The Fire of Religion

If I look back on all my blog postings, religion is one of the topics that I've written about most often. Just check them out here. For some reason, here I am again, parked at my favourite cafe, ready to write another blog post on the same subject.

One might ask why? Well, I guess the easy answer is that it is the only thing that troubles me so much. My views about religion have been well-articulated here before. I certainly do not belong to the new movement of militant atheism, though I agree with many of their views. I am sympathetic, even admire people who renounce the world to pursue a spiritual life. If you have read my list of favourite books in my previous posting, at least one of them is written by a very tradtional Hindu renunciate.

I've also written a post stating my belief that the religion you adopt is a matter of chance--the culture from which you happen to be born in. And if you are blessed with the good fortune of being able to freely adopt a religion of your choice, it could still be a matter of taste.

I've offered a pseudo-psychological theory of the value of religion as an 'architecture' by which one could find meaning and purpose in one's life. I've also come to accept the fact that, even if religion were to be eliminated from the world (say, the vast majority of the human race have been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust and all the religious books and artifacts in the world have been destroyed) mankind would still invent new religions through its remaining survivors. Just as they would surely come up with art and music.

Religion, like art, is an expression of human civilization. And like music, it might not even serve any useful purpose, but it will arise quite inevitably as an evolutionary byproduct. As long as the human species survives, a mode of existence will take place and that is expressed in its culture, art and religion.

The point I'm making is that, like it or not, we have to learn to live with religion. Societies can be run in a secular way, but we still have to allow people to express themselves, in their one way, through their religion-like how we allow and even encourage artistic expressions.

But the problem with religion are its practitioners. Like people who are fanatical about a certain type of music or soccer team, they think theirs is the best. That is the root of all the problems. The certainty of religious practitioners about their doctrinal version of the truth is the greatest problem that mankind faces. It is an infantilism that continues to plague us, even though we have come so far in terms of technological, political and social achievements.

The is the biggest issue and to me it outweighs things like climate change and economic uncertainty. It is the only thing that makes me feel angry and disappointed. There are perhaps more theists than atheists in this world but, I think the world would be a much better place if the latter dominates. The so-called religious people, don't know much about their own religion. And there-in lies the biggest problem.

Most God-fearing people are nice and decent human beings. But I would argue that their decency did not come from their knowledge of religion--it is human nature to try to be be nice to each other because that's the only way that one can exist in a society. Any other mode of behaviour will ostracize one from it. The Golden Rule is the norm simply because society disintegrates without it.

So, simple God-fearing, even slightly superstitious masses, who don't really give too much thought about the doctrines of their religion are quite harmless. The problem begins when religion is being mixed with idealism--that's like when a child starts playing with the proverbial fire.

If we bother to master the use of fire, we can actually go far. The problem is that most people don't. They thing that the small spark lit by a match is already a glimpse of the ultimate, that they want everyone to start playing with matches.

Some use this fire to cook and feed people, others use it for arson. Religion is a fire can engulf us if we let do not know how to handle it. If we can, I'd prefer that we do not play with it. Learn to cook with it instead.