The place where I was born, namely Indonesia, is an archipelagic country inhabited by many people, various ethnic groups, cultures, and religions are here. But recently, there have been a lot of sibling conflicts that have occurred because of different religious points of view. From cities to remote villages, religion is part of the daily life of Indonesians. There is no place in Indonesia where there is no religion. It can be said that 95 percent of Indonesia's population embraces religion.
From the survey that I have researched, some developed countries have 30 to 40 percent of citizens who no longer adhere to their religion, on the other hand, in poor and developing countries only a few people are not religious. From the results of my research, the cause of citizens who will not give up religious dogma is the government's failure to provide a sense of security to its citizens.
The government that should serve the people has become the oppressors of the people, becoming corruptors who steal people's money. Law enforcers are silent about this happening, even they often violate the law. When the state and government fail to provide a sense of security to the people, the people will run towards religion. I've heard the words of a religious leader who reads "it's okay this country is damaged, but after a death, we will find peace in heaven" said religious leader.
Btw, the post I wrote today was not to invite you to leave religion. But what I will discuss in this post is to invite religious people to rise against the real enemy of religion. Therefore, I hope you read it to the end so you don't misunderstand my writing.
Religion is often the reason for a problem, many people are divided as a result of being pitted against each other by religion. Bad prejudice started that gave rise to fear, hatred, and anger eventually occurred in inter-religious relations, even within the same religion often quarrels occurred. Violence in the name of religion continues to this day, without a good response from the government.
Then, how can religion run with the ideals of peace that many people hope for? This is a challenge for the entire community at large. Therefore, society must know the greatest enemy of any religion.
Thousands of years ago in Indonesia, various religions could live together peacefully and without conflict. If we are serious about finding out the real enemy of religion, then the answer is stupidity. Yes, the ignorance of religious people is the biggest enemy of religion itself. They see religion as god so they forget the real god.
There are several things to note to know the enemy of every religion. The ignorant religious people are afraid of the changing times. They can't move on from the past that was full of glory, so they want to go back to the past, it's only natural that their way of thinking is backward and not advanced. Often they oppress especially women and children who are weak.
Because they are afraid of changing times, they fail to adapt to the progress of the times, eventually, they become poor and stupid amid advances in science and technology. They just become technology users who are constantly lied to by groups who are more advanced than them. In the end, these fools despaired and longed for heaven that might never exist.
Ignorant religious people are also afraid of differences, so they often attack people of other religions and continue to cause problems for people of different religions. They don't have empathy anymore, they don't care about the common affairs, let alone the affairs of other groups. Starting from the way of worship to their daily behavior, it always destroys the peace of living together. Every progress of science and technology they always block for the sake of blind obedience to the teachings they profess.
Such are the characteristics of a religion that has been corrupted, decayed because of the ignorance of its people. The old teachings that are no longer useful they still defend and they obey blindly. The religion will be destroyed along with its ignorant people.
How can it be like that? Because of laziness to learn, until finally stupidity was born. People are getting lazy to read new books critically. Ignorant religious people believe in only one book they worship blindly. All books and ideas for the development of science they ignore, sometimes they hate it.
Their ignorance is often used by political groups to gain or maintain power. In every campaign leading up to the general election, religion is often an issue of discussion so ignorant religious people choose this rotten political group. They are easily provoked and make the state of the country chaotic.
As a citizen of Indonesia, a country that is still developing and not yet developed, I invite religious friends to be smart and critical. Religious people must continue to learn and read more quality books to be able to respond appropriately to changing times. Religious people must follow the development of science and technology carefully so that they do not become a stupid nation and are no longer used or provoked by dirty political interests.
If religious people have become intelligent and also critical, then religious people can act as liberators from the oppression that occurs. Religion embraced by religious people can be a vehicle for realizing social justice for all people. All religious people can move together and help each other to create a just and prosperous world. This is an ideal that is still far from being achieved. But we can make it happen if we are aware of this.