosophically not assailed from\nspecific points, and it seems both religions are philosophically similar, and\nhistorical experience also shows despite attempts to deviate both religions,\nphilosophically they are identical.  The\nconcept of God in Islam shows the belief either gained from Judaism or\nChristianity, and the historical disunity of communities wanted to maintain\nseparate religions, and why they want to maintain disjoined religions, could\nonly answer by God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngreat reformists such as Martin Luther described certain features and worships\nin the Catholic Church disinclination to give priority to the concept of God,\nand religious leaders in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam failed logically\nthinking on the concept and beliefs, and accept the uniqueness of God in three\nreligions than any other worships such as saints. Most probably the conflicts\nor divisions may have incurred as an error of human thinking, and attempt to\ninterpret the religions making strange additions than to the originators. A\nreligious belief that is supreme or false could be seen after the death of a\nperson, and the intractable situation is when a person passed away the ability\nof vision of the person destroyed.  In\nsuch a situation, how could a person see the supreme truth of religion? Despite\nthis, many people agree religions contributed massively to human civilization.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nBuddhist scholars are of opinion that Christianity arrived in Sri Lanka as an\ninvader with the political and armed power of a Western country.  If Christianity arrived in Sri Lanka in the\nway other religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam) arrived, Christianity will\nbe a religion like other religions and will not subject to divide the united\ncountry. The actions taken to spread Christianity in Sri Lanka by Portuguese\ninvaders were unacceptable and displayed cruelty, and in modern terms of\ninternational interpretation were war crimes.  There are historical findings that\nChristianity was in Sri Lanka in the Anuradhapura era, but it was not recognised\nby neither Sinhala nor Tamil people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nlong as Islam became a peaceful religion, Buddhists did not consider Islam was\na threat to the unity of the country and allowed to breathe in the country.\nBuddhist scholars were reluctant to make religious hate because of the\nfundamental teaching of Buddhism to educate hate is a vicious quality of humans,\nhowever, after the oil crisis in the early 1970s, Buddhist and Christian\nscholars suspected the role of Islam and its practical aspect. As Robert Knox\nstated, people who lived in Sri Lanka including the King, Rajasinha 2 of Kandy\nsuspected the role played by Islam. The converting people of Maldives to Islam\nfurther suspected the role.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nroles have been played by religions in the country since arriving in\nChristianity mutated, and the unity of communities challenged, and religious\nleaders of the country did not consider that the disunity of the society will\nbe a problem for a future generation when dealing with various issues.  However, religious differences indirectly\npromoted disunity, and neither the political administration nor the religious\nadministration promoted strategies to educate the vicious aspects of the\ndifferences. The behaviour of religions in Sri Lanka should have the religions\nworked in society before arrived Buddhism and religious leaders should have\ncanvassed this matter and get together to maintain the unity among\ncommunities.  In this situation,\nChristian churches would have contributed to eradicating religious hate with\nthe Carbrooke Cameron Reforms. As Professor K. M. de Silva interpreted (The\nIsland Story- A brief history of Sri Lanka Chapter 16), the behavior of the\nBritish rulers and religious leaders of Christianity may have contributed to\nthe disunity of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCatholic church in Sri Lanka attempted to change religious hate as the Second\nVatican Council started by Pope John 23RD <\/sup>directed talk between\nreligions, and the catholic church had listened to the modernization within the\nchurch, and many policies secretly maintained disrespecting the modernization\nof the church. The catholic secretly maintained a political alliance with\ncapitalist political parties against socialist views and promoted disunity\nwithin the society of Sri Lanka using the provision of education that\nindirectly promoted division and reconciliation and association with\nBuddhists.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\ninvading the country by Europeans Christian churches began expanding education\nthat helps the progress of society. After political independence in 1948, local\nleaders of Christian churches have used education to make money and abet rich\nby vicious practices such as insisting entrance fees for Christian schools  (contributions) besides monthly school fees.\nMajor Christian schools refused to admit poor Christian kids though they are\nliving very closer to the school, charging a large or accepting a large sum of\nfees or donations from Non-Christians admitted to Christian schools. For this\npurpose, past pupil associations have been used to cover the cases. The entire\nbehavior of Christian church leaders was contradictory to the philosophy of\nChristianity and promoted the disunity of society. If it happened in the colonial\nperiod the practice of the church would have rejected the colonial rule. This\ndirty policy is still intact in Sri Lanka and a Catholic-bishop who designated\nhimself as the in-charge of Catholic Education in Colombo archdiocese reluctant\nto give an answer when I inquired about anti-christ policy in 2019 when he\nvisited Australia seeking donations from Sri Lankan and avoided talking with\nme.\n\nEducation is a human\nright and Christian churches overseas are never supposed to provide Christian\neducation based on a wealth of people, in holy scripts, Jesus Christ explained,\nbut church leaders in Sri Lanka have rejected Christ and loved wealthy people.\nThis is how Christian churches promoted disunity in Sri Lanka.    \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS It considers the unity among different community groups in a country will be an essential condition and ingredient for prosperity and strength, either in economic achievements or political stability. When critically tests the era of King Parakramabahu the Great, the idea is confirmed with much evidence.  The archetype had in mind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}