It is not ignorance, but half-baked knowledge that is disgusting

A villager fell into a well. The open well was in the middle of a vast ground where colorful fair was on. The frail man was a stranger to the place and had staggered out of a stall after boozing. In the tumult and din of the fair, no one could hear his cries for help.

The cries however fell on the ears of one monk. For, he had sharp faculties that could filter in even whispers, honed during several years of meditation in reputed monasteries. He looked inside. "Please save me," the villager pleaded.

"Why should I take you out?" the monk asked him, "That will not make you happy. I have come here to enlighten you, not rescue you just physically." He went ahead with a philosophical sermon, "Being born is punishment. Life is a big struggle. Death brings relief from eternal struggle. Everyone has to die one day. Of course, this is quite a frustrating way to die. It is probably because of the sins you must have committed in previous birth. It is wise to accept with grace what is ordained. Take the name of god and pray in peace. That will at least ensure that you will not have the same fate in your next birth." And the learned monk walked away.

A few hours later, a social worker visiting the fair saw the well and peeped in. This one was a social scientist, highly educated in far-off universities. He was grounded in Confucian concepts and had strong convictions about development doctrines, social structures, safety norms, ethical standards etc. Our man in the well begged of him, "Please take me out. I'm completely exhausted. I can't even shout."

"What an outrageous state of affairs!" the Confucian wondered, "An unprotected well bang in the midst of a fair ground." He fumed, " This is not the way to care for public safety. A visitor falls and the disaster management system doesn't respond for hours. We can't tolerate such callousness and negligence at this age. We have to initiate a time-bound program to build protective walls around all such wells in the countryside."

"Before that, please do something to get me out of here," the old man beseeched, "Demand from me whatever you want. But take me out now."

"It is not with selfish motive that I work," the social scientist thundered, "This sort of thing should never happen in our country again. Either the wells will have protective walls or there will be a ban on organizing fairs around unsafe wells. First of all, we need to frame a law specifying the height of such walls and regulate the quality of cement used in their construction." He then took out his notebook, "Do you know of any other case in this area of people falling into an open well?"

"My mind is blank. Please take me out. Otherwise I'll die."

"Individuals come and go. We have to focus on and sensitize the society. We need to plan at the macro level and be systematic." So saying, the social worker rushed to his office to draft a memorandum to sensitize the officers of the government - - - leaving the victim to his fate!

The man was thoroughly exhausted when a pastor came on the scene and took out a long rope from his bag. Tying one end to a tree, he called out, ". "Are you OK?" I've come to rescue you. Just grip the rope I'm sending in firmly and I'll pull you out"

Once outside, the grateful victim thanked the clergyman profusely: "The fellows that came earlier were crazy. They only focused on their specialty fields and were interested only in giving lectures in their subject. I was dying and they had no interest in me. God must have sent you in time to save me. You are the real savior." He wondered, "But, how come you had the rope ready in your bag, as if you knew beforehand that you'd find me in the well?"

The evangelist was candid: "I always carry such paraphernalia in my bag and am always in search of people in trouble and in need of help. My group that I participate in  ordains that" He added, "To be frank, I too have no much interest in you. I rescue careless people like you for earning a place in heaven for myself."

The rescued villager asked the pastor if he could do something to return the favour. The missionary said, "Nothing. In fact, I must thank you for giving me an opportunity to go to heaven. My only request is that you narrate the incident to your friends. Tell them if they ever fall into a well, they should not worry much; an evangelist would come and rescue them. Should more people fall into wells, more from my group will go to heaven."

Summary : We have a philosopher, a scientist  and an evangelist-type of crusaders touting their respective dogmas about morality as THE right approach toward salvation . All of them are right, and wrong too, to varying extents. To remain in peace, human beings must either know all the approaches or be ignorant of all. Half-baked knowledge of religion or rationalism makes them disgusting to one another and to other life forms in the universe ... even !!