Hate Religion...but love thy God

It's in the news: Taoism is fast losing traction among the Chinese here, but Buddhism and Christianity are on the rise.

The Straits Times reported how Taoism has lost many believers - from 30 per cent of the Chinese population in the 80s to 8.5 per cent in 2000. On the other hand, Christianity represents 17 per cent and Buddhism 54 per cent of the Chinese population, according to the population census.

However, in the midst of these religious tectonic shifts, tremours of unhappiness are brewing within the homes of many traditional Chinese families. A typical scenario: a Buddhist mother grieves over how her children have converted to Christianity, and worries over how there will be no one to perform her funeral rites.

Baptism has also been a contentious issue: it represents a total abandonment of old religious traditions in favour of the 'new-fangled thing'.

So what is this new-fangled thing? It is the result of the reevaluation of our purpose in life - leading to a drastic change of beliefs.

The Straits Times report has revealed a common understanding among many religious adherents and seekers: there is no use for old religious rites that bare no meaning upon one's lives.

But the search for meaning is often a rocky path. While many youths yearn for parents who are open-minded, they will find instead their desire to convert met with unhappiness from them instead.

This brings us to the bugbear of religion: emotionalism. Like it or not, a religious debate will often be heated up and quite emotional. Yes, you have your euphoric religious experiences of how 'God is Love' and how you have achieved a sense of wholeness, but many of the emotions that are tagged with religion is negative.

The abandonment of old traditional rites is one, and seems to strike great fear within parents. Other contentious issues include extremism and fundamentalism, which include terrorism and the notion of church versus the state. In Singapore, where the situation is rather calm, you have the gripes against over-zealous evangelising and seemingly over-extravagant spending on religious buildings.

In forums and blogs, it is hard to find a religious discussion that stays calm. Yes, discussions about politics will occasionally heat up to boiling point, but religious discussions are volcanoes waiting to erupt.

So it is quite understandable why parents react the way they do: religion represents a certain identity. Many of us cling on to it when we were young and for some of us, they form integral parts of our past memories.

But in order to gain happiness and a sense of purpose, shouldn't old mindsets and traditions be abandoned, even if it means upsetting the old institutions? Nevertheless, a conversion should be done with great care and love: it's about showing that despite a change in beliefs, your concern for your parents would be intact, if not enhanced.

I'm not saying that any religion is bad, but if we merely perform the traditional rites for the sake of doing it, then it becomes nothing more than 'Religion' - a set of practices and traditions that hold no purpose or value in the present context. In other words, a wayang.

We should strive to hate Religion: abandoning old practices that no longer hold meaning to our lives, yet at the same time to love thy God - realising that there is a spiritual dimension in all of us that needs to be fulfilled.

Therefore, if Taoists want to regain a foothold in Singapore society once again, then they need to address this question: what does the religion have to offer modern-day Singaporeans?