god is not Great - Random Thoughts # 4

Happy Independence Day - today its the 63rd anniversary of the independence of the country. Felt this thought provoking article is suitable for this day...


god is not Great

This is also the title of the book by Christopher Hitchens that I have read recently. I would like to say that the book has influenced me – not to really change my thinking but making my thoughts clearer with the logic, arguments and historical evidence. There is definitely a possibility that some of the thoughts expressed in this writing have been influenced by the great book.

I have been an atheist and my religious views have been well known to my family and near ones ever since I can remember.

I belong to a deeply religious Hindu family and both my parents were firm believers. I was the youngest in my family. I had five sisters – now three – and all of them are still very religious.

It was probably on my sixth birthday that an incident happened that has forever been etched in my memory. For the first ten years of my life, on every birthday of mine – my parents would organise a havan. A havan is a religious ceremony performed in temples and in homes that involves worship through the use of a sacred fire. The use of fire as a means of worship is the most ancient of all rites, going back to the earliest Vedic times. It was meant to dispel evil spirits and protect me, or something similar. We had a family pundit cum astrologer who would be summoned for the occasion. 

Havan

I was made to sit near the fire. The pundit painted my left hand thumbnail with a black coloured polish or paint. I was then asked to peer into the nail and confirm that I can see some specific forms or images in it eg., a female sweeper, or a trident, or some other image. If I respondeded in the negative – the pundit would jab me with something sharp (maybe his fingernail) on the back of my neck. He would continue to increase the pressure until I replied that I could see whatever he was commanding me to see. Being a child of six, I understood that the earlier I accepted what he was saying, earlier I could get over from the painful jabbing. [As an after thought – maybe he was trying to hypnotise me and not succeeding]. This is my first memory of exposure to 'god-men'; and certainly not a pleasant one.

In our house we always had a puja room or a small corner of a room or even the shelf of a cupboard reserved for puja. There was a daily aarti and bhajan in our house till I was about 10 years age, when we moved from Delhi to Calcutta. The daily prayer got restricted to personal morning prayer by mataji and pitaji – my parents. We, children, were left to decide for ourselves if anyone wanted to partake in the puja.

Christian Church

I had formed my opinion about the non-existence of god, by the time I reached school final. I did not know of any other atheist at the time. It was my own rationality that made me believe that god was only created by man for his own selfish interests. Maybe in some ancient times when literacy was very low, its creation was essential to maintain some sort of order/law in society. I had done scanty reading on religion. The only religions that were read (in abridged versions) were Christianity, Islam and Hinduism; also read about the lives of certain philosophers like Vivekanand, Buddha, Kabir, Nanak, Jainism, Sikhism, and reading about our epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana – from my school text books or pictorial children's books. The more I read, the more I was convinced of my belief regarding the non-existence of god.

Islamic Mosque

In our family there was a tradition of offering prasad in a nearby temple on every Tuesday, it was done without fail. If a Tuesday was missed, the prasad had to be doubled on the next one. I did accompany my sister(s) or parents at times – more so because I had a sweet tooth and all people emerging from the temple would offer the prasad sweets to all those standing near the gate. You guessed it – I stood outside on the pretext of avoiding the crowded interior.

During my days at the engineering college in Mesra (Ranchi) – all my friends went to the temples in the neighbouring Vikas Vidyalaya or some pubic temple in Ranchi – to pray and bribe the gods with prasad, before the examinations. Our college did not have a temple. I did accompany them most of the times – more for company's sake or merely for an outing but I never prayed, never folded my hands and stood in front of the idols. I did fairly well in all my exams in spite of not bribing the gods.

Hindu Temple

My belief in atheism is not the end of the story. I firmly believe that all religions have only been created to amass power and wealth from the gullible masses for personal and selfish reasons. All the so called god-men and religious leaders have preyed upon the ignorance of the masses. They have always shown the path to god in a threatening manner as their own power is at stake OR with promises of worldly riches and comforts. If you follow the path specified by them, you will reap the benefits, else you will perish. It is often promised in the heaven or in the after life. In doing so they have always amassed wealth and power for themselves. It is obvious that these so called spiritual and religious leaders are actually non-believers who know that the existence of god is only due to their creation and nothing more. They are a dangerous breed of people who are doing more harm to the society than the simpletons (the atheists) who openly say that 'god does not exist' or 'god has been created by man' – just by logic and reasoning. They are a cancer for the whole society – gnawing away at its vitals for their personal gains.

Religious wars have killed more humans over the ages than any natural calamities. The powerful have always “punished” those who opposed them or dared to think differently or provide any sort of enlightenment to the masses. Philosophers and scientists have paid with their lives. People have been burned alive in public on stakes. There have been innumerable crusades in the name of religion or god where persons of other faiths have been killed mercilessly, their women raped or carried away. The religions sanction all this – as the spoils of victory. Be it Christianity, Islam or any other religion. The Bible, the Koran have sanctioned these plunders and massacres. No religion – till date – has done good for the society in general. It only fortifies and protects only its own fold (to maintain the mass following) and fills the coffers of those in power. I only talk of the Bible and the Koran here – as these two have been predominant and responsible for most killings and barbaric actions the world over. It does not exonerate the other religions – they have had similar histories but on a smaller scale as compared to these two mammoths.

Have you ever pondered and thought about the basis of how the beliefs were created; how were the masses convinced about the leaders of their faiths being true? At the time of creation or birth of any new religion, miracles have happened to build credibility for the same. All along in history you would come across miracles being created by god-men to influence the masses.

What exactly is a “miracle”? Its nothing but a phenomenon or an event that cannot be easily explained by the masses with their limited knowledge as to how it could have happened. In ancient times – the miracles were often created to hype divine intervention; the types which required a little or basic scientific knowledge of say science, astronomy, chemistry and the like.

In casual usage, "miracle" may also refer to any statistically unlikely but beneficial event, (such as surviving a natural disaster), or simply a "wonderful" occurrence, such as a birth. Other miracles might be: survival of a terminal illness, escaping a life threatening situation or 'beating the odds.' Some coincidences can also be perceived as miracles.

Sikh Gurudwara

At the time of the dawn of civilization, the level of literacy was low. The knowledge of tides, eclipses, chemical reactions producing flames, colour change in liquids or producing smoke or explosions, protecting feet while treading on hot embers, producing 'ash' or other material objects by the sleigh of the hand, claiming to cure illnesses which were either not there or were cured by medical science, the burning bush behind Moses, changing water into wine, statues shedding tears etc. All these were often perceived as miracles and to divine intervention. It is very rarely you have actual unexplained phenomenon documented by the person who has witnessed it. It is mostly passed down – often through generations by the word of mouth. There have been instances in history where a miracle has said to have taken place – complete with all details and description and has actually turned out to be a hoax created by those interested in exploitation of the people.

As a matter of fact most of the miracles of the present day god-men have been easily duplicated in the laboratory or can be performed by the two bit magicians. Sai Baba – a miracle man of India, was openly challenged by scientists and magicians that all his feats could be explained and performed. He refused to accept the challenge. God-men like Sai Baba are just selfish individuals who are only amassing wealth and power. They are not religions at all – just conmen and cults. They do not massacre people – but they do a lot of harm by fleecing people and indoctrinating or brain washing them into believing whatever the leader professes. Bhagwan Rajneesh (also known as Osho) was another big fraud – who worked for personal gains and comforts. He had a very wide following specially of Westerners, for many years. He had managed to acquire a fleet of Rolls Royce cars in his ashram. His Pune and Oregon ashrams did take a lot of people for a ride for a fairly long time, ultimately his time was up. How he violated and exploited people – especially women and children is well known now.

These cults could also turn into equally ugly movements involving violence if they remain unchecked. There have been innumerable cases in history where such cult leaders have been responsible for mass murder of it own members (in the garb of suicides at times) or of others. A small tip of the iceberg is visible by clicking here, you can find tonnes of material on the internet regarding various cults, if it interests you.

Mostly these cults and religions have preyed upon young children. They are more pliable and easier to mould. In fact children who have been abused, violated or exposed to cruelty are always more cruel with mankind in general and specially towards women and children. They make excellent candidates for suicide squads and terrorism. All this in the name of religion and god.

Buddhist Temple

Apart from violence – religion moulds the nature of the population. Coming back to India – which is predominantly a Hindu nation – we can observe many undesirable traits and characters due the religious philosophy. The history of the country has shown that we always had traitors within. Our deities are Ram, Krishna, Hanuman, Shiva. Our epics Ramayana, Mahabharat. Our teachings come from Bhagvad Gita. Krishna is considered a god, he is shown having a very opportunist character and resorts to deceit for advantage. Ram is shown as a spineless person who does not stand by his wife when it was most needed. Hanuman is just an immense power house with no brains of his own but a devout follower of Ram and will heed to any command from his lord. Our epics have treated our women like chattel. Gita tells us to work without expecting any fruits for your labour. Foul means have been justified. All the characters of our leaders as well as our citizenry are evolved from the religion. Rampant corruption, fatalistic attitude, indifference and lack of concern for fellow beings - are all a result of our religious philosophies.

Hinduism and Buddhism have also shown their violent and inhuman streak in history – in Sri Lanka – in comparatively recent times.

Our Hindi scriptures (Vedas) have openly supported the caste system and believe that women and untouchables are not equal to the superior castes. One can compare this to the directives of the church sanctioning and permitting slavery, declaring the colour of the skin as the criterion for being a higher human being.

I would like all my readers to think with an open mind and not subscribe to blind faith, superstition and irrational thinking. We are a fairly well educated society now – but what use is the education if we still maintain a sheep mentality and feel afraid to be different from the flock.

(Suggested reading - god is not Great by Christopher Hitchens)