Towards a Secular Government

Secularity has become a concept which is significantly valuable in Governance in the modern world. As the world moves towards a system in which, personal liberty is highly valued, secular governance becomes vital.

One might argue most of the Eastern countries including Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia became moral in the lights of the religious teachings. Maybe, but did it make the said countries comfortable to live in? It most certainly did not.

Do human need a religion? It might be necessary, for some people who cannot divide what is good or bad on their own. Also it provides great relief for people sometimes, enabling them to think it is Karma or gods will, when something bad happens. One of my highly religious friends once argued, even Sigmund Freud would say "oh my god" when he is in trouble, which is somewhat true.
That is totally an innocent feeling and belief which does not affect anyone or anything else. But when people are highly religious, they also start to believe that, everyone else who does not follow their religion are infidels who are need to be saved. For the sake of saving infidels they open a new line of religion, where people were even burnt to death, not very long ago.

In Sri Lanka also we have seen some extremist religious followers and priests demanding so called infidels to bow down before their religious teachings (most of which are not actually religious at all). Banning meat, banning alcohol, laying down dress codes and so many other things.

My personal opinion is that government laws should not be affected by religious teachings at all. Religion should become extremely a private matter which can be followed on the follower's own free will. It is not only funny to say that one is born Buddhist, Islamic or catholic, but also an insult to the intelligence of people.

When a government is highly attached to a religion or beliefs it affects its capability to act freely. When a matter is to be considered impartially, if religious factor affects, there won't be any impartiality at all, which will deviate a government from correct and rational decisions.

This approach does not mean religion should be banned. There should be a sufficient space for anyone to become a follower of any religion. Also it could be preached freely.

But religious education sector should take a turn encouraging students to consider religion critically in a philosophical arena. That means teaching religion as a subject in schools should stop and it should be taught as philosophy only. There should be criticisms wrote, as to why this belief is trustworthy and why this is not, why this was preached those days and why is it become irrelevant today etc. If someone wants to learn religion as a belief or a path of freedom, they can learn it from temples, churches and mosques.
All the legal provisions in which a person or a group of people are considered special due to their religious beliefs, should be immediately removed. All sorts of public funding to religious institutions, should be brought to a minimum level or totally cut off. Those who want those institutions to be funded, can do that personally on their own free will and out of their own pocket.

Religion should no longer be a deciding factor anywhere other than inside a particular religion itself.

This secular concept might provoke some people. However, it will indirectly save the purity of a particular religion. True believers will stay and those who do not give a #$*&# will become secular.

Most developed countries in the world have adopted secular governance system and they have succeeded in almost everywhere. Secular countries are much more peaceful and comfortable to live in, compared to religious countries, by far.

People should not grab or drop anything for it is old. But they should drop everything which keep them from moving forward. Religious Governance is definitely one of them and we should drop it.