Safest and Healthiest?

I have often read and heard that we are currently in he safest and healthiest stage in human history.

It seems true at first. After all, there is medicine, birth control, toilets, air conditioning, and so much more.

But this statement is not true for all of us. A lot of people are living in a bad state. Many people are living in war zones or as refugees. Many others are trafficked persons: modern day slaves. And in the modern, first world nations, a lot of prison population is harassed and tortured in one way or another.

We really need to look out for oversimplified "facts"

Some Thoughts On Religion

By religion, I mean religion as a concept. Not my religion or your religion or Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Here we go:

1. Religion is meant to make our lives easy. To give us answers to our questions, solutions to our ethical and moral dilemmas, and in case of some people a purpose to live. Any religion that makes life difficult is not right.

2. Like sports, religion won't build character. Unlike sports, it amplifies character. Good people become better people with religion. Bad people become bitter people: bullies with a justification for their bullshit.

3. Any religion is an ideology, nothing more and nothing less. Like Socialism or Capitalism or Six Sigma or the 4-4-2 formation. This means that each person will interpret religion differently. This is why there are cults and as we call them in North India,  deras. 

4. One of the best things proposed by Mahatma Gandhi was the separation of religion and politics. Discovery and domination of the New World and the current activities of IS show that religion and politics should remain separate. Similarly practical life and spiritual life need separation. Or we get to more and more bizarre things: starting  from the anti-vaccination stuff and going up to human sacrifice and whatnot.

What thoughts do you wish to share?