my belief system – part 1
I am raised in a ‘religious’ country. It means that the nation believes in the presence of God and acknowledges the existence of several religions, namely Christian, Islam, Hindu and Buddhism. Religion becomes an integral aspect of everyday life in this country. Most of the forms that you fill in in this country will ask what religion group you belong to, and this question is a required field.
Most people are actually ‘born’ into their religions, i.e. if your parents are moslems, you are automatically a moslem. You will be baptized as a Christian/Catholic by your parents when you were a baby or a kid.
Islam/Hindu/Buddhism/Christianism is a required subject in schools. If you fail religion class, you will not go to the next grade. Now, each school will only offer 1 type of religion lesson. So if you come from a moslem family, your parents will naturally enter you into a Moslem school where you would start and end each day with a Moslem prayer. School activities are also tied around religious festivities. For instance, you will have Easter school bazaar if you are in Catholic school; social activities during Ramadhan month if you are a Moslem school or Siddharta re-enactments if you are in Buddhist school.
To the government, marriage is as much a religious exercise as it is a legal entity. You have to be married under one of the government-acknowledged religions first to be able to get a marriage certificate. There is no such thing as a wedding in a city hall in this country. If the couple is not of the same religion, then one of them has to get ‘waived’ by his/her religion to get married in the manner of her/his partner’s religions. A little hard to digest, eh?!
Hm, I wonder about death certificate. Do I, or should I say my corpse, has to be ‘blessed’ by my religion before the government will issue me a death certificate? I’ll find out.
Anyway, that is the country in which I spent the first fifteen years of my life. However, my family is not normal when it comes to religions.
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