Respected Judges, elders and dear friends. I am Ravi Choudhury, a student of  class IX from RR School,  Cuttack. It gives me immense pleasure to stand before you and express my views on the famous and highlighted topic ‘Should Religion Be Banned?’ It is a golden opportunity for me and a matter of great pride and glory to justify my opinion whether religion should be banned or not. In my view religion should be banned.

Catholic-Protestant fight in Western countries, Hindu-Muslim massacres in India, Shia-Sunni rivalry in Muslim countries and Christian-Muslim horror in many places have become many common now a days. Thousands have killed and  millions have injured over the years over such conflicts. All these conflicts were caused by one common factor-religion.

Religion provides norms, values, or a way of life to an individual or community. One might say religion provides trust, security, social order and most  importantly a moral code. A spiritual guide governs the way a person lives from day to day by giving that person hope, belief, and reason to exist in this world. But now religion which is a source of kindness, peace and brotherhood has become one of the principal causes of hatred and war. Hence, the time has come up to ban all religions for leading a happy and peaceful life. By banning religion we will be able to end the never ending wars and prevent others from starting.

War and religion have a long history together. In the age of imperialism, when religious convictions were very strong, every time a country would conquer another one, it would enforce its religion on the people. Resistance by the people was overpowered by slaughter and bloodshed. Banning religion will give us more freedom. Population problem is alarming because many women are reluctant to contraception and for abortion as their religion considers these as sin. Contraception will also limit the spread of deadly diseases such as AIDS.

More importantly, banning religion would add in reducing the racial tension, worldwide. Many times people are judged by their religion. If religion were banned earlier, death of 6 million Jews could have been prevented, which happened in the Second World War. Religion further divides the people, as social order add to segregation and discrimination. How can we trust the bishop of the church, priest of the temple or pir of the mosque to provide us a moral code when they are corrupt? Religious organizations have been exploiting millions and millions of people all over the world.

Having no religion would boost people’s self-esteem because one would have to make the decision of right and wrong by himself. Banning religion would allow us to be more complete, better people with a more independent way of thinking. It would reduce tensions and allow us to live better lives. There would be no communal politics and  no communal tensions if there is no religion. Hence, now the time has arrived not  to follow any religion, but  to adopt  peace, brotherhood, non-violence, honesty and morality which in true sense are the religions of the entire humanity.