Many benefits of teaching a second religion

by SUSANTHA HEWA

Hobson’s customers had to choose the horse closest to the stable door. Yet, they had the option of leaving it- after all, it’s an option, isn’t it? We are not so lucky, because we don’t have the much underrated option of ‘leaving it’ when it comes to very important matters in life. First, we don’t have the option of not coming into this world. Second, we don’t have the option of refusing the language of our guardians. Third, we don’t have the option of asking for another religion. How unfortunate! It’s a pity that many of us take “Hobson’s choice” to be synonymous with only one choice or none at all. It tends to make us forget that ‘leaving it’ is a valuable option we begin to appreciate only in its absence.

Rarely do we question whether we would have preferred any other language or religion to the ones we had no option but take. All along, we have been entertaining the illusory feeling that we practice the religion we have chosen, but this is not so. To say that you have the freedom to pick your religion is as preposterous as saying “By all means, you are free to choose your first language!” A cynic might say that the first ‘violation’ of children’s rights starts at home, when parents follow the hoary tradition of giving their religion to their clueless children.

Of course, infants vociferously fight for their rights, but only when they feel some form of discomfort i.e. hunger, pain, sleepiness etc. and the more they grow the choosier they become. A child may throw away a toy given him asking for another one, but he never rejects the language or the religion on offer- simply, he has no idea of any other; and they all fall head over heels in love with both the language and the religion at the ‘stable door.’ It’s perhaps this fixation that makes them identify themselves with both, and become unhealthily sensitive about this identification thrust on them.

Since the language comes slightly before the religion, let’s first talk about the former. While all other creatures are confined to a dumb world, humans have a language to communicate with others, which makes all the difference between animals and us. We are said to be light years ahead of other creatures in terms of civilization, thanks to our capacity to use a complex language system. Linguists are so enamoured of language that many of them will tell you that, more than anything else, it is language that makes us human! Nevertheless, many of us are unaware of the unique contribution language has made towards civilizing the human race. The credit, usually, goes to religion. For most of us religion is synonymous with civilization.

Incidentally, how ironical it is that both these civilizing agents have, by unwittingly sticking labels on us, caused so much bloodshed in different eras down the centuries right up to the present! The same child who would be recognized as a Sinhala Buddhist if raised in one family, would grow up bearing any of the following ‘ethnic/religious’ labels, i.e. Sinhala Christian, Tamil Hindu, Tamil Christian etc. if he were to be raised by another family coming under a different ‘ethnic/religious’ category.

Our first language and (first) religion are close allies in that we acquire both in more or less similar ways, but there is another level at which they have become soulmates. Prof. Anthony Campbell says that for almost all children, religion comes wrapped in narratives. This is quite plausible because, it would be impossible to find somebody who hadn’t heard stories at the knees of her parents or grandparents, and, as we can remember, some of these stories used to come from religion. As toddlers, our first routes to knowledge are along these stories, which become part and parcel of our emotional life. This supports the idea that both language and religion continue to have a lifelong hold on us. If these narratives hadn’t facilitated initiating us to our respective religions, we would not have internalized them so easily and unconsciously as children. Narratives form the basis of our strongest connection with religion; the dogma comes later enveloped in them. Unless you were a mathematics or physics prodigy as a child, you would not be able to make head or tail of the abstruse concepts in your religion like, for example, rebirth, creation, samsara, heaven, hell, karma, nirvana etc.- ideas which had continued to elude the grasp of even the most complex of minds.

Of these two primary internalizing processes, which have come down to us from time immemorial, language acquisition is a prerequisite for a person’s optimal community participation, both as a child and an adult. The exceptionally rare cases of children who had been isolated with little or no exposure to a language during the early years, had shown that they were unable acquire it later to be satisfactorily proficient in it; the longer the deprivation, the greater the damage and the lesser the opportunity for reaching the required level of linguistic competency and hence the resultant failures in communication.

If a young child is simultaneously exposed to two or three languages he will pick all of them and use them competently – no fear of him getting his wires crossed. In fact, exposure to more than one language is a blessing. As neuroscientists have shown, bilingualism and multilingualism make a person’s brain work smarter and more efficiently and, what’s more, ward off cognition related ailments among adults. However, with regard to religion, children are not offered this opportunity of plurality for obvious reasons. This is sad because exposure to more than one religion is likely to have salutary effects, especially, both on children and adults. It will make them form a more holistic view of religion.

Quite a few of us are lucky enough to get exposed to more than one language, but many are beneficiaries of second language learning- as teenagers or adults. And, all bilinguals know how a a second language makes them more knowledgeable about the fundamentals of ‘language’ and better groom them to learn another language. Surely, this is in addition to all the benefits that come to them as bilinguals – better job opportunities, better access to knowledge, increased awareness of other civilizations, and the ability to communicate with people across cultures.

As we have mentioned earlier, language deprivation in early childhood can be catastrophic. By the way, how about ‘religion deprivation’ in early childhood? There are no records of children who are barred from religious instruction in early years, growing up to be any more wicked than the rest of us, provided they go through other humanizing processes i.e. being loved by parents and siblings, making friends, play, painting, music etc. and, later, receiving formal education. On the other hand, a child who undergoes religious training sans parental love, and the other humanizing opportunities mentioned above, might not develop wholesome qualities intended to be nurtured by no other than religion itself. It will not be easy for us to draw a line between the ethics that are fashioned by religion and those that come to us from other forms of socialization.

Given the universality of these coupled acquisition processes of language and religion occurring in early childhood, it is surprising that we are quite at home with teaching a second language but hardly think of a second religion, let alone teaching one. second language learning is unreservedly appreciated by all, but a suggestion to teach/learn a ‘second religion’ will be met with a range of responses, beginning from mild cynicism to unconcealed horror. Is teaching a second religion an exception to the rule, “The more things you learn, the better it is?” Can anybody deny that learning a second religion will broaden a person’s understanding of religion in general, which will at least partly compensate for the conditioned partiality we all have towards the religion passed on to us by our parents? Surely, all those who like to promote tolerance, social reconciliation and crosscultural understanding will readily commend the idea of a second religion. However, most people would look askance at such a more relaxed attitude towards a second religion. Why?

The awkwardness one may feel at the mere mention of a second religion may be attributed to the provincial attitude with which we regard all matters pertaining to religion. Is there anything intrinsically sanctified about what each of us may think about the beginning/end of the world or what ‘awaits’ us after death? Why should the different ‘answers’ to some perfectly decent and reasonable questions cause segregation, when our conviction of their ‘truth’ is primarily a matter of conditioning?

Unlike language, it is impossible for a child to acquire more than one religion. That can never happen even if the parents are of two different faiths. The child will be exposed to only one of them. So the only chance of learning a 2nd religion can come later in life.

First language ‘learning’ and second language learning are two different ball games; so are learning your first religion and a second. With regard to language, the first ‘learning’ is an unconscious process, while the second is conscious learning with formal instruction. The structure of your first language leaves a permanent imprint on your brain, and the more you delay the learning of a second language the harder would it be for you – the structures of the first language will be a nagging source of interruption in the second language learning process. However irritating it may be, you have to cope with the nosey intruder for a while with patience, and gradually you will begin to feel comfortable with the new one. The more you use the second language, the less would be the intrusions by the first.

It is true that when an adult learns his 2nd language or second religion, the cognitive tools like reasoning, questioning, looking for relationships, comparison and contrast, relating to the existing body of knowledge, memory – all these come into play to help him to understand what he is learning. For example, when a student learns a second religion at school, at least one of his motives will be to be thoroughly acquainted with the details to get a good grade. However, there is no fear of the student starting to reject the first and believe the second, because he is already hardwired to his first religion. A second doesn’t stand a chance to sabotage it. But a programme to offer a second religion in the school curriculum will certainly benefit society, because it will help students to attain more maturity and be less inward-looking with regard to religion. After all, it will at least partly compensate for the child’s lost opportunity for acquiring another religion with equal claims to being a guide to morality.