In the world of global business, in order for an enterprise to succeed, it should be able to identify the present and future challenges, identify the likelihood and the consequences of its impact, and develop a strategy in order to survive and remain competitive. That is why a company needs a mission and a vision, identify its internal strenghts and weaknesses, and the opportunities available in the market that it can capitalise on (e.g., new technology), and also, the threats emanating from its internal and external environment (e.g., competitors).
In the same manner, the UN looks at the world in a different vantage point compared to ours. It knows the reason why it exist, as expressed in its mission statement. It is aware of past challenges that threatens peace and order in the world, the causes of these challenges, and the strategies on how it can be prevented. In Europe for example, the UN asked, how can we prevent ambitious nations to spark a global tension that may lead to world wars? And so solutions and strategies are formulated and implemented to answer the fundamental questions (i.e., NATO)
Religion is one of these challenges. It knows that one of the fundamental human rights of man is freedom of worship. In the eyes of the UN, Joe Bloggs has the right to worship his God. And thus, the Universal Human Rights!
But what if certain religions causes problems? How can man maintain the balance of freedom of worship, at the same time, remove the obstacle to peace?
What is interesting is that the world's attitude to religion is changing. We cannot deny the fact that current generations, the generation X and generation Y does not follow the same affinity to faith as compared to their parents and grandparents (the baby boomers who turned 60 in 2006). Generation X and Y does not care much about religion. It is the last on their list. They care about themselves, their money, their pleasure.
Much of the world now has the same attitude towards religion. In Denmark alone, there are talks that the Mohammad cartoon which caused a lot of furor and anger in the Muslim world in 2006 is going to be re-printed.
The question now is, if religion is the stumbling block to peace, what do we do with it? What is the solution? I'm sure the UN is asking the same exact questions right now.
Back to the world of business, if an obstacle prevents a company to become competitive and survive, what they normally do is to implement a strategy that are swift, and sometimes even painful.
Overnight companies are taken over by other companies, sometimes in hostile takeovers (e.g., Oracle and Peoplesoft). IBM in the 90's has to overhaul the whole company (or 'reengineer', a term they use which i borrow) which means eliminating thousand of redundancies in the process(e.g., jobs) in order to avoid bankrupcy. Overnight, giants collapse into oblivion, sometimes in an unbelievable scale (e.g., ENRON). But it is important to note that these things are a culmination of events that are years in the making. The collapsed of ENRON is a result of what happend (or was happening) years in prior to the final end.
People's attitude change. The whole attitude to global warming changed. People's attitude to stem cells changed as if overnight.
How does man fixes problems? We take note that how man reacts to problems is sometimes swift and painful, especially if it is necessary. Depending on the present need, man can change if it wants to.
So is it possible for the UNs attitude to change regarding religion? It is just a matter of how will it happen, when will it happen, and who will iniatiate it. As to why, we all know why. We do not forget that religion is now seen as a nuisance, and causes problems. Once the problems of religion escalates more, we know how man reacts to problems. All we need are a couple of 'what if' scenarios and calculate some probabilities and we can clearly see the future of religion in the hands of the wild beast.
And the future of the harlot doesn't look promising.
apollos