{"id":66456,"date":"2017-05-28T15:45:54","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T22:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=66456"},"modified":"2017-05-28T15:46:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T22:46:59","slug":"feasibility-of-religious-cohabitation-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/05\/28\/feasibility-of-religious-cohabitation-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Feasibility of Religious Cohabitation in Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Issues relating to the desirability<\/em> of things must not be confused with those concerned with their feasibility<\/em>. \u00a0In the democratic pursuit of the ideal states of human well-being much is longed for but little attained. The Latin tag \u2018Facile dictu, difficle factu<\/em>\u2019 is a pithy statement of this sad fact. The popular consensus that all religions place love and understanding at the very core of their belief-system is difficult to reconcile with the indisputable facts of inter-faith dissonance \u2013 more often than not violent. If love and compassion are at the heart of religion, whence the violence and strife of the kind historically attested when the great religions of mankind share territory and competitively advertise their religious wares? It would be na\u00efve to believe that such violence is wholly attributable to a weakening of true religiosity on the part of the adherents of the diverse parties forced into cohabitation. \u00a0There are features of a structural kind built into organized belief-systems that militate against the placid acceptance of non-faith actors – \u2018disbelievers\u2019 or \u2018heretics\u2019. The unpleasant truth is that the more monolithic a religion becomes, the greater the intolerance of dissent. Thus, the na\u00efve belief that religions in general act as social healers is a myth \u2013 their very cohesiveness depends on exclusion of non-conformists (sinners) and the rejection of the right to believe in a \u2018godless\u2019 world.(Secularism). It can be argued that Buddhism is uniquely tolerant in this regard \u2013 but the historic problem for Buddhism is that of survival when the competition does not care a fig for such tolerance and co-existence. The rapid retreat of Buddhism in East Asia is a lamentable truth and is wholly explained by that meekness of spirit of historical Buddhism when survival \u2013 not metaphysics \u2013 is the burning issue.<\/p>\n

In the light of these remarks, is it not wishful thinking to suppose that \u2018all religions are \u2018 fountains \u00a0of goodwill and graciousness\u2019 and must be recognized and supported by the State.? The New Constitution \u2013 currently being drafted \u2013 is said to incorporate this ideal of radical eucumenism \u00a0(or religious pluralism)\u2013 that all religions are great and good and their coexistence leads to Spiritual Richness. This foolish belief of well-placed philosophical innocents can \u2013 if given political expression \u2013 lead to a steady withering of the native faith and its historic predominance lost to a coalition of \u2018desert faiths\u2019 \u2013 the Semitic Monotheisms that now rule most parts of the world. The Anti-Buddhist forces that \u00a0are currently having a \u2018field day\u2019 under the aegis of the \u2018Yahapalanaya Administration\u2019 see a wonderful opportunity to weaken our historic connection with Buddhism through a constitutional change that envisages the co-equality of all religions. Since Christianity and Islam now dominate the world \u2013 an indisputable truth \u2013 Buddhism in an enfeebled Sri Lanka may not survive long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma Issues relating to the desirability of things must not be confused with those concerned with their feasibility. \u00a0In the democratic pursuit of the ideal states of human well-being much is longed for but little attained. The Latin tag \u2018Facile dictu, difficle factu\u2019 is a pithy statement of this sad fact. The popular consensus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66456","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=66456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}