RELIGEON-BEST BULLSHIT OSCAR

RELIGION:

THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT STORY TOLD TO MANKIND

The reason I chose this topic for my blog because I feel it is high time we break away from the shackles of something as stupid as religion. We have already seen in various instances that how religion is a cause for a wide range of problems ranging from terrorism, to feticide, to riots, to moral policing, to reservation, to many others. BUT, the biggest problem is a more psychological one, i.e. people start believing in right and wrong, they start talking about abstract things like faith and belief, they start thinking that their destiny is controlled by someone else, they stop reasoning, and above all religion has led to the death of individualism. I strongly believe that if we can do away with religion we will have a better and a more successful society with healthier minds.

In the following lines, I am putting forth my arguments on why religion makes no sense at all and how the very concept of “God” is illogical.

ORIGIN OF RELIGION

Let us go back in history and see how God came into being, God came into being because of the FEAR of the unknown that the early man had. He did not understand the natural forces of rain, sun, water, lightening and feared them and therefore started worshipping them in the hope that praying to them would prevent him/her from natural calamities. Are we still an early man?? Do we still don’t understand them?? Does it make any sense that an earthquake or a landslide or a flood can be averted by folding hands and uttering some verses?? Well, rationality will say “NO” to all these questions.

FEAR led to the start of the religion and then mediocrity and inability of people to fight the battle of life alone, led to GOD becoming even stronger as the people wished to have a kind of an elder brother who would stand by them in their difficulties and will work to make them happy. In other words GOD and RELIGION are the name given by humans to their fear, inabilities and mediocrity.

“Religion is based...mainly on fear...fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand” - Bertrand Russell

Ever wondered why so many religions to preach us the same thing. Well being an economics graduate I might want to believe that they didn’t want a monopoly in the “Fear Capitalization” market and therefore made sure there was perfect competition. How considerate!!! Well, the reason why so many religions exist is because some smart@#$% realized that he can capitalize on fear and gutlessness of people to rule them and due to no patent laws, his brilliant idea was soon stolen by many others and now all of them are trying hard to propagate fear, irrationality, and faith to rule people.

“When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray". We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”- Anonymous

So many people believe in religion, try and ask them why?? And the probable answers would be “I have faith in him” or “he has always helped me” or “I feel better when I pray to him” and the best one being “Sshh!! Don’t say such things, God will punish you”.

My argument to all of them is that there is no proof of existence of God. There is so no need or use of a god, and if you are weak enough to need someone to help you through life, well I doubt whether you deserve to live in the first place. If the belief in God were natural, there would be no need to teach it. Children would possess it as well as adults, the layman as the priest, the heathen as much as the missionary. We don't have to teach the general elements of human nature--the

five senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. They are universal; so would religion be if it was natural, but it is not.

RELIGEON vs SCIENCE

Religion has always tried to block the path of the scientific progress. The reasons being simple, if science explains the unknowns then nobody would fear the unknown and their power would be gone. Also, in the past religious places were the providers of education and therefore any new development would make their teachings invalid and thus will lead to people questioning their knowledge and superiority. An excerpt from The Philosophy of Atheism, by Joseph Lewis - Atheism has given to the human race the intellectual monarchs of the world. When the great Darwin discovered the law of the origins of species, he was called an Atheist because he disproved the special creation of Man. When the Chemist went into his laboratory and discovered the indestructibility of matter, he was called an Atheist because he proved the impossibility of a Creator.

"It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

- Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871), Introduction

Galileo is a case in example where he was put to trial because he was able to prove that sun is the centre of solar system and not the earth, which was in contradiction to what religion taught. In fact, during Galileo’s trail Cardinal Bellarmine said that Galileo’s theory is as erroneous as claiming that Jesus was not born out of a virgin. Galileo was not the only one; there were many pioneers of science who had to face the brunt of religion.

RELIGION and INDIVIDUAL

When we are young, do we differentiate between our friends, neighbors, classmates on the basis of religion or caste ( which is a product of religion)? NO, we do not. When we are young, do we think that if we do not worship God, something bad will happen to us? NO, we do not. As kids, do we know the societal rules of right and wrong? NO, we do not. But, as we grow up these rules, this faith and these differentiations are forced upon us by society, by parents, by teachers, by education.

A pre-determined set of rules, rights and wrongs interferes with the individuals development, it restricts his/her free flow of thoughts, it stops him from making the effort to form his own opinions, it prevents him from reaching his individual potential, it weakens his questioning power, weakens his resolve and more than anything else it makes him afraid, confused and lose touch with his contradictions, the ones that every human being should seek to sort out to succeed and progress.

"The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge”-Frank Zappa

Faith is irrationality. Faith is not trust. Faith is blind and irrational. Faith is belief in something without any supporting evidence. Trust is belief in something based on evidence or a proven history.

"If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education.'" - Bertrand Russell

"Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every Sunday singing, "Yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen!" If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about it." [ex-preacher Dan Barker]

God is also the reason of various differences that human beings have created for themselves, be it caste, religion, or various other intra-religion divisions. These divisions lead to groupism, terrorism, hatred, pain, riots etc. Also many social evil also find their root cause in religion, for e.g. sati.

I would like to conclude by saying that religion is a product of, and also the propagator of, ignorance, fear, irrationality and therefore hampers with the development of an individual.

It is high time we shun religion and move ahead. Let us break away from this stupid groupism and let us denounce it. Let the downfall of religion mark the beginning of a new era where an individual is not seen as a component of society whose function is to serve society but a system wherein individuals are more important than the society and the society aids the individuals growth. It is time we follow the path of some people who managed to leave god and religion for lesser mortals – Ayn rand, Howard Hughes, Donald Trump,Thomas Alva Edison, Noam Chomsky, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, Buddha, Jawaharlal Nehru, Larry ellison, Linus Pauling, Sir John Gielgud, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and the list goes on.